They have an Underground Railroad of safe houses to smuggle people out of NK. Then they resettle and provide support. Finally they film documentaries of their life in SK, put them on USB sticks, and smuggle that back into NK to spread discontent and undermine the system.
Wow that’s awesome. It says “100% of your donation will help a North Korean refugee reach freedom.” To me there’s some wiggle room for “our 200k salary is a necessary part of freedom.” Not trying to be bleak or accusations, but any idea how much of this is skimmed off the top? At any rate, $3,000 to get a person out of the country and going in South Korea doesn’t seem like a bad cost, just curious how it all funnels through.
Typically non profits will advertise this type of thing, essentially a program ratio of 100%. This is positively correlated with total donations.
Usually the way to work around this is to have a large benefactor that agrees to use their funds for overhead/admin/advertising, and then they can say 100% of your donations goes to programs.
A sort of necessary pain for non profits because a "bad" program ratio costs them donations.
If you wish to donate but have doubts about the effectiveness or transparency of many "charitable" organizations I recommend the following website to help guide your ultimate choice: https://www.givewell.org/
That measures only direct results, though. An organization that teaches others to read and write may have a much bigger impact, if they teaches one person who then goes on to do something massive.
Full disclosure, I'm a dues-paying member and active volunteer.
They basically provide Search and Rescue (SAR) "lite" and vehicle recovery on Colorado Forest Service roads and Jeep trails free of charge. They try very hard to not compete with either traditional SAR teams or commercial towing services and instead fill a gap between the two.
Having personally been on 60+ missions over the past two years, they're doing incredibly good work helping people out on their worst day, reducing the burden on traditional SAR teams, and in more than a few cases saving lives. At least 50% of the missions I've been on have been people that simply got in over their head and didn't know what to do. Being able to get them and their vehicle home is a fantastic feeling.
edit: A lot of SAR teams are self-funded or funded via grant money that can disappear, so if you can donate to a local team please do. They desperately need the funding to continue doing the work of saving lives
I haven't made the donation yet for 2018, but I make donations every year right at year's end to at least these two charities:
- Doctors Without Borders
- Direct Relief
Global health problems is where I'm most interested in donating money. I split my money between those two primarily to have a little diversification from idiosyncratic risks to a single operation.
These occupy the vast majority of my charitable giving. I give or have given in the past much smaller amounts to a smattering of other charities: Wikimedia, Give Directly, ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Lambda Legal, Girls Who Code.
Also: I'm an avid crossword solver, and over the last year or two some puzzle constructors, as a way of doing good, have started offering packets of crosswords in exchange for donations to a cause. The original, I believe, was Francis Heaney's Puzzles for Progress http://puzzlesforprogress.francisheaney.com/ for broadly progressive causes, but I have also seen Queer Qrosswords https://queerqrosswords.com/ for LGBTQ charities and Women of Letters https://www.pattivarol.com/women-of-letters/ for feminist charities. If it tips you over the edge to donate, do it and go get some puzzles!
Years ago, I was a poor college student in a Third World country. A Redditor sent me a copy of Godel Escher Bach and it literally changed my life. Don't overlook giving directly.
I made my first donation to Wikipedia this year. Now that you got me thinking about it, I should donate to Internet Archive (archive.org), too. I just went to archive.org right now and they apparently have a fundraiser going. Somehow, donations are being matched 2-to-1 so a $5 donation results in them receiving $15. It doesn't say who's providing the other $10, but it seems like a good time to help the Internet Archive.
I rarely just straight out drop money for some large group or cause but rather prefer to do something closer to me. Usually if there is an opportunity to directly support the cause I do it.
It manifests mainly in 2 ways.
1) I participate in the event and pay a fee
2) I know the local population and people in need and donate both cash and in items/food directly
Neither is for any gain but seeing it first hand is such a great experience that you're inclined to do more. I usually advise people to take care of issues locally first. I also support the cause of supporting remote regions and less covered issues when I travel to such places. Don't want to just give money and "be done" with it - there's more to the cause and a nice conversation can also go a long way.
I gave around $10 to the FSF (in person), and donate all my old clothes to local homeless shelters. I prefer charity to be done directly. Otherwise, I can't really see what is going on with the money.
I donated $20 to the Internet Archvie and $20 to the animal rescue that took in animals after the Chico Fire. I'm also a member of the EFF. In hindsight, this isn't a ton of money :/
I donated because ALS is a horrible disease that has so few treatment options despite the fact that a lot of research has been done. Having your muscles waste away to nothingness is a fate that nobody should be doomed to.
They have an Underground Railroad of safe houses to smuggle people out of NK. Then they resettle and provide support. Finally they film documentaries of their life in SK, put them on USB sticks, and smuggle that back into NK to spread discontent and undermine the system.