If you read my first post, you’d see that I’m going to start giving away a bit of money each month to a charity. Hopefully the following two things happen:
1. I have some help from the community in determining which charity to choose each month
2. I also encourage other readers to give a little bit.
There are a lot of things to discuss in regards to how this will work, but first let me talk about the type of charities I’ll be looking at. I expect that I’ll be pretty open minded about it, and that there will be a good deal of variety from month to month. Let’s give a few examples of some prototypical charities. Please note that I know very little about these charities right now, I’m just giving some quick off the top of my head examples:
1. Relief for Poverty/Hunger/Disease: These charities are generally quite large and usually help people in some of the poorest countries in the world. Some examples might be Oxfam, Red Cross, Nothing But Nets etc
2. Charities focused more on problems within the U.S.A: Some examples of this could be the ACLU, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, veterans associations etc. For the most part the people benefitting from these will have greater living conditions than those from the poorest countries in the world, but again I’m not going to try to be 100% focused on making sure that the money is always given to those who are suffering the absolute most.
3. Very individual focused donations: These could be donations that are given to just one or maybe a few individuals. Perhaps it could be some college scholarship for a kid who had something horrible happen to them. Another idea would be to give some scholarship to a kid who was involved in some heroic act. For instance if a kid risks his life to save someone else, it’d be nice to reward them somehow. Also you could just take a kid with a dream, who is having trouble affording whatever it takes to fulfill their dream, and try to help them. There are lots of possibilities in this realm, and usually it’ll probably be the most feel good story because the association is so direct, so I suspect something like this will be done from time to time.
4. Chess related donations: As most people reading this know, chess has been a large part of my life, and it’s always nice to help the chess community. Of course chess players aren’t starving to death on the streets, but as stated above, I believe in making donations for many reasons, and so I’m sure that occasionally there will be some good cause in the chess world to help with. Please note that this will never involve any project in which I’m organizing such as the U.S. Chess School or U.S. Chess League.
5. Animal Welfare: I love the animals, what can I say. Unfortunately I eat their dead bodies on a regular basis, but that doesn’t mean I still can’t do something to help.
Anyway the above are just some ideas, I’m sure there are many others that I didn’t cover. I just wanted to give a general idea. Please let me know if you have any ideas! The first donation day will be August 31st/Sept 1st, and we will decide on the charity on August 20th!
OK, Greg, where are you going to get the approximately $12,000 per year to apply this idea? Why not “donate” some of your money to the U.S.C.L.? You do not have to call it a donation. How about you call it capital investment? –Howard
As stated in a previous post, none of these donations will go towards projects that I am organizing.
I would like to recommend the Foundation of my chess friend, Shira Evans. I’ve been writing about it at the Goddesschess blog. She is an IT expert and works with needy kids all over the world, teaching them how to use age appropriate laptops and, right now, at an orphanage in Portugal, Leapsters. After she teaches the kids how to use these tools, she gives each one a laptop or Leapster!
Here is what she did yesterday:
http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2009/07/shira-chess-challenge-portugal-day-4.html
Shira’s post contains information about the Computer Labs for Kids Foundation and its Facebook page.
Thanks!
Jan Newton
http://www.goddesschess.com
http://www.goddesschess.blogspot.com
Having been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2002 I donate money each week right out of my check to some Michigan MS Society chapter (I’m not even sure what the name is off hand). I was giving to the local United Way until they pissed me off ( they spent more money on bureaucratic overhead & took people who donated on trips etc.) when that $$ could have been used to help people for my liking.
I’ve never been a big fan of helping people in Africa or any other third world country for that matter when we have enough starving, homeless, illiterate, drug-addicted, etc. people right here in America to give billions of dollars too. Plus that one person you help here has a better chance on impacting your life down the road when they grow up/get aid. I’m not saying that people overseas do not deserve it too, I’m just saying we have enough in this country to keep us busy for a thousand lifetimes.
I’m also a HUGE fan of helping out the kids, more so than the adults. Having 3 children myself, they’ve always had a special place in my heart. Any charity that helps out them would get my vote over anything involving adults any day. Sorry if this rambled on Greg, that’s just how I feel.
~Mike
Hi Greg,
How about missing kids? Maybe you should ask your dad to give you the t-shirt I gave him!!! Your ideas are great,nice work.
Betsy