I'm trying to identify a charity that would do the most immediate good
with my donation. By "most immediate good" I mean death-prevention for
the most people. I'm making the assumption that $100 in a third world
country will do more of this kind of good than $100 in (my own) first
world country. But I imagine the overhead costs might be much higher,
since I'll almost certainly be dealing with a large international
organization, with an expensive beurocracy. I also imagine that
certain miserable places in the world are less fashionable charity
targets than others (and therefore even needier than mere GDP or
whatever might indicate). And, of course, I'm sure there are plenty of
wonderful sounding, completely corrupt charities, that I'd prefer to
avoid. I don't particularly care whether the charity is affiliated
with any religious group. It seems to me that someone who is starving
to death doesn't have the luxury of being picky about being fed by a
Lutheran or an atheist.

If there are individual charities that stand out, I'd like to know
them, along with some evidence or at least pointers towards evidence.
If there are reputable general resources for evaluating charities on
the above criteria, I'd be interested in hearing about them.

Hello brainheart,

What a great thought! Most of my answer comes in the form of first
hand knowledge. I didn't make a singular recommendation, rather gave
you the same resources I have had access to in the past.

Q. "If there are reputable general resources for evaluating charities
on the above criteria, I'd be interested in hearing about them."


Having spent quite a few years in the Marines, I was introduced to a
program called the CFC (Combined Federal Campaign). Each year I gave a
percentage of my earnings (what little I could) to a worthy charity.

The CFC makes this process relatively easy. We were given a list of
charities and organizations that had met certain criteria for the
year. In order to make the CFC list, the agencies that are seeking
funding needed to meet strict requirements. You can view a list of
some of the requirements here:

http://www.opm.gov/cfc/html/2002appl.htm

(An example of one of the qualifications - The organizations must
spend less than 25% on administration and logistics. If they spend
more, they need to submit a full written agenda as to how this came
about, and a full written agenda with a plan to reduce this. If they
don't , they simply do not get considered for the list.)

The booklet that we received comes with thousands of charities, listed
in many different formats. (alphabetical, region, cause) Each
organization is listed with the percentage of money that actually
makes it through to the base cause.  (In this case hunger) I highly
recommend this booklet. Although you can not give directly through the
CFC, you can visit the charity directly via their website, or contact
them with the information given. Giving outside of the CFC would
actually work out better anyway, as a percentage cut (very small) is
taken from all collections to cover the cost of the annual campaign.

You can download/view the most current portion of the booklet at the
following link. Keep in mind this is a digital copy and not the actual
book. The book seemed to be much larger, and you may be able to write
and ask for one :

CFC Download Page
http://www.opm.gov/cfc/01-lists/2002Nat-list-index.htm


Here are a couple sample listings. These examples may not reflect the
type of charity you seek. I just needed an example :->
-------------------------------------------------

Relief International www.ri.org EIN#95-4300662 - Providing emergency
food, medicine, shelter, and reconstruction assistance to refugees,
displaced persons, and victims of natural and man-made disasters
worldwide. 26.7%

Given the information above, I would prefer not to donate to this
company at this time ue to it's overwhelming administrative and
fundraising expenses, currently at 26.7%.

-------------------------------------------------

United Methodist Committee on Relief www.gbgm-umc.org (United
Methodist Church) EIN#13-5562279 - Outreach program focuses on
alleviation of hunger and poverty, disaster relief and refugee
assistance. Provides leadership training, housing improvement, local
crafts, agriculture and industry development. 4.4%

Now there's a much more reasonable charity that I would consider. This
'booklet' was always neat to look through, and every year I gave to
one charity that I felt needed it most, and would spend it the best. I
hope it offers the same insight for you.

-------------------------------------------------


I hope this answers your question sufficiently. Should you need
further clarification, please ask before rating this answer, as I
would love to be of further assistance.

To help with this answer I searched Google for:

CFC
://www.google.com/search?q=CFC


Thanks for the great question and your kind heart!
SgtCory

---

Clarification of Answer by sgtcory-ga on 12 Nov 2002 08:20 PST

P.S.

Within all these listings comes website urls, and phone contact information.

Thanks again,

SgtCory

Exactly what I was looking for. It would have taken me hours to track
down these resources. And I probably would have contented myself with
something inferior. Thank you!

This is not about saving lives, but about curing and preventing
blindness, so I'm putting it in as a comment rather than an answer. 
Blindness in less developed countries is often due to parasites and
can be prevented by hygiene measures and the use of fairly cheap
drugs.  Blindness due to cataracts can be cured by simple surgery. 
The results are life-changing for huge numbers of people, including
children.  Here is one such organisation that I happen to know of
http://www.sightsavers.org.uk  Its administration takes up 4% of the
money it receives.  The rest goes straight into tackling blindness in
less developed countries.

This may or may not work for you, but I'll tell you what I do: I
regularly make a donation to the humanitarian arm of my church
denomination.  The overhead costs are covered by regular church
contributions, so most of the money ends up in the humanitarian effort
rather than church headquarters.  The church also uses some of the
donations to support other groups (including those from other
churches) where the need is the greatest.  That way there can be a
response to immediate needs.  I assume that some of the money will go
to help communities suffering from storms in the U.S. this week, for
example, and next year to help people in Iraq if war should break out
there.

I don't have time to research your question now, but I wish you the
best and hope our research helps you see that your money is put to
beneficial use.

For a LOT of bang - you should consider Iodine Deficiency Disorder, or
IDD.  IDD affects third world countries, mainly children - who do not
have iodized salt.  Many children die, or get goiters from the disease
- and it is also the #1 leading cause of preventable retardation.  The
reason I'm suggesting IDD is that it is VERY easily preventable - FIVE
CENTS saves ONE LIFE.   Just think of what a difference a contribution
would make!

 The easiest way to donate is through Kiwanis International who are
actively involved in IDD research/fundraising.  For more information
you can visit the following webpages:

   http://www.kiwanis.org/what_is_idd_.html - A simple explaination of
IDD and the many diseases & afflictions it causes
   https://stealth.onet.net/kiwanis/idd.html  - Make a contribution
online!
   http://www.kiwanis.org/publications_materials.html#WSP - A list of
MANY third party sites, newspapers, and other organizations that have
written articles about how effective this program has been.

  A few simple stats:  SO far, the Kiwanis family has saved over 8
million children, in 95 third world countries.  The disease should be
totally eradicated worldwide in just a few years.


Thanks a lot for having a kind heart to donate! No matter what charity
you choose, I'm sure the money will be well spent, and appreciated.  I
wish there were more people like you out there!

-Rebekah

PS - Please let me know where you decide to donate.. I'd be very
interested! :)

It took me over a year of halfhearted poking around, but I found a
great site to evaluate charities:

http://www.charitywatch.org/

Which is the site of the American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP)

They give letter grades, and don't seem to have heard of grade
inflation. The New York times and other reputable publications have
good things to say about them.