Supporting Causes and Charities

I'm thinking about charities and other organizations that provide some kind of ministry or service or advocacy. This year I've wanted to step up a little better and increase my own awareness of such groups. If you’re interested even in a small end-of-the-year contribution, or if you're interested in getting behind a particular group, there are lots to investigate!

Groups that address hunger, refugee crises, and other crises include UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (unhcr.org), good old UNICEF (unicef.org; I trick-or-treated for them as a kid!), Church World Service (cwsglobal.org) and the related CROP hunger walks (crophungerwalk.org), American Jewish World Service (ajws.org). There are emergency relief organizations; the United Methodist Committee on Relief (umcor.org), is always a favorite, but other denominations have similar ministries.

What others are important to you? What am I You can check out such organizations not only through the websites but also through Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org/), which examines and clarifies things like financial expenditures, transparency, etc.

Then there are groups like Magdalene St Louis a community for women who’ve survived situations of sexual violence and addition (magdalenestl.org); the Trevor Project (thetrevorproject.org) that provides services to LGBTQ youth; and groups in different communities like food banks and homeless shelters to persons in need. There is a list of groups that address racial justice and the empowering of black communities: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/28-organizations-that-are-empowering-black-communities_us_58a730fde4b045cd34c13d9a

There are also groups like our local Diversity Awareness Partnership (dapstl.org) that works for and educates about diversity and inclusive communities, and also our local Interfaith Partnership (interfaithstl.org), that encourages interfaith understanding and mutuality. Many communities have similar kinds of organizations.

Lately I’ve been interested in learning more about organizations that address human rights and hate group activity, through advocacy of policy as well as education and other ways. There are several such groups, with different approaches and goals, like the Human Rights Foundation (hrc.org), Southern Poverty Law Center (splcenter.org), Anti-Defamation League (adl.org), the ACLU (aclu.org), United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (ushmm.org), and others. Locally, I really appreciate the work of the Jewish Community Relations Council and all their great work to promote interfaith cooperation and fight antisemitism (jcrcstl.org)

Same deal: organizations like these can be investigated at Charity Navigator.

Obviously there are LOTS of areas in which a person can be socially involved, even in a small way, in addition to service in one’s own religious congregation and/or denomination.

I haven’t even gotten into alumni/a giving to one's university or college---we give to Webster U and Eden Seminary, for instance, and also to our colleges and my div school---and also environmental groups, pet rescue services, and others. PLUS, arts and music organizations, PBS and NPR...

I'm probably forgetting or unintentionally omitting some important groups. What am I leaving out?

But my point is: there are lots of ways to choose from, even to make a small positive difference in the world!