Liz Bruenig just published a piece in the NYT about RIP Medical Debt, which buys medical debt from collections agencies, often for pennies on the dollar, and then forgives it. Seems like a great thing to pair donations to e.g. someone's GoFundMe for medical bills with.
I have to admit that since I've only had a full-time salary for a little over a year, I haven't gotten into a great rhythm for charitable donations either, or even decided what percent of my income I want to contribute. I'd be interested in the giving philosophies of other commenters!
Crescent Cove here in MN is only the third children's hospice in the country. They do beautiful work supporting children at the end of their lives and their families.
NDN Collective does great work building indigenous power through organizing, education and impact investing. A big part of their focus is climate justice and healing from an economy of extraction and destruction (including the historic and ongoing destruction of indigenous families).
I'm also part of three local mutual aid groups including one with a families/kids focus. People post what they need and folks fill that need, with an expectation of solidarity, that if you have the chance to give, you give, and if you have a need, you ask. It's a tiny slice of what a solidarity economy could look like.
After spending a good chunk of my career so far working in and around nonprofits, I have a great weariness and wariness of charity organizations that treats the act as one way, a handing down upon those less fortunate. That sort of charity I find fundamentally dishonest, since it invokes a false comparison (I am greater/better than you) and a weak compassion (I give this for my seratonin, not to authentically see & interact with you). A big red flag for me is if an organization doesn't have any of the people they say they serve in board or leadership positions. Another flag: photos or stories that emphasize a person's distress and not their whole self.
Liz Bruenig just published a piece in the NYT about RIP Medical Debt, which buys medical debt from collections agencies, often for pennies on the dollar, and then forgives it. Seems like a great thing to pair donations to e.g. someone's GoFundMe for medical bills with.
I have to admit that since I've only had a full-time salary for a little over a year, I haven't gotten into a great rhythm for charitable donations either, or even decided what percent of my income I want to contribute. I'd be interested in the giving philosophies of other commenters!
Crescent Cove here in MN is only the third children's hospice in the country. They do beautiful work supporting children at the end of their lives and their families.
NDN Collective does great work building indigenous power through organizing, education and impact investing. A big part of their focus is climate justice and healing from an economy of extraction and destruction (including the historic and ongoing destruction of indigenous families).
I'm also part of three local mutual aid groups including one with a families/kids focus. People post what they need and folks fill that need, with an expectation of solidarity, that if you have the chance to give, you give, and if you have a need, you ask. It's a tiny slice of what a solidarity economy could look like.
After spending a good chunk of my career so far working in and around nonprofits, I have a great weariness and wariness of charity organizations that treats the act as one way, a handing down upon those less fortunate. That sort of charity I find fundamentally dishonest, since it invokes a false comparison (I am greater/better than you) and a weak compassion (I give this for my seratonin, not to authentically see & interact with you). A big red flag for me is if an organization doesn't have any of the people they say they serve in board or leadership positions. Another flag: photos or stories that emphasize a person's distress and not their whole self.