Charities?

[Dean F.]

What are some good charities to support that advocate for our “lifestyle.”  (I never thought I’d ever use that word seriously.)  By which I mean lobbying for the preservation of public lands, wildlife conservation without blanket opposition to hunting, and of course trails.  In North America particularly, and preferably with small administrative overhead.  Anyone know anything about the American Hiking Society?  They seem mildly anti-mountain bike, and even though I don’t bike I’m not sure about that.  Having hiking-only trails, sure, but not if they’re rabid about suppressing biking.

How about the Wildlands Network?

I’m interested in more specialized causes as well (CDT Coalition, etc.).

I really just need a list of ideas that I can research.  Y’know, in case I hit the PowerBall.  :)

[Peter J]

Dean,

That is a great question, and thank you in advance for supporting groups that help make it possible for all of us to enjoy the great outdoors!

During your search please evaluate the groups based on their effectiveness and not on their administrative overhead. In selecting a good piece of gear the focus is usually ‘Does this work and meet my needs?’ and not, ‘Did they really need to purchase that new sewing machine?” Similarly for advocacy organizations the focus should be ‘How effective are they at achieving their goals?’ and not what ‘Do they really have to pay that much in rent?’ As you narrow things down feel free to call individual groups and talk to them about their successes and failures. They should be more than happy to answer your questions.

If you want to get into the details of why administrative overhead isn’t the best thing to consider go to: http://overheadmyth.com/

I’ll refrain from recommending individual groups because I work in conservation for a living and I am a bit biased :)

-Peter

 

[Greg Mihalik]

… president and CEO of the Charity Navigatgor, Ken Berger— one of the signers of the [Overhead Myth] industry letter — defends the practice of looking at overhead as a way to evaluate charities.
“People may disagree on what the best metric of overhead should be,” Berger wrote, “ but to say overhead is irrelevant is to deny a useful indicator of where many thieves and scoundrels dwell.”

 Article Here

 
Natural Resources Defense Council  – Is often the “point team” identifying critical needs, and often highlights the course of action required.
 

[Peter J]

I agree that it is one of the metrics available for evaluating non profit organizations, it just shouldn’t be the primary one. As the bizjournal article also points out it is the overall performance of an organization that is at the heart of the matter. Admittedly this is something that is sometimes difficult to get at without a lot of research.

I look forward to seeing the suggestions that people make!

-Peter

[Paul Wagner]

We support CSERC:  http://www.cserc.org/

and the Yosemite Conservancy:  http://www.yosemiteconservancy.org/

Both seem pretty serious.  Most of what they do seems based in real science, and they both have  positive effect on areas that we frequent.  So we’re while you are thinking more or less globally these are how we act locally…

[Dean F.]

Good stuff all around.  I can’t figure out if NRDC is anti-hunting, though.  (I think that’s silly, so that would be a deal-breaker.)  Certainly they oppose a bunch of hunts but I can’t figure out if that is a blanket policy or just specific to those hunts.

I kind of like this, linked from their site.  And most the hunts that they oppose seem reasonable- just opposing the ranchers’ anti-predator lobby, mostly.  I just need to find out how anti-hunter they are.  They certainly seem to have opposed (and made snarky comments about) just about every ‘new’ hunt that’s been proposed that I can think of, even when the biologists ask for it like with the proposed Yellowstone grizzly cull. And frankly some of their verbage just bothers me- it’s dramatic “Before the killing begins!!!” kind of stuff, which makes me wonder.  And then they turn around and support other perfectly reasonable stuff like hunting measures for rabies control and preventing birdstrikes at airports.  So I can’t quite wrap my head around them, but preliminarily I’m thinking that they’re reasonable and might be a perfect fit for “wildlife conservation without a blanket opposition to hunting.”

 

(I edited my OP to add the ‘no blanket hunting opposition’ criterium.  Clearly that’s more personal for me, and I know that others disagree.)

[BlackHatGuy]

I don’t have any specific charities to suggest, but wanted to toss out a related idea. Have you considered supporting nonprofits that get kids and others into the outdoors, as a way of building a bigger audience interested in the preservation of public lands, etc.?

[Dean F.]

Doug- Yes, that would certainly be on the table.

[ben .]

re: kids in the outdoors, i just heard about this organization:

http://www.bigcitymountaineers.org/

 

i know nothing about them but it sounds fantastic.

