Charities for Children query
 

I donate regularly to St Judes and I'm thinking of adding the Shriners to my regular donations. I've checked the usual rating sites but would like to hear from anyone here that has any experience with them. Other recos would be appreciated too.

I am a St. Judes donator myself. I think both organizations do great work and most if not all donations go to helping not administartion fees and salaries.

I don't think you ca go wrong with either.

Both of those are HUGE fund raising machines. Granted they do great work as any children's hospital does. We give to our local children's hospital that I also happen to work at. I'm always surprised by the number of local people that I know who's kids have been patients. Babies born premature and underweight that need to spend time in the NICU to ortho problems to metal heath issues. Keep it local and you could be helping out the guy at work's kid one day.

Don't donate money, but I do buy LOTS of the charity Frosties from Wendy's that supports the Childrens Home Society. Adoption agency, they handled Dave Thomas of Wendys and me.

St Judes is awesome for sick kids.
I also want to support places that help kids who have no parental guidance. In TN we have the Boys & Girls Club. I know that they have a place for kids to go after school to get them off the streets. They mentor them, encourage skills like music, art, sports (all of which build self esteem and reduce tendency toward crime and pregnancy). A good friend of mine is a very successful local business owner and he says they saved his life. They have open financial accountability and most everyone is unpaid. (I like to avoid organizations that are top heavy with salaries and administration costs and only a small percentage actually goes to help the needy).

Edit: https://www.bgca.org/

Most of my donations go to:

https://www.miracleshappenhere.org/

I buy some presents from a list presents for the kids. That way I know some kid in a hospital will get a present for Christmas. We toured the hospital a few year back and made it out PCA region's charity.

Charity Navigator is the gold standard for rating charities for donations. The give St. Jude's four stars (out of four) https://www.google.com/search?q=charity+rating+st+judes&rlz=1C1CHZN_enUS9 71US971&oq=charity+rating+st+judes&aqs=chrome..69i 57j0i10i22i30j0i390l5.5419j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie =UTF-8

And they give the Shriners four stars plus their highest recommendation "Give With Confidence" rating. https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/362193608

The only reason they didn't give St. Jude's their Give With Confidence recommendation is because Pro Publica did an article accusing St. Jude's of not doing enough to help their families. The complaint is that while St. Jude's covers the child's medical care and one parent's lodging, it doesn't offer lodging for the second parent and doesn't do anything for income replacement for the parents when they take time off to take their child to the hospital. St. Jude's simply doesn't offer those services. Pro Publica seems to think they should, and that they have enough money to do so. While the concern is real, it doesn't seem to be a fair nock on the charity. Charities are rated on how much of a percent of their income they spend on programing and St. Jude's is not hoarding money, even though they have a large foundation. It would be a slippery slope to start making direct cash payments to families in need, which St. Jude's is probably not well set up to do. Other charities focusing on that need would be in a better position to issue vouchers or cash assistance.

So to answer your question, yes, both the Shriners and St. Jude's seem like good places to put your charity contributions.

A local guy here takes all our old equipment and recycles it. All the proceeds goes to St. Judes.

I read that story too about St. Jude's not doing more for families. I agree it's a slippery slope for how much care they provide for families. They can't be giving out cash to parents and providing a place to live when the kid is in the hospital. You'd be surprised by the number of small kids that are in the hospital alone while their parents are at work or from another town and can't be with them. Nurses do what they can and there are not enough volunteers to hold sick babies and read books to 3 year olds.

I haven't checked the aforementioned rating site but Ronald MacDonald House was great when we got four months of "baby training" in the NICU.

We paid them a healthy donation at the time (and we still do) because we could but if someone's of meager means it's free and they even provide food if you need it. It was a nice facility - this one was even on the UNM golf course!

(ETA...) The charity navigator breaks out RMH by state - most all are at least 4*

Shriners it is!

I donate to Shriners - good choice. Something more near and dear to me is Saint Basil Academy in New York -. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese home for children in need. It was my father's charity.

It’s not a perfect system, but by doing it the way they are, they stretch their dollar to help more kids. At least, that’s the way I see it.

FB II was hospitalized at 10 mos with a badly managed ear infection. I visited mornings and evenings while the Mama stayed with him full time. He was in the childrens wing for 14 days and the nurses were angels, but way understaffed. There was a boy, maybe a year old in the room next to us and I never saw his parents there. One day I'm with my fam and the crying from the next room just broke my heart. I checked and the poor little guy was standing in his crib covered in tears and snot. I watched two nurses just walk by but I knew they probably had to keep emotional blinders on. So, I stopped one and asked "if you can't help that boy let me scrub up and I'll go in "(the kids were isolated from one another).

Let me tell you I never saw a heart break as quickly and totally as when she finally "saw" the boy. She went in, cleaned him up, cuddled the boy until DYFS contacted the parents and got them in there. Some day I'll tell you guys about the Christmas miracle we experienced there during that stay.

I don't have any idea about the business/charity efficiency of the Shriners system, but I rotated through there as a resident. It's a wonderful place.