My final post of last year talked about charitable giving, but this I’m starting a bit earlier. This annual post is as much of a self-reminder to donate to worthy causes as it is to encourage those who read them to do the same.
Religiously-Motivated Charitable Giving
In addition to donating to my home church and my high school alma mater, I gave a bit to the Adventist Community Services of Greater Washington. If you’re in the DC/Metro area and are looking for a cause that helps families in need, consider them as a recipient for your year-end giving.
Other Charitable Giving
Last year’s merger between CIR/Reveal and Mother Jones didn’t change how they accepted donations. Researching this post gave me the opportunity to restart monthly donations to them which had lapsed. 2024 turned out to be a year of mainstream media taking a step backward in quality and/or being acquired by right-wing ideologues. January brought the purchase of The Baltimore Sun by the owner of Sinclair Broadcasting. So the advice I gave last year to find and consider supporting a local non-profit newsroom was advice I had to follow quite quickly myself. The Baltimore Banner covers what happens at Maryland’s state capitol quite well. It’s now my only written local news source since I dropped my Washington Post subscription after they got scooped on Justice Alito’s insurrectionist flag-flying despite having a multi-year head start.
HBO/Max opted to cancel their deal with Sesame Workshop for new episodes so they’re seeking a new partner. Since then, Sesame Workshop has become very active online seeking donations, and I responded. Sesame Street was a substantial part of the TV programming I consumed as a kid (because it was on PBS), and my children have too.
Another new recipient of charitable giving this year was the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. I visited in-person during the week of Thanksgiving to see the Code Switch exhibit before it closed, and bought a bunch of books in their bookstore before I left (all purchase proceeds went to the center itself). You can also give directly to the New York Public Library system.
Other charitable giving recipients so far this year included the following (in no particular order):
- ProPublica
- Monthly recurring donations
- International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)
- Monthly recurring donations
- Doctors Without Borders
- RAINN
- Monthly recurring donations
- Internet Security Research Group (the organization behind letsencrypt.org)
- Wikimedia Foundation
- WAMU
- Monthly recurring donations
A follow-up post after Christmas will cover the rest of my charitable giving for the year and plans for 2025.