I've always wanted to donate to the Women's Shelter that helped my mom and I way back in the day.
Now that I'm finally in a position to do so, I'm gonna go with that.
LPT: Food banks usually have deals with local food suppliers and wholesalers. They can do way more with a donation of money than they can with donations of actual food. Because they are able to cut out the middlemen.
Food bank worker here: though we have no such deal, money with no restrictions on use is just about the best thing to donate. It lets us buy fresh staples that otherwise are hard to come by, like eggs, butter and milk, or seasonally appropriate things like turkeys or hams (we had a total of 3 turkeys donated before Thanksgiving so we purchased around 50).
Next best thing to donate is whole cases of shelf stable foods. Individual cans and boxes must be inspected for best by date, damage to the packaging and complete labels, which becomes time intensive when you have 15 55 gallon barrels full of cans from food drives. Whole cases give you 12 packages of the same thing, all good to go from the factory.
Time is also great, but usually more needed the rest of the year. We don't let people volunteer at our outreach center during the holidays if they don't volunteer year round, simply because the people who only show up on the holidays tend to be doing a sort of poverty tourism that we find a little distasteful. Also, fresh volunteers need training and things are simply too crazy around the holidays to deal with it. If anyone is interested in food bank work, please find somewhere to volunteer the rest of the year. Feeding people is extremely satisfying work and we do need help the other 11 months of the year.
Also helps to set a monthly donation instead of a lump sum once a year. It's more predictable for them, and they often get a lot of one time donations during the holidays and then very little otherwise. Monthly donations keep it consistent
Already did. There is a project called TransFARMation who help farmers transition to 100% plant-based agriculture. The German org just started this August.
I've got some overlap with OP's list through: Mozilla Foundation, Wikimedia Foundation, Signal Technology Foundation, EFF, and ACLU (and I'm subscribed to a Bitwarden Family plan)
Some other places I'll be donating:
Doctors Without Borders
Human Rights Watch
World Central Kitchen
Asante Africa Foundation (supporting education & scholarships for people, especially girls, in Eastern Africa - great place to donate if you want a small $ to go a long way)
Save the Manatee Foundation (get them back on the endangered species list!)
Trees for the Future (restoring ecosystems AND providing food/income/educational resources to impoverished communities)
A local charity that supports emergency preparedness and community activities in my community
Planned Parenthood. The Trevor Project. My local LGBT resource center. ACLU. EFF. I’m also looking for trans supporting groups that can supply emotional and material support and community.
The Yogscast Jingle Jam! They do an annual month long Livestream where they play games and raise money for a variety of charities. Donations of 35 pounds or more also get a whole bevy of game keys as part of the collection that can be redeemed on steam. You can see the list of games or donate at jinglejam.tiltify.com
Protest movements overall might be most effective and trying to save our climate or at least reduce our impact just seems too be the most important thing right now. At least to me.
Great list. It's funny that when FOSS people have money they sometimes end up "paying" far more for digital products and services than those who use proprietary counterparts.
For me personally I think it's a wash, but I'm very grateful when I can give, and I'm thankful for you and others who donate when they can.
(Not talking about FOSS principles, just the money side)
There's this group that provides Christmas meals for people who otherwise wouldn't have one. Homeless people et al.
It's pretty cheap and easy to donate - send an SMS to a number and get billed a small sum on the next phone bill, and the cost is enough to cover said meal for two people.
My work phone bill is sent and automatically paid my employer, so I make sure they donate to the same cause. I've been doing it for years and to this day no employer has gone on the record not in support of the cause.