What’s your favorite charity or philanthropic cause to support?
Daily | December 11th, 2008
“Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon.” – Rumi
Carrie says: Women for Women International. Five per cent of revenues from our Style Statement consulting business are donated to Women for Women International to support women in war-torn countries.
Danielle says: Also Women for Women International, which as Carrie says helps women survivors of war rebuild their lives; and Kiva, which distributes micro-loans to entrepreneurs. I feel so inspired and useful to participate in both.
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December 11th, 2008 at 1:37 am
The Canary Derby – racing soaobox derby cars on Water St. in Gastown Vancouver to raise money for BC Cancer Foundation and the Canary Foundation of Canada to fund research for early cancer detection. In 2008, I was on the organizing committee of the event and my company Webnames.ca also participated in the 1st annual event. Webnames.ca raised over $14,000 and the Vancouver event raised over $110,000! Awesome team building as well as for an amazing cause.
We'll be doing it again in 2009 so stay tuned. Check out the fun we had at http://www.webnames.ca/canaryderby.aspx.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:46 am
Kiva – you lend $25 to the entrepreneur 'in need,' from the bios on line and when the total loan is repaid, the money you loaned, is deposited back into your account – you can cash it out or re-lend it to another 'in need' entrepreneur.
http://www.kiva.org
Women For Women International – gives a 'hand up' for $27 per month. You sponsor a woman in a war-torn region with financial and emotional aid, job-skills training, rights education and small business assistance so they can rebuild their lives. When they graduate from the programme, you are asked to send a letter of congratulations and are assigned a new 'sister' shortly afterwards. Continued support is provided to the graduate, as needed. Both of these organizations were featured on Oprah a few years ago.
I also like OXFAM Gifts Unwrapped – you can buy school supplies or a goat, or a chicken, etc. and these are 'gifts that give twice.'
December 11th, 2008 at 2:19 am
I also support Women for Women International and Kiva. Yesterday, I stumbled upon the Nomi network, which helps fight child trafficking in Cambodia. That seems like a good cause to me as well…
http://www.nominetwork.org
December 11th, 2008 at 2:33 am
see my entry above:
http://www.womenforwomen.org
http://www.oxfam.com/
/www.adopt-a-chimp.com/ This is a sanctuary located outside of Montreal and you can adopt a chimp for a one time fee, which is their fundraiser. These chimps were rescued from labs and zoos. They endured horrors and they're so damaged psychologically some never fully recover, though they do better. There's a bio of all of the chimps they care for and you get to choose one. There are some pretty sad cases but happy stories of recovery too – they make friends with each other and form close bonds. I recall one of the female chimps liked to drink cups of tea from a china cup with her caretaker. Please check this out…
December 11th, 2008 at 3:02 am
My newest favorite charity is http://www.modestneeds.org They give small grants to famlies to help keep them out of teh cycle of property. Their website shows all the grantees and that they have been cehcked out for authetic need. They offer self-suffienceincy grants (for emergency bill paying after unexpected set backs, etc) , back to work grants and indepndent living grants to enable disabled and unemployed to stay in their homes. Awesome. Thay are on Facebook too.
December 11th, 2008 at 6:07 am
The Grameen Foundation. Like Kiva, it helps establish micro-loan programs for poor entrepreneurs around the globe. Unlike Kiva, you don't get to pick exactly who your money goes to. Somehow, I find it more fair, because even the “unpopular” projects will get funded.
I also donate to two local Montreal poverty-relief charities, Santropol Roulant and Dans La Rue.
December 11th, 2008 at 7:07 am
I'm a big fan of Invisible Children (an organization which advocates abolishing the use of child soldiers, particularly in northern Uganda) and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). I think it's important to lift up those who have no voices.
I also like the ACLU, though I don't agree with them on every tenet…
December 11th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Oxfam Canada. Since 1963 it's been working with grass-roots partners in Africa, Latin America and Asia to not just give relief, but to do long-term development and address the root causes of poverty, injustice and inequality. The focus is squarely on the rights and livelihoods of women and girls. In Canada, Oxfam works on development education, advocacy, public awareness and building a constituency of support for our work in advancing women's rights.
