PETA: They’d rather spend their money on publicity campaigns than on the animals in their care. PETA killed 73.8% of the animals in their care in 2015 (x)
FCKH8: Is a for-profit company that exploits oppressed groups for money. They’re also wildly uninformed, and spread misogyny, cissexism and bi/panphobia, as well as stealing their posts/designs (x)
Autism Speaks: They spend most of their money on researching a way to eliminate autism, heighten the stigma against autism and don’t have a single autistic person on their board (x)
Please support other, better charities, and feel free to add any others you can think of to this.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure: CEO makes insane amounts of money, they deny a lot of requests for wigs/help with treatment/etc., and have attempted to sue other charities that use the color pink as part of their anti-breast cancer campaign. ( x x x )
The Salvation Army: They promote the hatred of LGBT+ people, work with fundamentalist Christian groups to support conservative politics and rip off and exploit workers. ( x x x )
Wounded Warrior: They take money that should be spent on veterans and blow it on huge opulent parties for the company bigwigs. 26 million in 2014 alone wasted! ( x x x )
^ Important reminder to NOT waste any money donating to these groups
Reblogging because of the added info about Wounded Warrior.
Let’s talk about who you can give to instead!
When I want to give money to cancer research I give it to the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center – partly because they have saved the lives of a couple people I know, partly because they are doing amazing work on cancer research and on stuff like an HIV vaccine and a cure for AIDS. If you want to give specifically to a breast cancer charity, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation is very highly rated and sends most of its donations to actual research.
Want to give money to support wounded veterans? The Semper Fi Fund has an A+ rating from charitywatch.org.
Want to give money to support autism advocates? The Austic Self Advocacy Network is run by the Autistic community, in stark contrast to Autism Speaks’ board. (N.B. that ASAN doesn’t have a large enough revenue stream to get a Charity Navigator rating, so I can’t speak to what their financials are like.)
Want to give money to fight homelessness? GO LOCAL. Find out what shelters and support organizations exist where you are and donate to them. Moreover, find out which of your local politicians – city councilmembers, state house reps, mayors, etc – are working to make real changes, like affordable housing, and give money to their campaigns and vote for them. (Seattle people, Nicole Macri is the state rep you should be voting for.)
Please add more! When people want to help, don’t just tell them “Don’t do this” – give them something to do instead.
I’m gonna shout out Fisher House Foundation. They also have an A+ from CharityWatch and a 4 star rating on Charity Navigator. They provide housing/lodging for military families while their loved one is hospitalized, as well as scholarship programs for military kids and spouses. They’ll also take donations of airline miles and use them to fund tickets for service members/their families to travel for medical treatment.