[Buddha-l] Haiti relief [was: Stupid old man...]

[Richard Hayes]

On Jan 14, 2010, at 1:04 PM, Joanna Kirkpatrick wrote:

> Another donaton destination worthy of your help is
> Medecins sans Frontieres.....who are already in Haiti right now,
> unlike
> some of the other organizations who've not been able to get there
> on the 
> ground as yet.  http://www.msf.org/

I'm glad you put that one forward. I was looking for them, because they are such an obvious choice, but could only find a very complicated URL for their Haiti relief site. 

Another web page that has a list of organizations of varying persuasions---some religious, some political, some simply humanitarian---is http://www.interaction.org/crisis-list/earthquake-haiti

In this, as in all things, it is not a bad idea to be informed. You can check out how much of your donation actually goes to the cause you are hoping to support. One place to do that is http://www.charitynavigator.org/ That site cannot provide information on some religious charities such as AFSC and the Slavation Army, however, because, as the site explains, "Many religious organizations are exempt under Internal Revenue Code from filing the Form 990. As a result, we lack sufficient data to evaluate their financial health." For example, they have nothing on Vodouid.org.

Despite there being many religious organizations that are not rated by Charity Navigator, many are. I found nearly 300 Jewish charitable organizations rated (compared to a bit less that 700 Christian charities, 8 Muslims charities and 1 Buddhist charity). Alas, among the least efficient charities is the Quaker lobby group called Friends Committee for National Legislation. Most money contributed to them gets sucked up by adminsitrative costs; I reckon they have a hefty oatmeal bill.