At http://www.oxfamunwrapped.ca you can donate in someone's name and download a giftcard to give them as a present. As well as the usual chickens and donkeys, you can also give things like Gender-Based Violence Prevention Training, Small Business Training, Bicycles, Safe Water…
I was elected to the national board of Oxfam 2 years ago, and continue to be deeply impressed and inspired by the vision and work; particularly by the focus on women's rights and the comprehensive way they address communities' short-term needs and the deeper root causes at a societal and systems level.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Heifer.org – the provide farm animals and animal husbandry education. When the animals reproduce, the family passes the next generation along within the community.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:44 am
First Book (http://www.firstbook.org) is a literacy advocacy organization that gives children from low-income families an opportunity to own their first new books.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:19 am
My sister told me about Kiva earlier this year – they are an amazing group. I also give to our local Humane Society (from whom I've adopted 2 rescued dogs over the years) and to Canada's National Ballet School (http://www.nbs-enb.ca) – I wouldn't have been able to study there without the help of the donors, so now I support them in return…
December 11th, 2008 at 9:35 am
I mostly support environmental charities and causes. I have a monthly donation set up with the Sierra Club (not a charity), and have often given money to Greenpeace and the Union of Concerned Scientists. My family are big supporters of Water Aid, whose focus is providing running water / sanitation in the poorest parts of the world.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:38 am
World Vision has been a charity we have been committed to for years. Every child we have we sponsor another one, and I always do extra fundraising over the holidays. We also support Bicycles for Humanity, Playground Builders, Cops for Cancer and The Canadian Cancer Society in honour of loved ones we've lost to cancer. This time of year we also do a family basket for a family from the Mt. Currie Band that is living in poverty.
December 11th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Anything to do with women, children or animals…one of my favourites is: Equality Now: http://www.equalitynow.org/english/index.html
They were the first people to really bring attention in the West about FGM, and also the brutality against women in Afghanistan: http://www.equalitynow.org/english/campaigns/af...
December 11th, 2008 at 10:38 am
My favorite is Population Connection, which supports reproductive rights and family planning worldwide. Given that all our problems, from poverty and child abuse to environmental destruction and war, are caused or exacerbated by overpopulation, solving that problem will address all the others as well.
I also support the Humane Society, FINCA, and Heifer International, as well as a number of local groups which provide everything from tree planting to helping youngsters earn their first bicycle.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:09 am
YWCA because I think they do some great stuff for women locally – from programs for high school girls to single mothers. I've been volunteering with them for the last 5 years and find their work very inspiring.
Another org I like is Oxfam Canada, as a few other people have stated – I like the more grassroots approach they appear to have, and have taken a few workshops they have on sustainability. They have very friendly, knowledgeable, passionate people working for them.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Doctors Without Borders
http://www.msf.ca
Provides medical assistance to populations in distress around the world.
SOS BC Children's Villages
https://www.sosbc.org/
Provides a community based family care service to foster children in BC. Three Treasure Cottage Thrift stores, whose proceeds go to supporting SOS Children's Village BC are located in North Vancouver, In Kerrisdale on W41st and in Steveston, on Moncton street in Richmond.
December 11th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I mostly support animal welfare. I just have a really soft heart when it comes to any kind of animal.
Fashionable Fun
December 11th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
My local Planned Parenthood! Wonderful people doing important work.
December 11th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I have a few: Doctors Without Borders because they go into the most difficult crisis zones and stay there. As a New Yorker, I support Robin Hood Foundation (http://www.robinhood.org/home.aspx), which fights poverty in the city. I also support CARE (http://www.care.org/) and local animal shelters. I also support ALS and lymphoma treatment/research, since key people in my life have suffered from these diseases in my life.
December 11th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
The local food bank. These are the people who make an immediate difference on a daily basis. There is nothing less than people in your own community going hungry.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I support the Junior League with my time, talent and treasure. My donations to the League make a positive difference in the local community through the League's many projects designed to meet immediate and long-term needs. These projects create opportunities for the members to learn how to run an effective non-profit in the process. Many of our trained volunteers go on to local and national politics, start other non-profits designed to meet under-served needs or serve in leadership roles after ending their “active” service in the Junior League.
December 16th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I support the ALS (aka Lou Gehrig's Disease) Society of BC in memory of my mom to help professionals learn why there is a rapidly progressive degeneration of motor cells in the spinal cord and brain so that all voluntary muscles eventually become paralyzed.
ALS is a fatal, cruel, ugly and heartbreaking neuromuscular disease. Although there is little impairment of the brain or the senses, those afflicted become extemely anxious with the loss of all control and dignity in their lives as they become literally trapped in their bodies. My mom had bulbar ALS and was unable to speak, swallow or breath very well towards the end. She was fed from a feeding tube, wrote on a white board to communicate until that was no longer possible and had to use a suction machine to clear the saliva from her throat because. There is much to learn on the causes before work on finding a cure can be commence.
I also support the various cancer causes in memory of one of my dearest and wholesome friends, who passed away from a very rare form of pancreatic cancer at the age of 33 years.