Comment Re:10 ways - all local (Score 2) 570
What all these things have in common is that they're all local, they're all just an email or a phone call or a click away, and that they'll have an immediate impact - within days - and they all benefit your community. Charity begins at home.
I think there's a strong argument to be made for charity overseas, because that's where the need is greatest. The typical poor household in America is poor only in relative terms. A typical household at the poverty line will have clean water, electricity, enough to eat, a car, two TVs and cable, a microwave, and a video game system. They are poor in the sense that they have fewer luxuries than the average household, not in the sense that they don't have enough of the essentials.
There's a huge difference between struggling to pay the cable bill and struggling to find enough food to keep your child alive. That's not to say that everyone in the United States does get enough to eat- but compare the situation to the horn of Africa, where it's estimated that 30,000 children have starved to death, and three quarters of a million are malnourished. UNICEF, which has a pretty good track record as charities go, says they can feed a child there for $1 a day, which is not bad considering the logistical challenges and security threats posed by operating in east Africa. I'd argue that if you've only got $100 to give, those people need that $100 a lot more than just about anyone in your local community, and that $100 donated to UNICEF is going to have a much bigger impact on a much larger number of people.