OT - Tsunami aid - Good karma

[Jeff Harper]

Direct Relief International is one of the organizations helping the hundreds of thousands of Tsunami victims. I recommend donating through them, as they are highly respected and received a 100% efficiency rating from Forbes: Less than 1% of the money they receive goes toward administrative and advertising costs. Additionally, they have corporate sponsors who match contributions by private individuals: "In 2003, Direct Relief International was able to deliver $3,400 in medical aid for every $100 donated!"

Here's the link to their online donation page. If you can spare a small contribution this holiday season, please consider donating to them today--the sooner the better. And please encourage others to do so as well.

[Adam Weber]

Amazon.com offers a '1-click' donation service as well. They state that 100% goes to American Red Cross, if that floats your boat.

I've heard a lot about governments', companies' and private organizations' huge, generous donations on the radio...just wondering...how much has Al Qaeda promised to send?

[GregP]

Who the f**k cares what al kyda is sending ? Or do you usually use murderers as your personal standard of behavior ?

[D. J. Dorn]

I'm sure he was being sarcastic, but you're right about them being a non-issue. In my opinion, something like this that changes the earths rotation and kills 120,000 people is truly fire and brimstone kind of stuff. Makes me wonder !

Don

[Mark Jerde]

I don't know, but I suspect 9.x earthquakes are relatively minor events compared to other things that happened in geologic time. I suspect mother earth can topple skyscrapers with or without asteroid impact. Just a hunch...

-- Mark

[DamnYankeeBastard]

contributions

They probably are trying to figure out a way to take credit for it.

Bryan

[Maverick]

I kicked in a hundred bucks. I guess every little bit counts and gosh knows those poor folks need all the help they can get right now.

I'm pushing 70 and I can not remember anything so terrible as this disaster.

[Jeff Harper]

Thank you very, very much Maverick. I hope you have some great holidays.

With an expected death toll of 200,000, more injured and sick, and literally

*millions* homeless, this is the worst of the worst disasters. Your $100 will help *profoundly* in that region of the world. It may go toward food or shelter or antibiotics that save more than one child's life.

Thanks again. And I hope your post encourages at least a few others to also help.

Jeff

Jeff Harper Tampa, FL

[Todd Fatheree]

Just an FYI...Paypal just today put a link on their home page where you could donate to UNICEF for tsunami relief. I generally keep a balance in my Paypal account, so it made it painless to kick in $100. When it's in Paypal, it's like Monopoly (R) money anyway.

todd

[Jeff Harper]

Todd, I recall disagreeing with your politics a couple months back, but I have to admit that you have your heart in the right place after all.

Thank you for helping these folks in such miserable, desperate conditions. (And thank you for publicly setting a positive example.)

Jeff

[Mark & Juanita]

... snip

For those making donations, please make sure that you are donating through an organization with which you are confident that the money will get to those who are in need. There are going to be lots of scammers and folks who are going to skim off a large percentage for "administrative fees" with only a small percentage of donations going for the intended work. Just be careful.

Disclaimer: This is not intended as a commentary on UNICEF, I don't know what their overhead is. I certainly hope it is not like other UN organizations that take large portions off the top for friends and co-workers.

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[Todd Fatheree]

I checked out all of the large relief organizations before I contributed. One of the money magazines had a ranking of the various relief organizations based on a few factors including their efficiency ratio. UNICEF was #2 behind an organization I've never heard of. Fortunately, this sort of aid is just about the only thing the United Nations does reasonably well.

todd

[Todd Fatheree]

Now, there's a left-handed compliment if I ever heard one.

With the largest loss of life in roughly 30 years, it's difficult to overestimate the impact this event has caused. When I look through the list of recent natural disasters, I start to wonder "where the hell was I" when some of these took place. I mean, I was 24 in 1991 when a tsunami hit Bangladesh and killed 138,000, but I have no recollection of that. I'll give myself a break on the 1976 earthquake in China that killed 242,000, since I was only 9. So, when you think about it, most of us here have got it pretty good.

todd

[Mark & Juanita]

... snip

That's good to hear. Do you recall where Red Cross fell?

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[Todd Fatheree]

organizations

Did you ever look at something on the internet, and then for the life of you, not be able to find it again? I swear the site has been expunged from my browser history and the internet as well. In any case, I did find

They rate both the US Fund for UNICEF and the American Red Cross as 4-stars (their highest rating). You can check out their site for details on their ratings. US Fund for UNICEF has an efficiency of about 89% and the ARC has a 91% efficiency. They categorize them differently, however. The put UNICEF in "International relief and development" and ARC in "Multipurpose Human Service Organization". I don't think you can go wrong either way.

todd

[GregP]

Charitynavigator is a good site tho half of its evaluation is based on whether or not the charity is growing and how much money it has in reserve. Forbes magazine rates charity/relief organizations each year, and there are at least half a dozen other such sites on the web.

The Red Cross has an international fund. My wife & I contributed to that and UNICEF. I think that in a really large-scale disaster like this, where there is a big inflow of money and a lot of it should be applied quickly, large organizations like this are best-suited to ramping up to meet the challenge, as long as they are not weighed down by bureaucracy. For instance, UNICEF has caches of filled water tanks in Asia for emergencies like this.

[Mark & Juanita]

... snip

Oh no, not me, never, uh-uh. My browser, OTOH, has lost lots of sites. ;-)

Thanks for the info.

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