Posted on 12/15/2004 5:34:04 PM PST by Malsua
Mrs. Mal and I are considering Sponsering a Child with the Christian Children's Fund. The cost is small, and everything I read is that the overhead is reasonably low.
The American Institude of Philanthropy gives it an A. Of course, who grades the grader.
Other Freepers have experience with this one? I searched around here and didn't find any hits. There were some threads on Charities, didn't find one that talked about this one.
Opinions/Suggestions Welcome.
Sorry for the Vanity.
Isn't that the one that thirty years ago told us we could end world hunger in twenty years if we sent them tons of money, which we did, to no avail?
I make almost all of my donations to the Salvation Army. They actually use the money to help people in need.
I dunno, did they? 30 years ago, I wasn't too civic minded. I was too busy playing in Mud and climbing trees. That's why I posted this. I wanted some opinion on it. It's the wife's idea(not that I'm adverse to it), but I refuse to support anything related to Muslims(as it'll prolly get stolen by the local warlord to Jihad me) or if they just keep most of the money for overhead.
There is a real children's ministry called World Vision that is truly Christian, according to the same friend. We haven't signed up yet, but they are at worldvision.org.
Yes, try World Vision.
Mal - Listen to Timmy....he's right. I've sponsored a young boy for many years through World Vision. I recommend it.
I'm not sure if it was that charity, or one of the other children's charities. There are a few of them that have been collecting money on a large scale for the thirty or so years that I've been paying attention. I haven't seen any notable change, except the money changing from our pockets to theirs. The children are still dying, and the world still hates us.
Malsua -- My wife & I have sponsored kids through the CCF for the past 30 years, including one right now. We've always found it rewarding & worthwhile.
In some countries the sponsorships are really long term. We've had 3 kids from the Philippines at different times & all were 5 years or more in duration, one of them all the way from age 8 to 21. Great letters, photos, etc., all through the years as they grew up.
We think it's honest & ethical. One time CCF pulled out of a country in Africa because of dishonesty within the local operation. I appreciated their frankness about that. (We were assigned a different child in another country.)
Freemail me if any questions.
Thanks for your insight. I don't mind giving, I mind giving to enrich cronies or worse.
Samaritan's Purse is a great organization run by Billy Graham's son, Franklin. They teach about the love of Christ to all the recipients.
I've also given to Samaritan's Purse, but I read once that Franklin Graham (Billy's son) draws a $300K salary from it, and who knows what expenses of his SP pays as well. WTF? I'm not saying Franklin doesn't deserve a good living from his work, but $300K sounds extremely greedy for one asking for my money to supposedly help others in need. Cancelled.
And then recently there was an article posted here on FR about the Salvation Army trying to pay some celebrity $15K for a speaking engagement (but it wasn't enough and the celeb cancelled). WTF? Celebrities don't do this for free for a charities like the Salvation Army, and the SA is willing to use their supposedly scarce funds to pay a celebrity to speak? Cancelled.
Finding an honest and fair charity is tough. I may look into WVI. Good luck.
My grandfather used to contribute to Feed The Children (i think that was the name). I remember seeing a commercial about them a while back and it was heartbreaking to see that level of poverty in our own country. Anyways, that was better than 7 years ago, so I'm not sure if they're still around.
My donations going to Feed the Children. Over 90% goes to the actual purpose, less than 10% administrative costs
May I suggest our favorite charity? www.adoptasniper.com
Really, it's tax deductible and everything you donate to them goes to our snipers deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere. No one draws a salary, it's strictly a labor of love by former military snipers, LEOs, etc.
Kinda warms the cockles of my heart knowing my hard won cash is being used to buy a high tech scope for one of our snipers to bag some greasy RPG toting rat.
Guns before butter, as a well known freeper is wont to say.
Never heard of them. Not that I think that's a bad one...we donate to the Freedom Alliance Scholorship fund.
I wish I had Bill Gates money to donate, but frankly, since Mrs. Mal is a stay at home type, my donation dollars are limited. Winters are specially tough since we heat primarily with Firewood. 7 Cords a winter! The electric bill goes up some since we have little electric heaters for the bedroom and kitchen to knock the chill off.
At least my heating dollars for the most part don't go to a foreign country.
Thanks for the suggestion though. We'll revue that one first of the year when we look through our donation list.
My mother is the CEO of a county level aid organization for several counties in Ohio. I know for a fact that anyone who needs food or clean conditions can get it, at least in Ohio. This is the SE section of ohio, the outskirts of appalachia.
I also know similar organizations exist in PA and WV. The only reason anyone in the USA goes hungry is due to mental illness or an unwillingness to seek aid. The aid is there.
I'm not saying that organization doesn't do any good, it probably helps many people, my issue is that more aid really isn't needed here in the USA.
bump
You might want to verify that. Franklin spends vast amounts of time overseas and I can't imagine why he would want that much money with no way to spend it. There ain't much in Boone NC and there is only so much Woodland's wretched horrible BBQ a man can eat.
Samaritans Purse refurbishes medical equipment to donate to clinics overseas. That is very expensive work. I have visted the center in Boone several times (I almost went to work there) and it is amazing how much medical equipment they receive. SP is one of the most impressive Christian charities I have seen.
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