Contributing to the Greater Good

I admire people who get personally involved in helping people who are less fortunate than themselves...people who don't need a church or a service club or an employer to do good work, but who help others because they feel a sense of personal responsibility.

I wish I could count myself among such people, but it's rare than I engage in purely altruistic behavior with strangers. I'm more the sort of person who will participate with a group of others who have an inclination to help, so long as the group does not use its good works to blackmail the recipients.When I hear of churches that send groups off to foreign countries to build houses, etc., I'm always suspicious that part of the deal is an implicit expectation that the recipients will accept the church's religious message. To me, that's not true altruism. True altruism is done simply because it's the right thing to do; someone needs help and someone else, upon learning of the need, fills it.

There are hundreds, probably thousands, of organizations that exist to help people in need. The ones I admire are the ones founded on the principle that they will offer help where help is needed, with no expectation of any quid pro quo.I'm not able to contribute financially to every organization whose mission I support, but at least I can recognize many of them and can recommend to you, the reader, than you try to make contributions to one or more of them when you can. Here are some of the organizations I recommend to you:

Action Against Hunger
Provides a broad range of disaster relief for all types of disasters, from house or apartment fires to floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes.

American Red Cross
Provides a broad range of disaster relief for all types of disasters, from house or apartment fires to floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes.

AmeriCares
Provides disaster relief and humanitarian aid and provides immediate response to emergency medical needs, as well as supporting long-term humanitarian assistance programs

CARE
Assists by facilitating and strengthening poor communities' capacity for self-help, providing economic opportunities, delivering relief in emergencies

Direct Relief International
Distributes medical supplies and pharmaceuticals

Doctors Without Borders
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care.

Oxfam America
Oxfam America is a Boston-based international development and relief agency and an affiliate of Oxfam International. Working with local partners, Oxfam delivers development programs and emergency relief services, and campaigns for change in global practices and policies that keep people in poverty