What's The Best Tsunami Relief Fund?

[ulTRAX]

After hearing about how some charity organizations piss away some 30% on fundraising.... I want to know which delivers the most bang for the buck. If you have a cite, it'd be appreciated.

[babylonsister]

1. Great question! I want to know as well.

Red Cross and Salvation Army won't be getting our donations. Any ideas?

[mcscajun]

2. I don't know if they deliver the MOST, but...

Doctors Without Borders puts their stats right on the donations page. You can't see it now because of the extremely high traffic, but I saw it yesterday, and 85.n% of your donation goes straight to relief efforts. 1.n% goes to Management and administrative costs, and 12.n% is spent in fundraising. Can't recall to the precise decimal; that's my best recollection.

Doctors Without Borders web site is experiencing very heavy traffic, so you will be redirected from www.doctorswithoutborders.org to some other page they've thrown up in a hurry. The page details what efforts are currently underway.


On edit: Check out any charity at http://www.charitynavigator.org/
There you can find out where the money Really goes.

[Imalittleteapot]

3. I donated to OXFAM

Go here to read what they are doing.

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/press_releases/AsianFloods

[latteromden]

4. Mercy Corps gives 91% of donations to their programs - they are,

I believe, the best charity (in terms of how much of their donations they actually use) dealing with tsunami relief.

[ulTRAX]

6. are they secular?

I'll be damned if any of my money goes to proselytize.

[latteromden]

7. I believe so. At least, there are no "prayer missions" that I've seen

advertised at some of the other relief sites. As good as their intent may be, I'm not giving my money to charities that believe that "spreading the Gospel far and wide" is as important as getting basic food and clothing for the people who need it.

[Taxloss]

5. Oxfam.

Best organisation in the world, no question.

[kostya]

8. Check out Charity Navigator for charity efficiency ratings.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

Myself, I gave $200 to Mercy Corps, since they have one of the highest ratings and are local to me. They appear to be secular. They also had a place for comments in which I told them bluntly not to spend any of my money soliciting me for more money. I hate that! - K

[fedsron2us]

9. Medecins Sans Frontieres

always appear to be very quick off the mark when disaster strikes. They have already managed to get a medical team into the devastated Aceh province of Indonesia together with several tons of vital supplies. According to the report I saw on the ITN news here in the UK their presence has saved the lives of some injured survivors of the tsunami who seemed certain to die of their wounds only 24 hours earlier.

[SmokingJacket]

10. AKA Doctors without Borders. They are great.

I give a regular amount to them every month.

They won the Nobel prize -- am I right about that?

They are rated very highly in terms of how little they spend on fundraising and how much is spent directly.

They are wonderful