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Kel · Coach

Donating to Hurricane Victims

Cricket · Gucci

Yesterday I donated to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund. I just put a donation on my CC.

www.redcross.org

halleybird · Hermes

My husband & I are donating on Friday (after payday) to the ASPCA & Humane Society relief efforts, and probably the Red Cross as well.

I heard today that it's crucial to specify that your donation is going to the hurricane relief -- true?

Kel · Coach

All i heard so far is that Wal-mart donated a million dollars. Do you know if any other big corporations or celebrities donated money.

Cricket · Gucci

halleybird wrote:

My husband & I are donating on Friday (after payday) to the ASPCA & Humane Society relief efforts, and probably the Red Cross as well. I heard today that it's crucial to specify that your donation is going to the hurricane relief -- true?

Yes, Red Cross has a fund specifically for THIS national disaster. They also have a disaster relief fund for general disasters, a military relief fund (which is GREAT. Helps military families stay in contact during deployment), international relief and others. So yes, you do have to specify and it's very easy to donate to whatever fund you choose.

Claudia · Gucci

I was watching the news today and they said if you're planning to donate to check out the charity first. They gave the website, give.org so you can check out a certain charity.

http://www.give.org/news/katrina.asp there's a direct link.

sephorablue · Marc Jacobs

crap, I actually donated to the red cross on Sunday night before the storm even hit, cause I was just thinking about how bad it was going to be--but that meant there was no Katrina fund yet so I didn't get to earmark it. Damn.

I also donated to an organization called Noah's Wish--it's an animal rescue outfit that focuses exclusively on rescuing and taking care of animals affected by natural disasters. I saw the founder on CNN the other day and I think it was a really good idea for her to start something like this.

NCshopper · Hermes

I'm going to donate blood tomorrow and I've recruited two coworkers to go too. I'm not sure how much they need it now, but I suppose it can't hurt. (Well...it might hurt a little...)

jj · Kate Spade

Here's an article about what some companies are doing. It's just the tip of the iceberg:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168106,00.html

It's actually part of my job to track corporate donations for disaster relief. I can post something later, but of course we are slammed right now and web sites are moving slowly.

Also, if you are thinking about donating, find out if your company has a matching gift fund set up so you can maximize your gift.

To make sure your $$$ goes to the right people, check out this article from the Washington Post. www.give.org is another great resource.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/29/AR2005082902136.html

member · Hermes

The company I work for has donated $1 million to the Red Cross and they've also set up a fund for employees to donate to, which they will match up to another $1 million. I donated yesterday.

Irene · Dooney & Bourke

I wish I could but I have given so much to charities this year, I am all out of money, honey.

Besides, my company is giving a lot...

"In response, Citigroup will donate up to $3 million to the American Red Cross to support its relief efforts throughout the region. In addition to a $1 million immediate donation, the Citigroup Foundation will match any eligible donation made by a Citigroup employee dollar for dollar to the American Red Cross to support its relief efforts up to $1 million for a potential total of $3 million."

-- Edited by Irene at 13:11, 2005-09-01

bex · Chanel

my company just sent me an email for a direcet payroll debit from our paychecks. it is going to the red cross disaster relief fund.

bumblebee · Coach

http://www.networkforgood.org/

i heard the CEO of this organization on the radio this morning--it seems like a great place to research different charities and earmark your donation for exactly what you want it to go to. its corporate sponsors are AOL and Yahoo, and they thoroughly check out all the charities they endorse so at least you can feel confident donating through them.

i talked to my dad last night, and we are going to decide as a family when we get together this weekend where to donate and how best to pool our resources together, which is what we usually do.

OH! one more thing: i got an e-mail from united airlines this morning, and if you donate over $50 to the red cross through united's website, they will give you 500 frequent flyer miles. in case anyone is interested.

-- Edited by bumblebee at 13:28, 2005-09-01

hotcocoa · Kate Spade

Kel wrote:

I guess this would be a current event. I was wondering if anyone was planning to donate anything to the hurricane victims? And if so, what? I know money is supposed to be the best thing, but since all these people lost everything, I was wondering if I could donate clothes and such?

kel, i initially thought that i wanted to donate items instead of money (specifically i was thinking of baby items — diapers, blankets, clothes etc.) but i don't think there is a logical and cost effective way to distribte those items to the victims. i ended up making a monetary dontation to the red cross online.

another option which i think is fantastic idea is donating spare change at a coinstar machine. you can choose to donate the change instead of cashing in. we periodically dump our spare change into a huge bucket and basically "forget" that it's piling up. EVERYONE has some spare change lying around. it doesn't take much to add up to $20, $50 or $100 or more.