Help Japan

[Minskleip]

The foreign legion yeeeeeah

Me, I'd never give charity to anything I wouldn't die for. Charity organisations are run by scum.

[False_Dmitry_II]

How did this go from "positive messages for Japan and I hope they do better" to "fuck charities"?

[webwit]

Why can't it be both?

[False_Dmitry_II]

Mainly because I actually give a fuck about Japan.

[Minskleip]

Mainly because I actually give a fuck about Japan.

Then why do you give money to charity?

[webwit]

Now you're doing exactly what they want you to do. The guilt game. Perhaps you failed to understand the point was not about Japan, it was to prevent you getting conned by people who use Japan and don't give a fuck. They only give a fuck about their own ass. If they don't, next year there will be less budget, and people might lose their job or get less bonus.

[False_Dmitry_II]

I never said that I did donate. Which I haven't.

What I said was that this thread was supposed to be about support and wellwishing. Not hatred even if it is for people perceived as stealing the money. Frankly I'm the last person I thought would ever be saying something like what I just did.

[sixty]

Redcross has a pretty mixed reputation here as well. Many people are very skeptical about the big charity organizations in general after many turned out to use the money in questionable ways as described earlier in the thread.

German TV earlier offered some number of donate money to some agency in Japan directly, however I did not catch most of it since I was just leaving home.

Another article on Bloomberg Blogs "Do not donate to Japan", has this guy in the comments:

GlobalGiving has a long history of raising funds for international disasters and disbursing them to high-impact organizations. For instance, here are all of the projects we supported after the Haiti earthquake. http://www.globalgiving.org/haiti-earthq uake/ As a part of our platform, we require all projects to post reports noting what we’ve done with the funds. You can read about the impact these projects had here: http://www.globalgiving.org/haiti-earthq uake-updates/

For Japan, we set up a fund to collect donations from the public and will be distributing those funds to a variety of organizations on the ground. As of this moment, these funds with go to International Medical Corp, Save the Children, and Mercy Corps and their partner Peace Winds Japan. We are also sourcing grassroots organizations in Japan that are NOT getting the same kind of media coverage that the Red Cross is getting. It is our goal to support community-based efforts around the world and provide transparent updates. We will be posting more details to our fund as they become available.

We are very happy to discuss this with anyone. Feel free to email me at kconroy@globalgiving.org or tweet at us at http://www.twitter.com/GlobalGiving.

Thanks,
Kevin Conroy
GlobalGiving

Sounds more promising to me, especially the promise of a more transparent view.

[Yomi39]

Note that Japan has not requested any help from remote organisations, so for example if you donate to the US Red Cross, Japan will not get anything out of it (unless they request it, which at this point seems unlikely).

[ripster]

Save The Children is better. They have been in Japan for a long time and know the country.

[yellowFreak]

This link still holds with 2 more added organizations, Unicef and Save The Children besides Japanese Red Cross Society

http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/ja ... e2011.html

The money goes for charity nonetheless. What I am saying is that you should not hesitate in aiding regardless of your paranoia or disapproval of one organization and have it affect your determination. Invesigate if it can ease your mind but dont let it affect with a key button away...

[webwit]

In the Netherlands they released a the top 10 of best paid CEOs/management of charities, and Unicef was taking the two top spots. They get paid more than our prime minister. You should hesitate in aiding these organizations because they play on your emotions regarding disasters.

Japan will be fine in regard to not needing your charity money. This is a proud, rich, independent country. Did the USA need our charity for Katrina because they are an underdeveloped country? And your payment now will not end up in Japan anyway. That your donation now will save someone in Japan or help someone there build a new life, is a fantasy you are not willing to face. Your donations now will be accumulated in bank accounts, and a CEO will be glad with the results of the promotion.

Here's how to help Japan: buy their goods and services.

[sixty]

Invesigate if it can ease your mind but dont let it affect with a key button away...

I can agree to this. Donating to charity (depending on the organisation) in general is not a bad thing and everyone who feels the need to do so, should do it.

In related news, interesting article from gizmodo:

Twitter is full of anxious donors, retweeting to text REDCROSS to 90999 to make $10 donation. Now, there's nothing wrong with this donation: The American Red Cross is a superb organization. But Japan hasn't actually asked them for help just yet.

In other words, you may think your money is helping disaster relief in Japan. But from the press releases we've seen today, no US-based nonprofits are actually deploying to Japan yet.

The diction is almost universal across some of the biggest, most respected relief organizations in the world. Just take a look at The American Red Cross' last press release:

"The American Red Cross stands ready and willing to assist following a magnitude 8.9 earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunami that affected other countries in the Pacific region...To date, the Red Cross has not received any requests for blood from the Japanese Red Cross, the Japanese government or the U.S. State Department."

So everyone who's texting to donate to the Red Cross isn't actually reaching Japan. Not yet. And they might not—ever.

This example isn't intended to single out The American Red Cross. From what we can tell, every major relief organization with an American chapter is doing the same thing: raising funds for if and when they're deployed to Japan or anywhere else affected by the day's events. Doctors Without Borders may be an exception, as they've sent a scouting crew ahead.

We were unable to reach The American Red Cross or a few other organizations for comment, but we did talk to Charity Navigator about the ordeal, one of the leading authorities on nonprofits—particularly on how nonprofits are spending their money.

They confirmed, it doesn't appear that Japan has asked anyone for outside assistance just yet.

[yellowFreak]

An online video game Company NCSoft has just donated an amount that corresponds to one month of sales. 500 million Yen (approx 4.5 million Euros/3.9 million GBP/6.3 million USD) has been donated for restoration.

I gotta say that is very generous for a company who makes its living by taking not giving...

http://uk.aiononline.com/board/notices/ ... 1331&page=

[NeverDie]

I wish I could donate to Japan but have no job =/

[ripster]

Fold paper cranes.

[runeazn]

Fold paper cranes.

QFT :O

[ripster]

Paper is cheap.