Hurricane Katrina: Where to Donate

[Slacker13]

I know were not suppose to mention poker here but I figured since this was for a good cause I could slide by this time. Here is a way for everyone to donate and get your money matched at the same time. A few of us started a charity tourney and would greatly appreciate if OOT could spread the word. It is def for a great cause. LINKY

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rather thaen send money to a big outfit that its directors get half million dollar salaries, send it directly to the areas thru their fire departments. this way 100% of what you send gets spent right where you want it for the people that need it.

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He's right and that is why I won't donate to the Red Cross. I don't Donate to anything anyway but you guys probably could have figured that out. Why is it surprising that these charitable organizations pocket a % of the money ? They are human. If you saw a pile of money on the side of the road on your way home, what would you do ? You'd keep at least a little bit of it even if you were completely honest.

[bones]

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If you saw a pile of money on the side of the road on your way home, what would you do ? You'd keep at least a little bit of it even if you were completely honest.

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You sir, are a moran.

[JTrout]

LOWE's is matching consumer donations (up to $1m).

I believe the funsd are going to Red Cross, not positive.
But this is a chance to have your contribution matched.

[Diplomat]

I agree %100.

***Warning, controversial political statement to follow***











I stopped donating money to the Red Cross shortly after 9/11. I felt ripped off and cheated, and decided to never donate to them again.

-Diplomat

[mackthefork]

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I agree %100.

***Warning, controversial political statement to follow***











I stopped donating money to the Red Cross shortly after 9/11. I felt ripped off and cheated, and decided to never donate to them again.

-Diplomat

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Why? I'm confused.

Mack

[Glenn]

There is nothing wrong with paying directors of major charitable orgainizations for the same reason there is nothing wrong with doctors making 500k. When dealing with a disaster of large proportions, it must be dealt with in a business like manner. Billons of dollars are at stake, and they must be efficiently used and allocated. The people who are qualified to do this don't always work for free, and they shouldn't have to. A director that gets paid 500k might create 3m of increased efficiency. The people managing investment of the endowments are another example. A local fire department may spend virutally nothing on administrative fees, but they are terribly inefficient, especially in a major castastrophe. The idea is to help as many people as possible. While a local fireman may want to help people for more unselfish reasons, a Harvard business graduate will do a better job of it, even if he is doing it just to get paid. The Red Cross's handling of 9/11 was poor as Diplomat pointed out, but they claim to have a 30:1 volunteer to paid employee ratio, and to spend 91% of donations on actual aid. Assuming this is at least close to accurate, it seems quite reasonable to spend ~10% of donated money to have the best and brightest organizing relief efforts. Also, volunteers suffer from a lack of accountability. Since they are recieving nothing for their work, and doing it only out of good will, there are more lax standards for their performance. There are bad charitable organizations as Zee pointed out. Many are city level charities run by corrupt or incompetant people. It is important to be careful in who you donate too. However the idea that it is wrong to donate to an organization with paid (even highly paid) employees is completely wrong. In fact, I would be wary about the efficacy of any large organization using only volunteers.

[Slacker13]

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You sir, are a moran.

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His posts are so stupid it's actually becoming entertaining to read them.

[Ray Zee]

a case can be made for alot of big org. work. but for natural disasters the local firemen can buy water and food and know where to put it to its best use. someone in new york can only bark orders over his cell phone. but he is the best at raising the most money.
doolars in general may be used well by the red cross. but your particular money is best used by the local honest volunteer people.

[Glenn]

The majority of the people on the ground for the Red Cross are local, honest volunteers. In this tradgedy in particular, a small local organization is virutally useless unless they work under the umbrella of a larger group who can coordinate all of their efforts. As far as supplies go, the purchasing power of someone like United Way or Red Cross allows them to get better supplies more cheaply. Also, given the security, transportation, and housing situations in New Orleans right now, small groups are virtually impotent. Three local fireman floating up to an angry mob of 5000 people with 100 gallons of water and some canned goods will create more problems than it will solve.