As you must already know, a natural disaster of enormous proportions has hit southern Asia. If you would like to make a donation to the International Red Cross/Red Crescent you can use this URL http://www.ifrc.org/helpnow/donate/donate_response.asp
Thanks for posting this Steve. I'm suprised there haven't been any responses to this thread. I plan on giving to the International Red Cross after my paycheck arrives. Thanks again for the link. -m.
Apple Computer's main page to their web site lists several very good organizations. I don't know how long they will keep it up there. I applaud them for doing this. http://www.apple.com I hope everyone here gives something toward the relief effort. Americares is a great relief organization based here in Connecticut that reaches out to local and international needs (eg. Sudan). You can specify specifically where your money goes. 100% to the tsunami effort with NO overhead costs deducted for instance. Even with the initial estimates of 10-20K people losing their lives this was a tragedy 3-5 times as large as 9/11. Now looking at over 100,000 people perishing, the scale is unfathomable. Also, this is a tragedy that will affect hundreds of thousands of people for quite some time. -jim
Given the Red Cross's pathetic reputation and various financial scandals (I've never actually heard anything good about them) I have given to Oxfam America instead. They have a good history of long-term involvement in third-world communities, and of listening to local peoples' concerns and wishes, and working with them. http://www.oxfamamerica.org/
I just sent my donation to Oxfam. They are there on the ground now and have the infrastructure to help immediately. Rich Byrne
[font=Comic Sans MS:2f2356632a]I found this link for many ways to donate to disaster relief: ]http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/inter...ont:2f2356632a]
Just to bump up this thread again, I also found that CoinStar machines (those machines that sort your change for a fee) accept donations to UNICEF and the Red Cross via their machines and waive the fee. Being a Los Angeles resident, I haven't been paying for parking at meters for a few months and the silver really piled up quickly. I went last night to the grocery store and popped in two jars of change and it added up to $78.34 for UNICEF. You can find Coinstar locations on their website - www.coinstar.com - they have locations in the US, Canada and UK.
In L.A. you have to pay to have your coins counted??? I just go to my bank. If you have an account they'll do it for free.
Of course we don't have to pay. Coinstar is a service - which markets itself especially to people who don't have bank accounts (and there are a LOT of working poor in that position in large metropolitan areas, especially those with large populations of immigrants. There happens to be a check cashing service a few doors down from the grocery store). I was mentioning this as a painless way to donate what could be a useful sum of money to needy causes. I don't not really think that forking over 5% of my cash for the added convenience of counting it for me is worthwhile. Since I discovered the coinstar donation thing though, I've not taken any of my change to the bank - I donate it all to charity. It's not much, but I certainly don't miss it, which makes me more likely to do it.