What's the best place to donate/invest to make the most positive world change?

Great question and I hope it leads to much discussion! I guess you are not looking for personal returns; but if so there are many stock funds that will tell you that theirs are the best.

Or, if you are aiming to 'do good' I would suggest that a focus could be on poor folk (mostly not in North America) with very limited access to clean energy, clean water and sanitation, Starting from there, we can find companies making things like solar cookers, water heaters, small-scale photovoltaics, water purifiers, and gosh I do not know, there are a bunch of others.

You might just saddle up that bike and visit the David Suzuki Foundation on West 4th. They may be more "Canada-centric' than you're looking for, but I expect you would find some kindred spirits there, and maybe more ideas that fit your plans.

Anyway, thanks for asking. PS that Supra looks like a whopper

 

All you need to do is donate to "The KK6PD Toys For The Rich Campaign"

I can help!!!

 

For US based* charities, Charity Navigator can track how much of your donation is used to fund 'overhead'. This can at least tell you if they are squandering your money, although it does not address how effective the money is in achieving their goals. (or yours)
Charity Navigator - America's Largest Charity Evaluator | Home

*It uses US tax forms, so would not work outside the US.

 

The Better Business Bureau has an excellent guide to non-profit organizations, too.

 

Your local Bible-believing church of course.

 

I know this isn't the same as a donation but you can use that 10% and use it as purchasing power to affect the change you want to see and then consider the excess cost paid a donation (without the tax benefit, of course).

I assume you have the environment on your mind since you've posted here. In this area, I purchase shade grown, organic, fair trade coffee from Grounds for Change and purchase locally grown, organic produce (starting this year). These are just two examples. Both are more money than traditionally grown commodities but by supporting them I make sure people make a fair wage on their product, contaminate the environment as little as possible, save rain forest habitat and don't have to succumb to big corporate interests when growing my food/beverage.

 

Greenpeace is worth serious consideration. They tackle some pretty big issues worldwide, and in an effective, non-violent manner. They're not very popular with governments or in the business world, but that's probably a good sign that what they're doing is working. You won't get a donation receipt, but that's not your motivation, right?

You've made a big positive step yourself, Tekdeus, in parking the car and cycling instead. :clap2:

 

I'd say actively support LOCAL green businesses near you.

Install solar PV on your house and depending on budget you could install PV on your local school or worthy community project. Perhaps help install a PV system on your church or synagogue - an investment in the future? The sky is the limit depending on your budget.

Are you a business owner or influencial in the business you work at? If so consider encouraging hybrids, pv and energy efficiency. This helps your company, supports the energy efficient product suppliers etc and you're leading by example.

Personally I'm not a supporter of charities abroad as I feel they have a vested interest in keeping the status quo! I might be just too cynical but thats my view.

 

The problem I have with Greenpeace is that since most chapters are in bed with PETA, they are also in bed with the Voluntary Human Extinction movement. Sorry, I don't wanna die (most days, anyway) and I don't believe that wiping out humanity would make Earth some sort of paradise. Another intelligent, motivated, near-sentient race would simply take over, and start again.

 

Me either. But I don't think all the good Greenpeace does is erased by any alleged involvement with PETA or fringe groups. Still, population control sounds like a good idea, but without extinction being the goal.

 

This is a good place to start, but it doesn't involve charities under a certain size ($500K annual budget, or something like that). I'm not sure about the BBB. I know our group just had a discussion as to whether to submit info to our local BBB, I'm not sure if that gets distributed any farther than that. We're a local group with an annual budget under $100K, been around 40 years.

Groups that use a lot of volunteer labor will get more done for the dollar.

I personally feel education for the poor is even better than health care and clean water, because then people can get jobs and build their own things (and educated women tend to have fewer kids also). There's some neat ideas in replacement housing for earthquake victims, that would also have longer term results but I'm not sure if they're in the field yet. I also like the one that makes super cheap wheel chairs for 3rd world people (most of whom otherwise drag themselves around on the ground). There's just tons of ideas that dedicated people are working on.

 

Volunteering your time can also be effective. There are no doubt all manner of local endeavours only too happy for another mind and pair of helping hands. Soup kitchens, homeless shelters, hospitals, community gardens, civic committees.....you could try a few while you're thinking of the most effective.

