Ronald McDonald House Charities

Ronald McDonald House Charities

"The mission of Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) is to create, find and support programs that directly improve the health and well being of children. Guiding us in our mission are our core values:

• Focusing on the critical needs of children.

• Celebrating the diversity of the programs we offer and the staff, volunteers and donors who make them possible.

• Staying true to our heritage of more than 36 years of responsible stewardship.

• Operating with accountability and transparency."

-Ronald McDonald House Charities

The Ronald McDonald House Charities is a charitable, non-profit group headquartered in Oakbrook, Illinois, USA, whose goal it is to "provide families stability and resources so they can keep their child healthy and happy." True to their mission, the RMHC has opened more than 290 chapters in more than 54 countries and regions, with 309 Ronald McDonald Houses, grants to various non-profit organizations for the needs of children, and even scholarships.

Ronald McDonald House Charities donation boxes can be seen all over McDonald's fast-food restaurants across the United States and other countries, counting up the change until they can help a child somewhere grow up that much more healthily; a truly admirable cause that often does not receive enough support or attention from the first-world.

Don't let me keep you here -- Get over to Ronald McDonald House Charities to help now!

Bhookh.com

 Bhookh.com

"Feed a Child with a Click"

Here's a little fact for you: hunger is the number one cause of death in India.

Have another: 1/3rd of the world’s hungry live in India.

One more?: 5 Indians die every minute from hunger.

This stark reality is hard to grasp for first-world citizens, because having food is the basest of necessities for us. We never worry where the next meal is going to come from, or even if it will be safe to eat. We have practically conditioned ourselves free of the worry of hunger.

TheNonProfits.com

 

TheNonProfits.com

"Free Donations Directory"

Here is a really cool site that I happened across while searching for click-to-give websites on Google. Apparently, this site actually has a huge list of good click-to-give organizations that you can simply click on and be done with. This website is basically a hub for the aforementioned charities, which makes this already easy way to donate even easier!

Quite a few of these links actually showed up on my blog as well, so you will recognize them while you are looking through if you have been following Brighter Earth even a little closely. I think that this list holds many future recommendations, so keep an eye out for them!

TheNonProfits.com is just a click away (literally!).

FREE: Trick-or-Treat For UNICEF Kit

Posted originally by Rose, on the Tips for Saving blog:

"It is the 60th anniversary for the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF program. You can help support this foundation by ordering a FREE trick or treat kit, and gathering donations on Halloween.

The United Nations Children's Fund - UNICEF - works for..." [Read More]

Click to Give - Give to Charity for free!

Click to Give

"Give to Charity for free!"

Click to Give is, as its name gets across quite well, a click-to-give donation site. This means that users simply go on the site, click just a few buttons, and they've donated quite a bit. Rather than directly donating to one charity run by Click to Give, the site will actually redirect the money granted from advertisements on each page (which pay for the donations) directly to the charity you clicked for. You may click for all of the charities each day, but you can only click once per day per charity.

The site offers a lot of wonderful charities to donate to - and you can donate to them all, every day! The causes include animal care, hunger, child abuse, homelessness, breast cancer, and sponsoring children. Here's a brief overview of each one:

Animal Care: "The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was the first humane society to be established in North America and is, today, one of the largest in the world. Our organization was founded by Henry Bergh in 1866 on the belief that animals are entitled to kind and respectful treatment at the hands of humans, and must be protected under the law."

Feed the Poor: "Feed The Children is a Christian, international, nonprofit relief organization with headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that delivers food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty, or natural disaster."

Stop Child Abuse: "Founded in 1959 by Sara O’Meara and Yvonne Fedderson, Childhelp® is a leading national non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect. Childhelp’s approach focuses on prevention, intervention and treatment."

End Homelessness: "The National Alliance to End Homelessness (Alliance) works to end homelessness. Though the popular response to homelessness in America has long been shelter, the Alliance maintains that we can end homelessness altogether and not just one night at a time. Years of research, pilot projects, and case studies show that there are solutions to effectively and efficiently end homelessness through housing."

Breast Cancer: "NBCF [National Breast Cancer Foundation] is committed to spreading knowledge and fostering hope in the fight against breast cancer. By funding free mammograms for women who could otherwise not afford them and supporting research programs in leading facilities across the country, NBCF helps inspire the courage needed to win this monumental battle. Be a part of the solution and discover how to help."

Sponsor Children: "Our mission is very simple. The more clicks you guys give daily, the more funding we then have to sponsor and maintain current sponsorships of these children in need. We will be adding and updating each sponsored child profile as it becomes available. We'll also be contacting and interacting with the sponsored children as much as possible and very excited to post all communication responses by each angel for you to view."

