I remember when my dad wanted to donate $250 to his alma mater, USC. They were in the middle of a $6 billion fundraising push. I told him to save his measly $250 because that was not what the school was actually looking for. It was all he could afford at the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dh and I extremely fortunate and do in fact donate much annually (about $70k this year). It went $10k to an alma matter, $30k to our kids school $10k to a special program I went on In high school that changed my life, $10k to a Ronald McDonald house type program $5k to religious affiliated and $5k other.

She asked: “where would you donate it to make a real difference in the world or at least in a local community?”

Do you think these things make a real difference in the works or a local community? All donations are great - but these won’t do that.

Unless you're giving away 70k a year, I would get off your high horse.

The PP is really only donating $25k to any actual cause that may make a difference. Between schools and church they don’t need that money.

Anonymous wrote:Pay for childcare for a single mother. You could probably find someone through Catholic Charities or another charity, and be anonymous about it.

That would have made a huge difference in my life when my kids were younger. HUGE.

I like this. My mother was a widow raising 3 kids and I like this a lot.

Pay for childcare for a single mother. You could probably find someone through Catholic Charities or another charity, and be anonymous about it.

That would have made a huge difference in my life when my kids were younger. HUGE.

I recently gave $$ to the Fistula Foundation. That's where I would give more- the charity is well run and I feel a real tug towards that cause as a mother who had some complications after childbirth (nothing approaching fistula, but still).

Anonymous wrote:Really admire Doctors Without Borders

This, St. Jude's, or the suggestion upthread about wiping out medical debt seem like winners to me. Real impact, helping real people, and the amount OP is talking about could do real good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dh and I extremely fortunate and do in fact donate much annually (about $70k this year). It went $10k to an alma matter, $30k to our kids school $10k to a special program I went on In high school that changed my life, $10k to a Ronald McDonald house type program $5k to religious affiliated and $5k other.

She asked: “where would you donate it to make a real difference in the world or at least in a local community?”

Do you think these things make a real difference in the works or a local community? All donations are great - but these won’t do that.

Unless you're giving away 70k a year, I would get off your high horse.

Really admire Doctors Without Borders

I have health issues and donate to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation.

Anonymous wrote:Do you have any relatives that could use money to enable them to attend college?

I have one and I can use the money. Wire me.

- not op

Do you have any relatives that could use money to enable them to attend college?

Anonymous wrote:Here's two websites that recommend charities with evidence of high impact:

https://www.givedirectly.org/
https://www.impactm.org/

As you said, you want to "make a real difference in the world." There are many, many charities where your money could help, but when you are donating substantial amounts of money, you really want to make sure that it's being well-used and doing the most good it can.

This is the motivation behind the "effective altruism" movement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism). I'd encourage you to take some time to read some of the detailed articles at GiveWell , which is an organization dedicated to evaluating charities. Traditional charities looks at things like overhead and people served. GiveWell (and similar organizations) try to actually evaluate how much the donation helps people.

We give substantially (very low 5 figures) to Give Directly. (For context, we are very rich by generally standards, but middle class by DCUM standards - two well-paid federal employees). The donations to GiveDirectly really make a difference, as shown both through their analytic research and through the examples at https://live.givedirectly.org/

Anonymous wrote:Dh and I extremely fortunate and do in fact donate much annually (about $70k this year). It went $10k to an alma matter, $30k to our kids school $10k to a special program I went on In high school that changed my life, $10k to a Ronald McDonald house type program $5k to religious affiliated and $5k other.

Giving to your and your kids' schools is meaningless. You benefit from that as much as anybody else.

Childrens heart link.

TEchnoserve.

An NBA player - Trae Young - wiped out more than a million dollars worth of medical debt with a donation of $10,000. Hospitals sell overdue debt to collections agencies for less than it's technically worth just to recoup some of the money, then the collections agencies try to get it back plus interest. So there are charities that buy debt then forgive it. That seems like such an efficient way to help people.