Weekly Charity: One Laptop Per Child

We're starting to see news articles about charities having to cut back due to the recession -- most recently it's been the One Laptop Per Child program, which, according to The Associated Press, has cut its staff in half.

The program is a good one, and deserves support. One Laptop Per Child provides low-cost, rugged laptop computers to children around the world who need them most. This gives kids in poor nations an opportunity to learn technology skills and link up with the broader world.

Right now, a laptop costs $199, though the group hopes to lower that to $100 in time. Thankfully, you can help by donating less that $199; perhaps if enough people donate $5 this week by clicking here, we'll have funded one more laptop that can bring one more child into a brighter future.

So check 'em out and give!

Weekly Charity: CARE

Both at home and abroad, poverty has been on the rise, and women continue to take the brunt of it, especially in rural areas and developing nations. CARE, which has been around since 1945, has focused on helping to lift women out of poverty, both here in the U.S. and around the world.

The nice thing about CARE is that while they help treat the symptions of poverty, such as providing food and shelter, they're primarily interested in stamping out poverty altogether by offering work programs, microloans, training and other long-term solutions.

This charity is a particularly good steward of donations -- all their financial information is right online here, and you can see that the bulk of donations go right to people who need help, instead of on mailings, hosting fundraisers, all that superfluous stuff.

So go ahead and check out what CARE does by clicking here, then go to their donation page and put down your $5 next to mine!

Suited for Change

The economy is bad, folks, and it's only going to get worse before it gets better. Low-income women, some of who may be either the primary family wage-earner or a single parent, are particularly vulnerable these days.

Suited for Change is an excellent charity in the Washington, D.C., area that helps these women obtain professional clothing and career counseling that can help them get and retain better-paying jobs. Clients come from a variety of disadvantaged backgrounds, and the charity "suits up" more than 100 women each month. Since 1992, the charity has helped 13,000 women transition to the workforce.

Yes, the right clothes and the right counsel can make all the difference. And so can we, especially when charities like Suited for Change will see more and more clients in the coming months. So check out their good work here, then click here to donate your five bucks. Together, maybe we can add one more woman to the workforce and help change a life.

If you're looking for a charity a little closer to your own home, check out The Women's Alliance, co-founded by the Suited for Change folks as an organization of charitable groups dedicated to helping low-income women gain employment.

Marine Corps Toys for Tots

'Tis the season, my fellow Heroes! The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is going up outside my office, and the bins for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots are already in place. And this is a very worthy charity, folks.

Toys for Tots is a program of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Like the Army Reserve and National Guard, these citizen soldiers are the same folks being called up to Iraq or Afghanistan. Each year, the reservists in communities around the country gather toys and distribute them via other charities to kids who might not otherwise have a present for Christmas.

So surf on over to check out the Toys for Toys program, and then click here to make a $5 donation along with me to help support their good work. And if you see those bins around town...even a simple gift would really make a difference to a kid.

Finally, for those concerned about the ever-earlier arrival of Christmas, don't count this post as evidence! Even the Marines need time to collect and distribute all these toys to the kids who need them. (Amphibious assault vehicles are much slower than reindeer.)

UNICEF for Halloween!

Sorry about the delay in posting...busy weekend! But it's not for lack of inspiration. My daughter already has her little UNICEF collection box for trick or treating! So this week, in a show of solidarity, I'm featuring UNICEF on here, too.

For those who might not remember collecting for UNICEF as a kid, this is the United Nations Chidren's Fund, which helps underprivileged children around the world. These are kids who are suffering from hunger, disease, war, you name it. Sort of makes the Wall Street meltdown seem tame by comparison, doesn't it?

So refresh your memory and check out UNICEF U.S.A.'s Web site, and then click here to put your five bucks down! And hey...if you're taking your kids around on Friday, it's a great way to help educate them about helping others.

Feeding America

I saw a headline in a local freebie paper today about how our area food banks were running out of food. Already, many one-time food donors are heading to the food bank to accept donations, and more and more people squeezed by bad mortgages and job losses are heading to their doors.

Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest) is a national association of food banks. They're in 200 cities in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, and they're there for thousands of people when the going gets rough. They're also really efficient --more than 97 percent of the money taken in goes toward helping the hungry.

So check out Feeding America's charitable programs and learn more about how food banks help people in your area. Then, click here to donate your $5 for the week. And finally, check out the cupboard in the kitchen for some of that non-perishable food that's been sitting around, and drop it off at your local church or food bank. Heck, buy some extra at the grocery store next time.

We're all in this together, after all.

The Grameen Foundation

You've heard the old adage about the benefits of giving a guy a fish versus teaching him to fish. The Grameen Foundation, this week's charity, puts that into practice by providing poor people with the means to start businesses and lift themselves out of poverty.

The Grameen Foundation offers microloans to people around the world, mostly women, so they can start businesses. A loan of $100 may not seem like much here, but in Africa or Asia, that seed money can be used to start a business to save an entire family from hunger and homelessness. The foundation's partners set goals for the borrowers, in terms of business success as well as social success. Through Grameen and its many partners, thousands of people aren't just getting fed -- they're out of poverty for good.

A little money goes a long way...just like the Five Dollar Hero spirit! So click here to learn more about the Grameen Foundation, and then click here to donate your $5. I bet if all the blog's readers chipped in, we could, at the very least, fund one microloan somewhere, and help change a family's life.

Update: I may have to change the name of this blog...Grameen is only accepting $10 donations online. I'm going for it anyway, because I admire what they do. So make it $10!

Play a game online and fight hunger

Forget about Minesweeper -- this is a much better way to waste time at work, and it helps fight hunger at the same time. FreeRice.com is a multiple-choice game that tests your vocabulary. For each right answer you get, the site's corporate sponsors donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Programme. You may be thinking, "Twenty grains? Big deal." Well, in just five minutes of playing, I donated 500 grains of rice. That's somebody's dinner right there.

FreeRice is a partner site to Poverty.com, which was started by John Breen, an Indiana computer programmer. Since the site started in October 2007, thousands of people have chipped in to learn new words...and feed two million people. This is, needless to say, all kinds of awesome.

So close out the Solitare program and dial up FreeRice.com. It's better for your vocabulary, and you'll be helping to feed the hungry around the world. And if vocab isn't your strong suit, click "Options" on the toolbar on the top of the FreeRice page to play games based on art, foreign languages, math and even chemistry.

Save the Children

This week's charity comes courtesy of another reader (Thanks, Terri!) who noted the work that Save the Children was doing in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. I surfed on over to Save the Children's site and was immediately impressed.

Save the Children really does immense amount of work to help children through such an incredible variety of difficulties. Here in the U.S., they have literacy programs and aid for poorer kids, along with disaster relief. Abroad, they're fighting to give kids a better life no matter the circumstances -- poverty, war, disease, you name it.

They're also good with their money, too -- 90 percent of what they collect goes right to kids in need, with only 10 percent going to administrative costs and fundraising. (In nonprofit terms, that's really impressive.) Plus, they won't spam you unless you want more e-mail from them.

Really, this is just a wonderful organization, and I'm proud to slap my $5 down for them. I hope you join me. To learn more about Save the Children, click here. And to donate to the Global Action Fund, click here. You can also make memorial and gift donations, too.

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty

Hello, heroes! This week's charity focuses on homelessness and poverty right here in the United States. The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty is the only national legal advocacy organization dedicated to preventing homelessness. They do it through litigation and public policy, as well as educational outreach. And they have a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, which means the bulk of our five dollar donations will be put to use directly helping the homeless.

For more information on the work of the NLCHP, click here. And to make your donation, click here. This is a PayPal site, so on top of the page, just enter 5 in the Unit Price field, and then enter your info below. And no, you don't have to have a PayPal account to donate. So get clicking, donate your $5, and then e-mail everyone you know so they can donate, too!