gregshahade.com Blog

So there’s always a big question when it comes to charity, as to whether you should always try to give money to those who are suffering the most, or whether this isn’t necessary, and any positive cause is worthy. I think I definitely stand in the latter category.

Just because people have more than poverty level, and can eat on a regular basis, that doesn’t mean their life isn’t extremely unpleasant. I believe there’s a damaging psychological affect if you see everyone around you having more than you. So even if you are one of the bottom 10% of people in the nation, in regards to wealth, you clearly have much more than someone in the same situation in many African nations. However I don’t think this means that we should just forget about you and send all the money to Africa.

My own personal preference may be to find someone who is extremely passionate about what they do, and they are doing something on a volunteer basis. Maybe it’s not feeding every starving person in the world, but the effect will be more measurable. One example I can think of is one of the charities that was posted in a comment. I’ll just repost it below:

“dear Greg,

David Kane encouraged me to contact you. I recently met an amazing woman who gave up a good career to start giving writing workshops for disadvantaged kids in the poorest, most violent neighborhoods of Washington DC. After a year and a half, she has a team of 11 volunteers running the program in schools, shelters, etc and extraordinary stories of transformation, the kids just love it and open up in beautiful ways. By writing, I don’t mean literacy but learning the power of the word, having kids tell their own stories in poetry, essays, theatre, etc. She now wants these stories to not only empower the kids but contribute to social change by providing them to organizations that lobby on issues such as homelessness, education, domestic violence, etc. I was so inspired by her that I just joined her Board, I have worked in non-profit for 10 years and can give her advice on strategy, fund-raising, etc as well as share my networks. She’s been an angel to so many people, I feel it’s time a few angels take care of her too. She has done all this work as a volunteer, by the way. Anyway, the organization is called http://www.bookfruits.org – part of the support she needs is to allow her to update her rudimentary website to show all the new growth and developments. If you’re interested, I’ll be happy to put you in touch with her and give you more information.
Many blessings to you and your very generous commitment to share your good fortunes,
Carole Frampton”

I’m a little confused about this story because it implies she gave up her job and is now working solely as a volunteer. This doesn’t seem possible unless she’s very rich or plays poker on the Internet. In any case this kind of thing always inspires me because it’s someone who is clearly doing something very selfless, providing a clearly valuable service to children who don’t always have the best opportunities and given that it doesn’t seem to be a huge operation, a relatively small amount of money may actually make some difference? I’m kind of curious how much money they’re able to raise per year and what they do with it. Like the comment says, they certainly need to update the website, and that shouldn’t cost very much at all. Anyway, as always I love your feedback.

- Greg

I will now list some of the charities that have been mentioned so far. I’ll try to include everyone who gave a very specific charity. I might not say too much as that’d take all night and don’t want to make a habit of spending hours at a time writing stuff about prospective charities, but feel free to explore them. In fact in the future I’ll probably list all of the nominations about 5-7 days before I choose the monthly charity. This time since there is so little notice, I’ll update at some point in a week or so as well, if there’s much more traffic.

I suspect that this is how it’ll usually go. I’ll avoid making too many posts that mention just one charity, but more often just put a ton of them in a post and people can comment on which they think would be the best. In the end this isn’t going to be completely democratic, as I will have the final say, but I will certainly take everyone’s opinion into account.

1. Kiva.org: The only one that wasn’t submitted by someone else is kiva.org. Kiva.org is a charity that helps you give micro loans to poor aspiring entrepreneurs all over the world. When you loan one of them money, and they pay you back, you can then loan this money to someone else.

2. ACLU: My beautiful girlfriend Susan suggested the ACLU, which stands for American Civil Liberties Union. I am actually already a member as I tend to give them about $100 per year. They certainly do believe in most everything I believe in, and Susan is actually on the Board of Directors for the Philadelphia ACLU. Let me quote her comment below:

“ACLU!!!! They have projects on drug policy, the school-to-prison-pipeline, women’s rights, gay rights, Guantanamo bay, etc. They represent the girl who was stripped searched by school officials, parents who don’t want their kids to be taught intelligent design in PUBLIC school science classes, organizations that are being criminally prosecuted for trying to register more voters, teenage girls who are being criminally prosecuted for cell phone pictures of themselves, churches who are being shut down by municipal governments for trying to run homeless shelters, doctors who lose their clearance for criticizing the government, immigrants who were being forced out of Hazelton, etc., etc., etc. And most of the issues/suits I’m describing are in Pennsylvania alone. Imagine the work they are doing all over the nation.

These are all things that you believe in. Just because Bush is out of office, doesn’t mean civil liberties are no longer important. This is an organization worthy of your donation! (Of course, there are many other organizations that are also worthy, but I’ll try to sell you on one at a time.)”

3. Computer Labs for Kids: This was submitted recently and seems to involve donating computers and computer labs to poor people/orphans around the world. Here is a quote on their website by their founder Shira Evans:

“I’ve seen firsthand the excitement and love kids have for computers while setting up computer labs in Chicago Public Schools. I’ve worked in IT for over ten years and my resume includes certifications such as MCSE and A+. This non-profit is a way for me to combine two areas that I know and love. You can join us and share the excitement of helping children in poverty become better equipped to meet the challenges of their changing future.”

4. CharityWatch: MacCauley Peterson, whom many of you may know from chess.fm, submitted CharityWatch. It seems to be an organization that investigates charities, and helps you make informed decisions on which charities use their funds most efficiently.

5. BuildOn: Kameron Tolliver quickly suggested building for books, which has seemingly changed their name to BuildOn. I believe their main focus is building schools in impoverished areas around the world. In fact I believe that my half-brother Jean-Francois may have spent some time doing this in Nicaragua.

6. USCF Legal Defense Fund: The USCF is getting sued! They need help! I love the USCF and while I’m generally going to make sure to avoid giving any reasons why I don’t want to donate to a particular cause, I think this wouldn’t be a great way to start it off. While I definitely would like to donate to chess at some point (maybe once every 6 months or so at the most), I don’t want to start the project by getting involved in all the weirdness going on in Crossville.

There were some other comments made with no specific suggestions behind them. I know one poster mentioned Multiple Sclerosis but I don’t believe he gave a specific website or foundation to give to. In any case if there’s one you really want to be selected, but it doesn’t happen this time around, this is going to repeat every month, so sooner or later if you keep pressing for your cause and get support from other posters, good things should eventually come!

Also there is one thing I failed to mention in my original post on what type of charities I’d look for. I forgot to mention that I’ll also occasionally focus on Philadelphia based groups, as this is where I live. I’m sure that people from around the country and world might not be so excited by that, but local charities will certainly be chosen from time to time. Also I’m willing to consider other localized charities in the United States, if they are doing really good work.

I look forward to any comments!