I’m learning how to effectively give to charities. This year I did a fair amount of research to find efficient organizations on GuideStar and Charity Navigator. I also asked Mefi for some ideas for specific charities. Then I made donations via American Express: it’s convenient, has good research, and has a reasonably low transaction fee.

I hope it’s not tacky to talk about this, but in trying to figure out what and where to give I had a hard time. Most of my friends don’t talk about this kind of thing, so I thought maybe this blog post would help the conversation. Here’s the charities I came up with:

Services for those in need

Homeward Bound of Marin: homeless services
San Francisco Food Bank
St. Anthony Foundation: homeless services
ModestNeeds.org: microcharity
My Two Front Teeth: Christmas toys
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
Save the Children: international aid
American Red Cross: Hurricane Katrina

Services I use

Wikimedia Foundation
KQED: public radio
Reed College: my alma mater

Social causes

Human Rights Watch
ACLU Foundation
The Point Foundation: gay student scholarships
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Google has a great employee gift matching program, which is part of my impetus to put this all together. Mostly it feels good to do. I wonder whom I’ve forgotten.