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Charity Ratings
General Information
Charity and Social Action Sites
- American Institute of Philanthropy
Website of "a nationally prominent charity watchdog service whose purpose is to help donors make informed giving decisions." Includes the Charity Watch: Top-Rated list.
- Avoid Charity Fraud
Information from the Federal Trade Commission on smart giving, avoiding fraud, and knowing where your donation is spent.
- Better Business Bureau: For Charities and Donors
From here you can check out a business or charity, see charity reports and standards, make inquiries or complaints, use the resource library, and more. Includes all the reports and information from the former Give.org site.
- Charity Navigator
"Charity Navigator, America's premiere independent charity evaluator, works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities." Publishes annual Holiday Guide.
- GiveSpot
GiveSpot has extensive links to charity-related sites, including sites that evaluate charities, lists of charities, resources for activists, helpful information, and more.
- GuideStar: The National Database of Nonprofit Organizations
GuideStar provides "information about the operations and finances of nonprofit organizations" and has a special section with advice and guides for prospective donors.
- 20 Ways for Teenagers to Help Other People by Volunteering
Suggestions and links to various types of volunteers opportunities. Great ideas, easy-to-naviagate site.
- Making a Difference
"NBC Nightly News' "good news" series about individuals and organizations that are changing their communities for the better."
- The Nonprofit FAQ
"A compilation of frequently asked questions, and their answers, based on on-line communications about nonprofits (mostly in the United States of America) beginning in the early 1990s."
- Making a Difference
"There are millions of individuals making a difference who are not rich or famous. This section is for that unheralded community..." Grom the Christian Science Monitor.
- USAID.gov
"USAID is the U.S. government agency responsible for economic and humanitarian assistance around the world." Includes information on disasters and on-going needs around the world and what work is being done about them by various organizations.
- Accion
"A private, nonprofit organization with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need to work their way out of poverty. ...providing 'micro' loans, business training and other financial services to poor men and women who start their own businesses..."
- Alex's Lemonade Stand
"Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation evolved from a young cancer patient's front yard lemonade stand to a nationwide fundraising movement to find a cure for childhood cancer."
- American Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
"In addition to domestic disaster relief, the American Red Cross offers compassionate services in five other areas: community services that help the needy; support and comfort for military members and their families; the collection, processing and distribution of lifesaving blood and blood products; educational programs that promote health and safety; and international relief and development programs."
- Amnesty International
Amnesty International USA
"Nobel Prize-winning grassroots activist organization ... focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination.... ".
- Avaaz
"By signing up to receive our alerts, you are rapidly alerted to urgent global issues and opportunities to achieve change. Avaaz members respond by rapidly combining the small amounts of time or money they can give into a powerful collective force."
- Bring Light
"Bring Light is a place for you to find causes you care about, dialogue with charities and the community, and collaborate to fund a specific project."
- Care2
A social networking for social action community where individuals may choose from a large range of different charitable and social action means and organizations.
- The Carter Center
"The Carter Center is committed to advancing human rights and alleviating unnecessary human suffering. Join us in creating a world in which every man, woman, and child has the opportunity to enjoy good health and live in peace."
- Catholic Charities USA
Catholic Charities is "the largest private network of social service organizations in the United States works to support families, reduce poverty, and build communities."
- Change.org
A "central platform that connects likeminded people, whatever their interests, and enables them to exchange information, share ideas, and collectively act to address the issues they care about."
- Child's Play
"A game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games in our network of over 70 hospitals worldwide."
- Children's Defense Fund
"The mission of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is to ... ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities."
- Digital Wish
"Digital Wish helps you put technology in the hands of teachers to inspire students in every classroom. Prepare today's students for tomorrow." Works on the Kiva-style model of donating to specific teachers/schools for specific projects.
- Direct Relief International
"Direct Relief International provides medical assistance to improve the quality of life for people affected by poverty, disaster, and civil unrest at home and throughout the world. We work to strengthen the in-country health efforts of our partners by providing essential material resources – medicines, supplies and equipment."
- Distributed Computing
Users contribute spare computing cycles to a larger project by letting programs run in the background on their home computers. Distributed computing projects include :
- Do 1 Nice Thing
Suggestions of one nice thing you can do each week to make the work, or your part of it, a better place.
- Doctors Without Borders
"Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization working in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe."
- DonorsChoose.org
"Teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become classroom reality when concerned individuals ... choose projects to fund."
- EDAR: Everyone Deserves a Roof
"Provides unique mobile shelters to those living on the streets all around us."
- Feeding America
"The nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity. ... Our network of more than 200 food banks serves all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The Feeding America network secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually." (Formerly "America’s Second Harvest")
- GiveMeaning
"GiveMeaning.com is an online fundraising site emphasizing creative fundraising ideas and other unique forms of charity donation." (Similiar to DonorsChoose but not limited to education-related causes.)