[Gabe P]

 

Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation

http://www.bmwf.org

 

[Dean F.]

Huh. Never even heard of the BMWF. Who woulda thunk it?

[Nick Gatel]

Rhetorical question…

Why do we need charities to protect our wilderness areas or to assist our injured/disabled veterans? Something is wrong.

Anyway, I used to donate to the Nature Conservancy.

Nowadays, I donate to those who cannot help themselves; a local charity for disabled children and the MS Society.

 

[Nick Gatel]

 

double post. edited.

[Paul Magnanti]

Welcome back Nick. Always good to read your input.

[Art …]

like many things, charity begins at home.

are there any local small organizations in your area that are fighting for a specific cause ?

[Nick Gatel]

Thanks, Paul.

I took a 6 month hiatus because there was just too much negativity on BPL, but the overall tone looks better now, other than a lot of dissatisfaction with the WordPress software.

It’s posts like this that are good for BPL.

I don’t think charity is a moral responsibility, but I wish we could get to the point where charities would replace all our governmental social programs. At one time I gave to conservation organizations for my own self-interests, and that is a proper thing to do. Now I only donate to a local charity, Angelview Crippled Children’s Foundation and the MS Society to help people who can’t help themselves. I am not rich, especially since I am now retired. When I was working and paying tens of thousands of dollars each year in income taxes, it would have been nice to have a say-so in where the money was spent.

But back to Dean’s original post, it is sad that we need non-profits to protect our public wild lands from special interests. I gave a lot of money (to me) decades ago when the Nature Conservancy bought up a lot of land near me and now many of the Palm Oasises are protected — this also prompted the state to purchase other properties nearby which are now administered by the NC. So I am more sympathetic to these kinds of organizations, than let’s say the PCTA whose focus is mostly limited to just maintaining a specific trail, and maybe their efforts might raise conservation awareness.

One thing no one has mentioned, and you recently wrote about in your blog, volunteering time and not money to a favorite organization is a good strategy to make a difference.

Anyway, hopefully more people will chime in with some suggestions for organizations that are worthy for us to support.

[Paul Magnanti]

Well, since you mentioned it, I’ll post it http://www.pmags.com/giving-back :)

Time and skills is what I find really helps non-profit organizations.  And goes a long way to helping, too.  Otherwise the non-profits, have to pay for office type help, IT work, accounting, etc.

 

 

[Dean F.]

Unfortunately- as, I suspect, with many people- time is one thing I don’t have much of to give.  I’m a surgeon, in the Army.  Those of you who don’t work in healthcare may not understand the impact of the former upon my schedule, but regarding the latter I just got back from Afghanistan last month and I’ll probably be on another deployment- my sixth- inside of a year.  We’re short of surgeons, so we go a lot.  At least it’s more interesting than yet another appendix, right?  :)  When not deployed I work reasonably vicious hours and average a weekend of call every month.  So I allot one weekend a month for myself (well, sometimes) and the other two belong to my wife and daughter.  Even then, if I have a particularly sick patient admitted over the weekend then I’m not going anywhere.  So I fantasize about working on a trail crew.  Perhaps I could stuff envelopes somewhere on one of ‘my’ weekends, though.  I’ll look around.  Lord knows 838 nearly had me in the streets with a rifle and a sack of Molotovs.  And where is the “boycott Delaware North” movement?

Anyway, I do have disposable income though, so that’s what I can contribute.  Even after I get my McHale pack.  :)

Still, Mag’s point is well taken- great blog post.  And, yes, we support a local kitchen, Nick.  And I’ve given to the Nature Conservancy before as well.  (With a couple of exceptions we seem to change our charities every year.  I gave to Zero Population Growth once..)

CFC will be coming around again sometime soon, so thanks for the great ideas.

[Nick Gatel]

Hey Dean,

We appreciate your service!

For most of my working life I had more disposable income than time to give. Nothing wrong with that all.

Your post brought a smile to my face. When I was a cadet at that big Zoomie school down the road from you, my best friend and roommate, and I often wondered and discussed where our futures would lead us. He retired a full bird Colonel and spent most of his career as a…

Gynecologist.

Who would have guessed? It does sound more interesting than removing appendixes though :)

[Author]

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