Click-donors can click anonymously, if they so choose, though Click to Give offers an interesting alternative. You can register an account, and you gain 1 point for each click you make. You can redeem these clicks for rewards, bought from the charities' gift shops, which still supports the charities. The only downfall to this system is that you can only get 6 points per 24 hours, and the cheapest item is near 1000 points.

With the account, you can also keep track of all of your donations. Simply click the 'View My Impact' link in the Members Control Panel on the middle right of the page, and you will be taken to your statistics. The more you click, the more it will show you as having donated.

This site is working a great form of charity that can earn quite a bit of money and make it easy on everyone involved, so head on over to Click to Give!

FreePoverty - Knowing Helps

FreePoverty

"Knowing Helps"

FreePoverty is a click-to-give site that is free and easy to use. It's in the form of a game, much like FreeRice, but it focuses solely on geography (instead of FreeRice's multiple subjects). As one plays the game, and answers correctly, a certain amount of water (depending on how close to correct the answer was) is added to the individual and total score donated. Near the top of their pages, a counter claims (at the time of this article's writing):

"In total we have donated 225,520,538 Cups of Water!"

The idea for the site itself is that a person who plays the games will view the ads placed on that page; the water donated is then paid for by the money earned from the sponsors' ads. The site isn't just a simple game with ads, though. The game itself is very well-made, and the look of the site is wonderful, so one doesn't mind the ads as much.

Why donate water, though? On their Home page, FreePoverty says:

"70% of a human being is made up of water. Water is the second most essential element for survival, after oxygen. Over one billion people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water; hence, causing them to develop deadly diseases. Moreover, without water, the brain is not able to function properly. One cup of water can make difference to someone's day. FreePoverty allows you to donate as many cups of water as you can to save millions of people."

FreePoverty states on its FAQ page that it is in between organizations due to some sort of "unforeseen issues." These issues are not expounded on, and the link they give promising further explanation leads to a 404 page.

Naturally, this does make FreePoverty seem a bit on the shadier side, though the site is much blogged about, and was associated previously with the popular WaterAid. Spending time on the site at your own discretion, as though the site seems trustworthy, it's hard to be sure at the moment. Perhaps when FreePoverty partners up with a reputable organization, we can all rest assured.

Regardless, the geography game on the site is actually quite fun. Go ahead and check it out at FreePoverty.

helpthirst.com - We Donate 1 Cup of Water to World Vision Every Time You Win

helpthirst.com

We donate 1 cup of water to World Vision every time you win

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UPDATE: Helpthirst.com is down.
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Helpthirst.com is a click-to-give charity site that operates much like the other click-to-give sites, especially FreeRice. To start, you the "Play" button in the dialog box, and it will give you a question and an answer. In the answer is a number that you must remember within the short time allotted, and when it disappears, you must input the correct number. The level will increase as you enter right answers in a row, or decrease for wrong answers. For each right answer, 1 cup of water will be donated. For quite a bit of time, the game is very simple.

It works in the same way many of its click-to-give contemporaries do: you answer to refresh the page, and with it, a new ad appears. On helpthirst.com, the ad is at the top of the page, in banner form. The price of the ad's placement pays for the donations; thus the more one plays, the more money the sponsors must pay, and the more that is donated.

Helpthirst.com donates the water to World Vision, which is an international relief and development organization. According to the World Vision International 'What We Do' page:

"Because poverty has both local and global causes, World Vision works within communities and across geographical areas to help individuals and groups improve the well-being of children and overcome poverty."

They do not work by themselves, however. They engage many other groups and people to participate in the betterment of their communities, and their world. Also on the 'What We Do' page, they state:

"World Vision engages institutions, donors and the general public to address the global problems that perpetuate poverty. Advocacy staff empower communities to speak up for their rights, locally and globally."

Another popular World Vision charity is AIDtoCHILDREN, about whom I wrote an article in my last post. AIDtoCHILDREN also donates to those in need by asking one a question, and paying for the donations through ads. AIDtoCHILDREN donates such things as school supplies, clothing, and food to impoverished children around the world.

If you want to help those in the developing world and disaster areas get fresh, clean water, get to playing on helpthirst.com!

AIDtoCHILDREN - Helping Children in Need Through Learning

AIDtoCHILDREN

"HELPING CHILDREN IN NEED THROUGH LEARNING"

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UPDATE: As of Sept. 18, 2011, AIDtoCHILDREN is down.
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AIDtoCHILDREN is one more great site to add to the list of easy-to-play browser games that help the world. Have you played FreeRice or Charitii lately? Then you'll definitely recognize AIDtoCHILDREN's style as soon as you jump in, with the question answering to raise funds for the charity (or charities).

