September 1, 2005

Katrina: How You Can Help

Much of the blogosphere today is focused on Katrina relief, and Glenn Reynolds has posted a looooooooong list of bloggers' recommended charitable organizations. My recommendation is simple: Give to the American Red Cross, which knows how to do massive relief ops, and then find out if your church, like many, is raising funds. Many churches are connected in some way to an established church-related relief organization such as Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief, or Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, or Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort Inc., or Samaritan's Purse.

Chuck Simmins, whose Stingy List tracked private-sector American generosity after last year's tsunami disaster, is tracking private-sector and government aid contributions to Hurricane Katrina relief. The Americans Aiding Americans list is updated frequently.

I checked the list and, so far, the Red Crescent hasn't contributed a dime.

UPDATE: A commenter points out that New Orleans is heavily Catholic and all the church-affiliated charities I listed are Protestant. Fair enough. They are all charities I've donated to in the past. The commenter recommends Catholic Charities, adding that it has "one of the very best overhead-to-services ratios." Indeed it does.

The point, after all, isn't to use your donations to make a statement in favor of your favorite Christian franchise, but to help the people of New Orleans. Do that, and you've done the Christian thing, no matter which Christian group you give through.