Ok so I bought the book “The Life You Can Save“. There are some good things and bad things about this book:
Good Things: It’s cheap, only $15!
Bad Things: It really costs thousands of dollars!!!
I’m not sure that I agree with everything in the book, but it’s also hard to deny that I don’t need some of my money quite as much as other people might need it. Now if I were a perfect person I’d just sit back and quietly give my money away to charity, but that’s no fun really!
Instead we are going to do something fun!!! Every month, with your help, we are going to pick one charity and give a bunch of money to it! I’m going to start by giving somewhere in the neighborhood of $500-$1200 per month to whichever charity is chosen. The exact figure is based on a really anal formula that you’d rather not know the details of. For our first month it’ll probably be $800-900.
I will give more details in the coming posts, but that’s the basic idea! The money will given by me on the last day of the month or the first day of the following month. The charity will probably be chosen 10 days before the month ends, probably on the 20th of each month, so that anyone else who wants to join the fun has time to know what they are giving to. Stay tuned for the type of charities I’ll be looking for. It’ll be pretty inclusive, which is probably different than “The Life You Can Save” would recommend as it won’t be ultra focused on making sure the donations are “optimal”, but I think it’ll be much more fun that way.
The USCF is facing a difficult year financially due to a lawsuit filed by current Executive Board member Susan Polgar. She has sued the USCF and several additional defendants for $25 million (later reduced to $10 million). You can follow the status of all USCF litigation at http://www.uschess.org/legalupdates.
As a result, and in a measure to ensure financial stability in the coming fiscal year, the USCF headquarters will be operating on a four-day work week. Beginning in June, the office will be closed on Fridays, and this will continue until further notice. If you can help the USCF through this difficult period, please donate to the USCF Legal Defense Fund. You can donate online at secure.uschess.org/webstore/LegalDefenseFund, by calling Susan Houston at 931-787-1234 x136, or by mailing a check to USCF Legal Defense Fund, USCF, PO Box 3967, Crossville, TN 38557.
[...] gregshahade.com Blog A blog about charity, chess, poker and other random thoughts! « Fun with Charity!!! [...]
I recommend Charitywatch.org from the American Association of Philanthropy.
You can get their detailed charity rating guide for just a few dollars in postage:
http://charitywatch.org/ratingguide.html
And top rated charities are on their website:
http://charitywatch.org/toprated.html
Make your dollar go further!
-Macauley
P.S. I’m pretty sure the USCF isn’t listed.
Hello Greg,
I found about your quest for charities by a friend of mine, Jan Newton who runs the website, http://www.goddesschess.com/. I used to play in tournament chess, and Jan had written about me on her website a few years back. Since that time, I started a 501c3 charity organization called Computer Labs for Kids. We give laptops and training to underprivileged children, and we can definitely use any help you are able to offer. Just thought I’d introduce myself and see what happens.
Thanks!
Shira