- Grameen Foundation
"Grameen Foundation provides micro-lenders in poor communities access to the capital they need to make micro-loans to women who are working to develop or expand a small business."
- Habitat for Humanity
"Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry. HFHI seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action."
- Idealist.org
Listings of nonprofit and community organizations, volunteer opportunities, a Nonprofit Career Center, and more.
- International Medical Corps
"For more than 25 years, International Medical Corps has worked to relieve the suffering of those impacted by war, natural disaster and disease by delivering vital health care services that focus on training, helping devastated populations return to self-reliance."
- International Rescue Committee
"The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster."
- Inuka
"Inuka is an online platform that facilitates the provision on capital to women owned businesses in sub-saharan Africa. Inuka's online platform connects social investors in Europe with female owned businesses and enables them to receive capital to grow their businesses."
- Kiva
"Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty." Kiva supports microfinance foundations throughout the world.
- Kopernik
"Kopernik not only connects the individual donors to organizations/entrepreneurs in developing countries, it also brings an additional, and very important actor into the equation – the technology provider, thus promoting innovation in solving development challenges."
- Mercy Corps
"Mercy Corps helps people turn the crises they confront into the opportunities they deserve. Driven by local needs, our programs provide communities in the world’s toughest places with the tools and support they need to transform their own lives. Our worldwide team in 36 countries is improving the lives of 19 million people."
- Microplace
"MicroPlace’s mission is to help alleviate global poverty by enabling everyday people to make investments in the world’s working poor. ... MicroPlace simply connects investors with microfinance institutions looking for funds."
- Modest Needs
"An award-winning public charity with a simple but critical mission: we work to stop the cycle of poverty BEFORE it starts .... by empowering compassionate members of the general public to safely and securely help hard-working, low-income households to afford ... short-term emergency expenses ..."
- NABURR
"NABUUR links you directly with people around the world who need your assistance now. All you need is a computer, a little free time, and the desire to make a difference."
- Network for Good
Website designed to make it "easier, more convenient and more compelling than ever to donate money, volunteer time and speak out on issues."
- National Youth Leadership Council
"The National Youth Leadership Council's mission is to build vital, just communities with young people through service-learning."
- National Council of Catholic Bishops: Justice, Peace, and Human Development
Information on social justice issues, including action needs and opportunities.
- Nazareth Farm
"A Catholic community of volunteers inspired by the Gospels and Social Teachings of the Church and focused on prayer, community, simplicity, and service. We are devoted to developing relationships and eliminating sub-standard housing through home repair in rural West Virginia."
- Nothing But Nets
Help fight malaria, a leading killer of children in Africa, by supplying mosquito nets to those too poor to afford them.
- Save the Children
"When disaster strikes around the world, Save the Children is there to save lives with food, medical care and education and remains to help communities rebuild through long-term recovery programs. As quickly and as effectively as Save the Children responds to tsunamis and civil conflict, it works to resolve the ongoing struggles children face every day — poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease — and replaces them with hope for the future."
- School Fundraising ... Adopt a Classroom
"By adopting a classroom, donors form partnerships with specific classrooms providing financial and moral support."
- School of the Americas Watch
"SOA Watch is an independent organization that seeks to close the US Army School of the Americas through vigils and fasts, demonstrations and nonviolent protest, as well as media and legislative work."
- Serve.gov
"Serve.gov is your online resource for not only finding volunteer opportunities in your community, but also creating your own."
- SERVEnet
"servenet.org has enabled millions of youth volunteers to connect with local nonprofits to make a difference in communities throughout America" and the world.
- Shelter Box
"ShelterBox is an international disaster relief charity that delivers emergency shelter, warmth and dignity to people affected by disaster worldwide."
- Slavery (Modern) and Abolition -- see Civil Rights.
- Toys For Tots
Toy for Tots is a national program which collects and distributes toys to needy children at Christmas. Site includes guide to local programs.
- United Nations Development Program
"An organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 177 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges."
- US AID
"USAID is an independent federal government agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State. Our Work supports long-term and equitable economic growth and advances U.S. foreign policy objectives by supporting: economic growth, agriculture and trade; global health; and, democracy, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance."
- VolunteerMatch
Connects volunteers with organizations.
- WHY - World Hunger Year
"WHY is a leading advocate for innovative, community-based solutions to hunger and poverty. WHY challenges society to confront these problems by advancing models that create self-reliance, economic justice, and equal access to nutritious and affordable food."
- Youth Service America
"YOUTH SERVICE AMERICA (YSA) is a resource center that partners with thousands of organizations committed to increasing the quality and quantity of volunteer opportunities for young people."
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