The full extent of the damage to Haiti won’t be known for weeks, perhaps months, but there is no doubt that help is needed now. Many people, my family included, want to make a donation. Our first stop is the Charity Navigator website, which maintains a list of charities supporting the Haitian relief effort. Charity Navigator rates the major charitable organizations on their efficiency, that is, how much of your donated dollar will be used to actually help people instead of going to fundraising or executive pay.
I was surprised that the American Red Cross only garnered three stars until I saw that the CEO is paid over $500,000/year. Doctors without Borders rates the full four stars and pays its CEO only $115,000/year. The good Doctors will get my money.
Here is the list of four star charities, as rated by Charity Navigator, helping in Haiti, starting with five organizations based in Haiti:
- Haitian Health Foundation
- Hands Together
- Hope for Haiti
- Hope for Haiti Children’s Center
- Love A Child, Inc.
- Action Against Hunger-USA
- ActionAid International USA
- ADRA
- American Jewish World Service
- AmeriCares
- Beyond Borders
- CARE
- CHF International
- Childcare Worldwide
- Convoy of Hope
- Direct Relief International
- Doctors Without Borders, USA
- Feed My Starving Children
- FINCA International
- Food For The Poor
- International Orthodox Christian Charities
- International Relief Teams
- Islamic Relief USA
- MADRE
- Medical Benevolence Foundation
- Operation Blessing International
- Operation USA
- Oxfam America
- Partners In Health
- Samaritan’s Purse
- Save the Children
- United Methodist Committee on Relief
- United States Fund for UNICEF
- Water Missions International
- World Hope International
- World Vision
Disclaimer: I have no personal affiliation with any of the charities listed above. I do not receive any compensation for including them in this list, nor do I receive any compensation if you choose to donate, other than a warm sense of purpose.
Carnivals: This post was included in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance hosted at Million Dollar Journey.
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Mombian » Blog Archive » Helping Haiti
on Jan 15th, 2010
@ 10:39 am:
[...] was going to write a post about donating to Haiti, but my spouse Helen did it instead. She’s pulled out a list of all the organizations providing relief in Haiti that are rated [...]
Polly
on Jan 15th, 2010
@ 4:30 pm:
Thank you for all this research! Much appreciated. Bitch, Ph.D. posted on this as well — that is, how to choose which relief/aid organizations would it be most effective to support. She also provided a link to a post at the blog Good Intentions Are Not Enough (subtitle: An honest conversation about the impact of aid.” Their post: “Choosing organizations to donate to after the Haiti earthquake”. It includes a raft of suggestions of specific orgs, made by people who know the situation in Haiti both before and after the quake.
I appreciate knowing how well Doctors Without Borders channels its resources. Many recommend support for them (including Progressives for Haiti for reasons like that, and because they were an established presence there before the earthquake (e.g. after the earthquake, according to the Progressives for Haiti site, they already had the largest working clinic in Port au Prince).
Thank you again for this.
Helen
on Jan 17th, 2010
@ 7:20 am:
Hi Polly,
Nice to hear from you. Thanks for the bon mots. Thanks also for the links to the other posts on Haiti relief — good sites. Through the link you provided to “Choosing organizations to donate to …” there is also a link to RightsBasedHaiti which is compiling first-hand accounts of the situation on the ground in Haiti — truly harrowing. Haiti has always been our neglected neighbor — I only hope that this devastating earthquake provides a focal point for the US to create a long-term plan to improve the lives of Haitians.
Carnival of Personal Finance – Support Haiti Edition | Finance Blog
on Jan 18th, 2010
@ 5:55 am:
[...] Help Haiti, But Be Smart About It @ Science and Money [...]