What is good about the money?

What is a good nonprofit organization to donate money to?

• okay, so here's the deal. i'm in a punk band and we like to play shows a lot. we've found a church that will let us use their hall for free but only if we collect money at the door and then donate all of it to a nonprofit organization. we're all good with this - the only problem is finding a good place to donate the money we make at the door. i don't know what kinds of nonprofit organizations there are out there, which ones are better than other ones, all that. i want to donate to an organization that helps people with issues that hit close to home for us, but i don't know what those places would be or how to find them or if it's really worth giving them the money. i know i've donated my own money to some nonprofits before and found out the money never really went where they said it was gonna go. oh well. anyways, some issues that affect me and the people in my band personally are drugs, alcohol, depression and suicide. i don't know if there's a good nonprofit for any of those things, like to get people help for their dependence on drugs and alcohol or to educate people about depression and suicide and try to prevent more deaths... those were just my ideas. so basically what i'm looking for is any nonprofit organization that you know of that's reputable and worth donating money to. it doesn't have to have anything to do with drugs/suicide, it just has to be something worth donating a whole bunch of money to. thanks!

• Answer:

  Charity Navigator (website below) rates organizations based upon how much of the money they receive goes to overhead (employee salaries), to solicit donations, and how much money finally reaches the people they are suppose to be helping. 4 stars is their highest rating. Some well know charities do not receive a rating that high. And, over the years, some well known charities have been caught mis-leading how they are spending the money. Like after 9/11, the Red Cross finally admitted they felt like enough money had been donated for the 9/11 victims so the Red Cross was transferring money from that account to an account to improve their communications system. For several years, I have supported a charity that gets a 4-stars rating. They have received a 4-star rating for 2 years in a row. Something only 18% of the charities can claim. About 84% of the money they receive makes it to the people needing help. The charity I personally like is the Nepal Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF, website below). Average yearly income in Nepal is $200. In 5 districts - their version of states - people are so poor that families will sell their 9 year old daughters into a "service contract" for $50/year. The girl move in with the person who buys their contracts and often work 12-16 hours days. They are often sexually abused and beaten. When they get older or pregnant, they are kicked out into the streets. With no educations and job skills, most end up working as prostitutes. NYOF goes into a village and pays the family for the "service contract" But they do not give the family money. They give them a goat or a pig for the family to raise. Families have learned if they work with their neighbors to breed these animals, within a few years, they can have enough animals to be considered "middle class" in their village. Meanwhile, NYOF pay the tuition ($50/year) for the little girl to go to school - while the little girls stay at home with their parents. As the girls get older, they write street plays - which they perform in the streets each year when the "labor recruiters" return to get more little girls. When the girls graduate from high school (10th grade), NYOF will then pay their tuition to either attend a trade school or college. NYOF has been so successful in this district, that selling your daughter is no longer socially acceptable. NYOF is moving their operation to the neighboring state. Recently, the Pulitizer Center had a Pulitzer Prize winner author to do an investigative report on NYOF. That article is listed below from the San Francisco Chronicle. What I like about this organization, is they have a good reputation for being well run. And they provide a good solution - not a partial solution. They provide a hand-up - not a hand-out. Some orgs might buy the little girl's service contract and say their job has been "well done". But where does that leave the child and her family? No way to earn money. No way to learn enough to have a good paying job. NYOF provides the support needed for these families to work their way out of poverty. Here in the US, I'm a member of a civic org. We try to give scholarships for kids to go to college. Its hard for us to give a $1,000 scholarship. And $1,000 isn't enough money to buy books for 1 semester. But - with NYOF - you can buy a little girl's contract and send her to school for a year for a total of $100. Which is a lot bigger BANG for your BUCK. For about $750 - NYOF can buy a girl's service contract and send her to school - and pay all the tuition until she graduates from high school. For them, a life changing event. This type of activity is special to me, cause my Mom used to tell stories about how hard she had to work when she was a litlle kid in Virginia during the depression. She had to work (often for $0.10 a day) to get money so her family (6 kids) could survive. If NYOF isn't in your area of interest, check Charity Navigator and find a charity in a service area that means something to you.