Charitable Giving

I have a set of charities to which I donate regularly.  And, I also donate for specific and special reasons:  in memory of someone; in memory of a deceased pet; because of a special event or disaster.  For example a couple of years ago, the local Salvation Army http://www.uss.salvationarmy.org/uss/www_uss_lubbock.nsf extended their shelter hours during a very cold spell. Because of natural disasters like Katrina, Rita, Irene, or Isaac. For the holidays.  If a social service organization does something I especially like, I support them with a donation.

I have been watching a lot of the television coverage of Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Tropical Depression Isaac on The Weather Channel http://www.weather.com/.  They have, at times, talked to American Red Cross workers, and talked about how easy it is to donate to the American Red Cross: you simply text http://www.redcross.org/search/index.jsp?_DARGS=/jspf/modules/nav/primary-navtemp.jsp and it will result in a $10 donation, which will show up on your phone bill.  I think that is really great.  I suspect, especially when that first was introduced, they received an increase in donations. We love technology and what it allows us to do.  I sent in an idea to The Weather Channel: to add a link on their home page so people who check it can donate to The American Red Cross or the Salvation Army (one or both.)  We shall see if that gets added.

I was getting ready to write a check to the American Red Cross for Isaac relief, but checked my emails first.  As I am on the board of the local Catholic Charities organization http://www.cclubbock.org/index.html, I receive a weekly newsletter from Catholic Charities USA http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/.  They set up a special donation opportunity to help with Isaac relief, so I decided to donate through them, instead.

Not very long ago, the director of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Lubbock, commented that when there is a local emergency, the local Red Cross and Salvation Army get good publicity for their disaster aid. But almost always, Catholic Charities gets called, but does not get the publicity that the other two agencies get. I wonder what we can do about that.