End Of Year Charity Donations

As the end of the year draws near, it's time to make those last minute (deductible) donations.
I have sent checks to:
Terence Cardinal Cooke (a hospital in NYC)
Local Volunteer Rescue Squad
Local PBA

So, where do you send your $$$?---Marc

My favorite charity is The Christian Children's Fund.

Don't know if this falls into the charitable contribution catagory - I guess it does - but Mrs. Powernoodle and I tithe 10% to our church.

best regards

Our local food pantry.

My wife and I have only recently gotten to the point where we can be giving much to charity, and I am not one who wants to schedule that around a tax break. I thought I would share one very interesting place where I will be giving money in the next year. Modest Needs (online at http://www.modestneeds.org) has a fascinating (to me, anyway) giving model. They look to find places where a small (usually less than $1000) grant given to a person's creditor can reasonably be expected to keep that person from going into a bad downward spiral. They get most of their money in $5-100 donations from individuals. If you give them more than $0.25/day, you can influence where the money is given, and if you give more than $1/day, you can adopt specific applications and fund them yourself.

Sorry for the long answer, but as I said, it fascinates me, and I think it is worthwhile spreading the word. I am not affiliated with Modest Needs at all at the moment, though I plan to become a regular donor soon. Oh, and as an added bonus, I just learned that they have an anonymous donor who will be matching pledges dollar for dollar for all of 2006.

Every year, instead of Christmas presents for the adults in my immediate family, I take the equivalent cash and donate to a different charity. Homeless vets, food pantries and various churches (I don't attend one myself) are among the recent ones.

My favorite story was from last year. I had picked a random church in my town, and wearing some of my biker garb, I went into the parish house. I asked the ladies in the front office if they had a holiday fund for needy people. Based ont he way I was dressed, I could tell they thought I was looking for a handout. They hemmed and hawed, and finally said, yes they had a fund, but it was at the pastor's discretion. The looks on their faces was priceless when I pulled out a wad of cash and said, "Add this to the fund if you would".

jayflash said:

Our local food pantry.

Click to expand...

I've got the coupon gene from my mom, and habitually end up with gobs of free groceries. Had coupons to get 50 free bags of Malto-meal cereals. Kept as much as I could get in my cabinets, then the rest went to local foodbanks, my works food drive, and my friends.
Also donated LOTS of toothpaste and deodorant to Katrina victims and xmas drives.