Which local LA charities do you donate to and why? (Los Angeles: how much, costs)

[Christine Joan]

I want to start to donate to local charities that help LA's homeless or local pets or other local causes. Of course, my donations will be very modest initially, (read this as they need to be willing to accept a $5.00 donation) until I make money myself, but am curious to know which charities others contribute to and why.

[UB50]

There are worthwhile charities all over LA. It just depends on what you want to give and what causes you like to support.

If you want to donate to help the homeless, the Union Rescue Mission downtown is a good one to donate to.

[Christine Joan]

I've been making donations to the downtown Los Angeles Mission. I'm not sure if that is the same organization as the "Rescue" Mission. I love the convenience of being able to go to their website and being able to use Paypal to make a donation. But, there are so many homeless here, that I thought, perhaps, I should try to send a few dollars to some other charities as well, funds permitting.

I noticed on Ebay that they had a LA Midnight Mission that I donated to once, but I don't know much about what they do, other than what was stated on Ebay. I think like most others, I want to do something to help but don't have much to give and don't know where those dollars will do the most good and all the names sound the same. Yet, I know that some of these organizations must be doing a better job than others and was hoping for some input so I could place a few dollars with the organizations that are able to make the dollars stretch the furthest and that place most of the money with the population that they serve, instead of on administrative costs.

Thanks for your input.

[maja]

Aides Awareness Foundation accepts donations of goods; i.e., used clothing, books, toys, household items, etc. and will even send a truck to come and pick up the items, however small. They resell the donated goods and 100% goes to help patients.

[UB50]

Christine Joan,

The Union Rescue Mission downtown is the one that runs a lot of the ads you might see throughout the year that says if you donate X amount of money you feed X amount of people. If you ever find yourself downtown in the afternoons, you can see the people lining up outside on (I think it is) Los Angeles Street. They help a lot of people and I think that is the one a lot of celebrities donate time to.

If you spend some time downtown, you will find that there are several homeless help places down there that do good works. I don't know the names of all of them.

[UB50]

Originally Posted by Christine Joan

Yet, I know that some of these organizations must be doing a better job than others and was hoping for some input so I could place a few dollars with the organizations that are able to make the dollars stretch the furthest and that place most of the money with the population that they serve, instead of on administrative costs.

Thanks for your input.

I try to avoid the organizations that have too many administrative costs too.

You might also look at the LA Times charities (since the LA Times absorbs the costs and all monies go to the charities) along with other charities that run with the same model (the company pays for the administrative costs and the charities get all the donations). Those are a really good deal.

I quit donating to United Way once I discovered how much they took out of a donation. It was crazy how much they took out before the charity got any money!