There are as many ways to give as there are charities.
Charitable contributions, whether big or small, can help mold the world from what it is to what it can and, more importantly, should be. For just $10, you can buy a life-saving mosquito net that can prevent a child from contracting malaria. Just $20 can provide one person clean drinking water for 20 years. And it doesn't just take money. Donate your time, skills or even that resolution to lose weight into something that will benefit the neediest in your community.
American Red Cross
The American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) grades charitable organizations based on criteria, such as how much of its funds are spent on charitable purposes, and has awarded the American Red Cross an A-. This makes it one of the top-rated charities out of the hundreds the AIP has graded. Clara Barton founded this noble institution in 1881; and since then, it has answered the call when natural disasters strike around the world as a premier emergency response organization. This organization welcomes a variety of donations, from money and time to even blood. The American Red Cross also offers life-saving classes through its CPR and emergency preparedness training.
Charity: Water
Over a billion people on the planet do not have access to clean drinking water or basic sanitation. This results in 80 percent of all diseases around the world and kills more people each year than any form of violence combined. Worse, the victims of this tragedy are the youngest and most vulnerable. Of the more than 40,000 deaths that occur each week from lack of clean drinking water, all but 10 percent are children. The New York-based non-profit Charity: Water seeks to alleviate this needless suffering by bringing safe drinking water to developing nations. In 2011 President Obama highlighted the work of Charity: Water in his National Prayer Breakfast, noting that more than one million people have benefited from the organization's charitable work. For a simple $20 donation, you can provide clean drinking water to one person for an amazing 20 years.
Nothing But Nets
In the United States mosquitoes are mild annoyances. Around the world, however, they can prove deadly, with more than 200 million illnesses from mosquito bites that transmit malaria. In Africa malaria is the leading killer of children, who are in fact the most vulnerable victims of this deadly disease. For just $10 you can provide life-saving and insecticide-treated mosquito nets to protect these tiniest of victims. You can also become a NET-Raiser and recruit teams of family and friends to donate even more of these critical nets.
Feeding America
The United States faces a crisis of stark contrasts. On one hand, it faces a growing epidemic of obesity and all of the concomitant health complications, such as a frightening increase of stroke in younger Americans. At the same time, tens of millions of Americans live in poverty, who go without proper nutrition and are subject to food insecurity. This means one in six Americans struggles with hunger. The Pound For Pound Challenge has partnered with Feeding America to reconcile these two contrasts. Each year you can join the Pound For Pound Challenge with a pledge to lose those excess pounds, and with each pound you lose PFP will donate 11 cents to your local food bank. This equals one pound of food for a needy family in your area. If you do not need to lose weight, you can donate directly to Feeding America, which is a network of hundreds of food banks across the nation.
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