Charities recommendations

I’m planning to create a monthly standing order for one of the charities helping poor people (especially kids) around the world. Any recommendations?

I lately read about a movement called Effective Altruism which promotes evidence-based help with cost efficiency while leveraging the mechanisms of capitalistic wealth creation. It makes lots of sense to me.

I’ve read that one of the list based on this idea is here:

I also considered one of the traditional ones, like Médecins sans frontières or UNICEF, but I’m not sure how effective they really are.

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It’s important to check the ratio of administrative costs and the money really used onsite.

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FYI if you want to give to givewell or similar, doing it through EA fundation (https://effektiveraltruismus.de/donate/) allows you to deduct it from your taxes.

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Hi there,

The list at GiveWell looks like a very good starting point. Any charity that promotes health or education in low-income countries/groups will also help to fight poverty.

I’d like to mention

  • Baybyloan.org (a micro-financing institute, MFI)
  • Zidisha.org (another MFI)
  • Buying in an “activist” manner, e. g. where suppliers earn a fair share for their work and production conditions are better than the industry norm (FairTrade or the Fairphone come to mind)
  • Offer private loans to people in your surrounding (family, community)
  • Offer time in your community to help with their (financial) education?

How to end poverty is a big discussion, and I’m no expert in this. I have different motives when supporting people or institutions. In general, if money seems to be an efficient means, I donate.
It seems that besides the traditional development aid (giving money tied to certain actions), education, improved health and business seems to be the levers to sustainable improvement.

Effectiveness of MFI’s seems to be mixed (s. e. g. good introdcution at The Balance and reviews by EY, Duvendack and Banerjee). But on a personal level, it’s also a way to learn about the world “out there”, not only safe and affluent Europe.

I can confirm @nabalzbhf’s tip on the Effective Altruism foundation. If you are tax-aware in your donations, donating to the Swiss branch is simple way to contribute. The EA movement is very interesting as it breaks with many traditions of traditional charities (e. g. faith-based). There’s quite a discussion about what “effective” is, because like investing, it’s hard to separate it from your moral and values. Donating is very personal in the sense that even if I knew that a charity I support may not be very efficient with the money or there are (rationally speaking) more important causes to support – I wouldn’t necessarily change my mind.

One remark on administrative costs: It seems logical to choose a charity with less administrative overhead over one with more, but the story seems to be more complicated, s. a summary ar charities.org and the website “The Overhead Myth”. GiveWell, for example, recommends certain charities according to cost-effectiveness and the impact that an additional donation can make.

Cheers,

Johnny B.

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I always do it with them, it is easy and they don’t ask you for more money. In January you receive a list with all your donation that you can just tag to your taxes.

I also like that their approach is evidence based and not just on what feels good.

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Hi all, does anyone have experience in supporting the local community? I am aware of a couple of initiatives from Caritas. Are there further ones, was thinking about helping out with IT for NGO or similar. Thanks

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Pinging this thread since we are near the end of the year…

Also, I didn’t see many swiss charities mentioned here. :frowning:

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Wikipedia (Wikimedia CH).

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EA foundation no longer funnels to top effective altruism charities, but https://www.effektiv-spenden.org/ is a good replacement and is now recognized in Switzerland.

You can also donate directly to one of the top GiveWell charities, since this year the Against Malaria Foundation is recognized in CH: Registered Charity Status

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I support Helping Uganda Schools – HUGS – Enabling Education. Creating Opportunity.
Their scholarships to students incorporate some excellent mentoring which is a real benefit for the recipients in my opinion. The trustees are really involved and show a lot of effort and commitment.

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Thanks for sharing.
Do CH tax office accept it (since it’s not a Swiss org?)

No, unfortunately not. At least my small city does not