OK folks, this one is important so listen up. I get calls all the time from “charities” soliciting money for their cause. When you ask a few questions you find out this is a front company for the “charity” and they are skimming as much as 80% to 85% of your donation to cover “administrative fees”!!! Talk about getting screwed. We might donate $100 (it makes the math easy), and $15 or $20 might make it to those who need it. That to me is not acceptable so I don’t give them any of my hard earned duckets.
Now, that isn’t to say that I don’t give money to charity, on the contrary, I do. But I have been burned in the past so I try to check them out now. That’s why this post is important, I found a great charity that helps children in need, it was started by a pair of cool guys (Yep, the same pair that brought us Penny Arcade) and they take almost nothing in “administrative fees”. Instead of taking 85% off the top, these guys take as little as possible and make sure it doesn’t go over 2% or 3%. Yeah, you read that right, it’s not a typo. Have I got your attention now? Good.
The charity is called Child’s Play, and they work to help children who are stuck in hospitals with long term illnesses cope with the mental anguish, fear, boredom and everything else they go through. Tons of money goes into the medical research side of things which is good, but these guys are trying to help the other side, the kids and coping with whatever hardship they are going through. They are hooked up with over 70 hospitals all over the world with more getting added all the time. Most donations are made through a third party like Amazon.com. You can go to the Child’s Play website to pick the hospital of your choice, and then buy something on amazon for that hospital. It can be a toy, a game, a game console, books, whatever moves you, it’s all good. However, instead of shipping it to your location, you can instead ship it directly to the hospital. Wanna know the best part? 100% of that donation just went to the hospital that you picked. You can donate money too, and other things/ways/etc that are spelled out on their website, and almost everything goes straight to the intended target.
So, check it out, take a look at the site, spread the word and when you feel like giving, do some good with a charity that is working as hard as you are to help kids that need all the help they can get.
Thank you.