 

Problem is that lack of clean water leads to a cycle of poverty. I haven't researched this charity for donation viability but their website does offer insight into this problem: Poverty and Water in Africa.

 

I sincerely hope that was a joke.

 

If you want the biggest impact per dollar, then you want to target the low-hanging fruit. That might take the form of donating to some type of activist organization. Not talking against that. But I prefer looking for more concrete things, where the impact is more measurable.

In the US, from the standpoint of reducing the use of fossil fuels, almost certainly the biggest bang for the buck is in weatherizing the existing housing stock and converting old-fashioned incandescent lighting to fluorescent. Simple stuff that some people will not do unless prompted or aided.

I've been working through my church. Sponsored a light-bulb and power-strip giveaway. You'd be surprised, even among an educated middle-class congregation, how many people weren't willing to try CFLs until we gave them away. We've got a "lending library" of a few simple tools (e..g, kill-a-watts, some IR thermometers) -- but that's kind of moribund. We're working out the details for sponsoring reduced-price professional energy audits for congregation members. Basically, whatever you can do to prod people to weatherize, who would not otherwise weatherize without the prodding.

I am sure there must be local charities that do the same thing. In the DC area, Habitat for Humanity has an initiative to help poor people pay for weatherization. Try "low income weatherization" or similar, maybe there's something in your area.

Not that that would be the sole use of your funds, but it's likely to be a pretty decent one. Very little glamor in weatherization. I figure that if an organization is in the business of caulking and insulating poor people's houses, they probably aren't in it for the money.

 

I watched 60 Minutes last Sunday and saw their piece stating that the number of American children living in poverty will soon reach 25%! Children were interviewed and were describing the feeling of hunger...in the richest nation in history!

I'm researching local food banks, buying/supporting local organic and humanely raised food, bicycling, and I sold my Lexus and bought a Hymotion powered Prius.

Solar power is on my list...still too expensive in Seattle...but I hope to power my car using solar within 5 years.

I believe all these small steps begin to add up eventually.

 

OK, if you do this, you'll have the respect and admiration of lots of people, like me!

But there's a problem I've never been able to solve: offsets. It just seems like anything you might do with your 10% would be partially, if not completely diminished by some offsetting effect:

Drive a Prius and use less gas? The demand for gas is lower, so other people can afford to keep buying gas guzzlers. (Of course one person doesn't move the market, but think of ALL Prius owners, collectively.)

Drive a Prius and emit less air pollution? The air in your city is a bit less polluted, so there's a delay in government regulations requiring other sources of pollution to be cleaned up. Same for global warming.

Give everything you have to feed the poor? Hey, let's all the rest of us vote ourselves a tax break and cut government assistance programs -- Tekdeus and his friends are taking care of the problem!

I don't suppose the offset is fully 100% but for the little bit of time and money I have to donate, I try to think of things that will, hopefully, be less offset. Organizations that try to make government do the right thing seem like a better choice. But even there, I'm not so sure. Suppose you donated you 10% to a lobbying group that got a law passed making it illegal to manufacture a car that gets less than 50 MPG. I imagine there might be a backlash, and in the next election cycle they'd repeal all efficiency standards.

Remember what happened in the US a few years ago with car bumpers? The law had been that bumpers must withstand a 5 MPH impact without damage. There was a move to raise it to 10 MPH, but they negotiated, changing it, not to 7.5 MPH, but instead to just 2.5 MPH.

Perhaps the satisfaction of whatever good charities you support is reward enough, but I hope whatever you choose will have the minimum of negative offsets.

 

I sincerely hope he wasn't.

 

Really? A few years ago = 1982. No mention of 10 MPH bumpers in Wikipedia:
Bumper (automobile) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

No mention at the NHTSA:
Bumper Questions and Answers

My advice to the OP: Do what you think is right, until such time as someone can show you, with accuracy, that your efforts are futile. We can just as easily tell stories about positive feedbacks from your individual efforts as we can about negative feedbacks. E.g., perhaps your tithing for environmental causes will encourage others to do the same.