What are your favorite charities, and why?
Two of mine:
Camfed tackles poverty in Africa by educating girls. Their philosophy is that women in general are marginalised, and further, that by improving the education and welfare of girls, overall family poverty and AIDS will be reduced.
I'm a big supporter of 'teach a person to fish,' and educating girls not only teaches rather than giving, but does so with a marginalised group which has the potential to significantly improve the economy of their countries.
charity: water is also primarily in Africa. They work to deliver clean water to communities. While arguably 'giving,' not 'teaching,' clean water is a prerequisite to sustainable economy. A phenomenal percentage of deaths and diseases can be traced back to unclean water. Further, people can't go to school or work when they have to walk twenty kilometres to get water every single day.
I see clean water as a necessary first step to elevating a community or country out of poverty.
Lindsey Graham is fond of saying that the scariest thing to a terrorist is a girl with an education. There's not a ton I agree with him on, but that's one thing. I've donated to Heifer International a few times recently. They supply farm animals and the like to farmers in Asia and Africa. Also, I give a bit of money every year to a local park that operates an outdoor hockey arena in the heart of the ghetto in Detroit, so that inner city kids can skate.
Bill gates was speaking at a conference on technology in Saudia Arabia, and someone asked what they could do to elevate their country to 'Top 10' status. His answer was basically, use the other 50% of your population.the scariest thing to a terrorist is a girl with an education
I'm a big fan of Watsi. They fund life-changing medical treatments for people. They won't, say, pay for ongoing medication, but they'll pay for one-off surgeries and treatments that will immediately change lives. They were one of the first Y Combinator backed nonprofits. I also like the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, and Covenant House (youth homeless shelter). By total, Watsi gets the most money from me.
I've donated to the Project For Awesome a few times. One of the things I like is that it's very community driven, and that the funds raised go to a variety of charities. Kiva.org is not really a charity, but it is really a great place to see the money you give go to people and see those people succeed with your help.