There are several local charities that we give to regularly, but this year we did a few new things:

At DC's high school, we set up a scholarship fund to pay fees for non-sports extracurricular activities for students who otherwise couldn't afford to participate (non-sports because the athletic department has no problem raising $$).

Our community set up a web site that allows counselors at the local public schools to post requests for specific needs (e.g., teen boy needs sneakers, teen girl needs winter coat, school needs laundry detergent, etc). You sign up online and drop the donation at a local community center. It's great because the donations benefit a specific person, but are anonymous on both ends.

Other ideas: Over the holidays, several people in my community called local schools and paid off balances on school lunch accounts (there are programs that provide lunches for poor children, but there are kids whose parents don't qualify who also need assistance). Also, before Christmas, someone in my community anonymously paid off the lay away balances for multiple families at the local Wal Mart. There were some very touching thank you's posted on the local Facebook page from Moms who didn't know how they were going to pay for their kid's Christmas presents.

We give about $100k a year because we have been fortunate financially and giving is a priority for us. Our giving is split among institutions that we care about and charities that provide direct services to the poor/homeless much like PP. For those criticizing giving to schools or churches remember that these institutions only survive if people give. With the exception of heavily endowed institutions, giving to those groups is certainly a reasonable thing to do and if no one did it we would be worse off. Locally we like to support Friendship Place, DC Central Kitchen, Bread for the City, and SMYAL (housing for homeless lgbt youth).

Honestly if you gave it to me I’d show you what good and prudent use I would put it to.

You could put it in a donor advised fu d so you don’t have to decide now and could give it out over time.

Give as much as you can to Amy McGrath.

I would set up a scholarship or pay the tuition of a child at a school for kids with dyslexia. They do such life changing work and are out of reach for so many.

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.

Like the idea of being an anonymous angel to an individual.

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.

So much anger in this thread. We do donate around that annually. If we do better next year charitable donations will increase commensurately. I don’t see why donating to my state college (go terps) scholarship fund does not have an impact. Admittedly $10k is not huge money but to say it benefits me directly is a far stretch. Likewise we are very fortunate to have lotteries in to such a good school and it has been good to my kids and family. I suppose we benefit from the donations but surely you recognize that we benefit proportionately substantially less than we contribute. Indeed all of our donations are personal to me. They were there for us when I needed them and I want to make sure that they are there when others need them. We should be so fortunate to be a belt to do so.

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.

Why- because I noted that the answer was largely non-responsive?