LUXE TREND 26
GIVING IT AWAY
Make charity the perfect gift this year by contributing to one or more of the organizations in this list.
When you have had more than your fill of Gift Guides from magazines, blogs, websites and social media lists, follow the trend established by all high-net-worth individuals and families: Give your money away.
We selected some of the highest-rated charities as reviewed by the teams of GiveWell.com and Charity Navigator.
Charity Navigator works to guide intelligent giving. By guiding intelligent giving, CN aims to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace, in which givers and the charities they support work in tandem to overcome most persistent challenges.
The team of analysts at GiveWell work on two main tracks. On the one hand, they research an array of programs that could potentially help people facing extreme poverty or devastating illness. They try to determine which of the approaches — for instance, providing bed nets to halt the spread of malaria, or offering microloans to low-income individuals — are most effective and cost-efficient. (Bed nets are a stellar investment and microloans are not, according to GiveWell’s research.)
Below our picks to help you end 2016 and begin 2017 feeling so very proud of your good heart.
Puppies Behind Bars (PBB) trains prison inmates to raise service dogs for wounded war veterans and explosive detection canines for law enforcement. Puppies enter prison at the age of eight weeks and live with their inmate puppy-raisers for approximately 24 months.
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest and most effective animal protection organization.
We particularly love the ability to donate from your phone by texting Humane to 80888.
The White Helmets Hero Fund
The disaster that is Syria has captured the hearts and minds of people for the last few years. In 2016, the crisis finally focused on the plight of innocent civilian victims.
The White Helmets are an unlikely group of heroes. These former tailors, bakers, teachers and other ordinary Syrians banded together in 2013 to save the lives others were working so hard to take. They have now saved more than 78,529 lives. But for the work they do, White Helmet volunteers and their civil defense centers are often targeted. Russian and Syrian regime planes bomb civilians, and then they circle back to bomb the rescue workers and medical workers who come to help.
The fund raises money for these brave volunteers who have stepped in to help in ways the international community still hasn’t done.
Charity: Water
Water is our most precious resource. Charity: Water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries.
The organization funds water programs in 24 countries around the globe - in Africa, Asia, Central and South America. Water scarcity, poverty, political stability and strong partner organizations all play a part in where we choose to work. We focus on providing rural communities with their first access to clean waste.
Project Healthy Children
This organization was founded to end micronutrient deficiencies in the developing world. They provide technical support to governments, private industry, and partner agencies in the design and implementation of large-scale and small-scale food fortification programs, primarily in third-world countries.
350.org
An environmental organization, 350.org was founded by a group of university friends in the U.S. along with author Bill McKibben, who wrote one of the first books on global warming for the general public. The number 350 means climate safety: we must reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere from 400 parts per million to below 350.