The style is recognizable, with a question, and four possible answers. You click the answer you think is right, and if it is, then your skill level progresses and you donate money to the cause. If it's wrong, your skill level goes down, but that's it. It's simple, doesn't take time to load, and is very quick to play. You can exit whenever you wish, but there is no way to save your skill level and amount donated as of yet. Whenever you reload the site, you must start the questions over again.

Answering a question correctly will donate .25 cents to the AIDtoCHILDREN/World Vision cause, which is used to feed children in need. That's $0.0025, meaning 4 correct answers donates a penny. While that may not seem very helpful at all, consider this: you can answer 4 questions in about 10 seconds quite easily. According to the site, it takes just 25 cents to feed a child in need. All it takes to feed a child is roughly 250 seconds, or just over 4 minutes! Four minutes of your day to give another starving child some food, thanks to AIDtoCHILDREN.

The site itself is run by the World Vision charity. According to an article in the Puget Sound Business Journal:

"World Vision says it collected about $1.1 billion — an increase of 16 percent — from U.S. donors during its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2008. The group’s total revenue, including grants, product donations and foreign donations, climbed 16 percent to $2.6 billion."

Even in a global recession, especially in the U.S., there was a considerable increase in the amount of donations pouring in to the charity. World Vision looks like it is and will continue to be a successful cause to donate to, and AIDtoCHILDREN lets you do that for free and with ease. So head on over the the site, and help feed children in need: AIDtoCHILDREN.

GamesThatGive - You Play. We Give. No Catch.

GamesThatGive

"You play. We give. No catch."

GamesThatGive is another very intriguing site that utilizes advertisement money to give to causes, much like FreeRice and The Hunger Site. Unlike those two sites, though, GamesThatGive is oriented around causes other than food, such as education, veterans, etc., as well as games, as the title gets across quite well.

How you earn money for the available causes is by playing games. You can bring up such games as Solitaire, Gems, FreeCell, and Bubble Burst, in your browser. You play these games, as sponsored by select advertisers, and the cause gets money for the time you spent playing (and, thus, the time you spent viewing the ads of the sponsors).

GamesThatGive does this by changing the background of your game to one of the select advertisers (such as Dominos Pizza or Propel Fitness Water), which you will view the entire time you play the game. For the amount of time you are playing, you earn the GamesThatGive site advertisement money. They, in turn, send a portion of the money earned to the cause you selected (you may permanently select a cause by selecting one here, if you are signed in).

While this sounds like a much more fun alternative to what some may consider dull trivia or clicking a button once a day, it's also good to note something very important. GamesThatGive only donates '70% of... ad revenue' to the charity you chose, which means they do make a profit instead of donating the full amount earned.

However, the selection of charities is actually quite respectable; there are currently 14 to choose from. Here is a list of available charities to select on the site:

The Wilderness Society
United Way
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
City Year
Breast Cancer Network of Strength
Unicef
ACCESS
Jumpstart
American Heart Association
Mercy Corps
ServiceNation
Ronald McDonald House Charities
Feeding America
DoSomething.org

If you're the kind of person who takes pleasure from doing something you enjoy and helping the world at the same time (and who isn't?), then get on over to start a game and help a cause: GamesThatGive.

FreeRice - For Each Answer You Get Right, We Donate 10 Grains of Rice

FreeRice

"For each answer you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end hunger"

FreeRice is one of the most ingenious, easy, and helpful sites I have seen on the internet in quite a while (if not in my entire time on it!). It donates many, many billions of grains of rice to the hungry people in third-world countries, where local inhabitants would not normally be able to feed themselves. It also doubles as an excellent device for learning or practicing such subjects as English vocabulary, foreign languages, geography, and more.

The idea at FreeRice is very simple -- in fact, it is so simple, you might not believe I am being 100% genuine until you try it out for yourself. Essentially, when you go to the site, you will immediately be presented with a question; answer it correct, and you will instantly be told that you have donated 10 grains of rice.

Answer as many questions as you want on any subject you want (you can click "Change Subjects" at the top right corner of the question box or the "Subjects" tab at the very top to change subjects) and for each correct answer, the site will donate 10 grains of rice instantly, guaranteed.

How can they do it? Well, this is where the ingenuity comes in (and for this, I think the creator, John Breen, deserves a medal or something!): each time you get a question, a banner appears at the bottom of the screen. This banner is not obtrusive at all (in fact, it is quite out of the way), but the advertisers pay for each time their banner is viewed. The current owners of the FreeRice site (the World Food Programme of the U.N.) use all of the money earned by advertising to pay for the rice.

Win-win!

Just by clicking the correct answer to a question, and perhaps even learning something, you can feed children and families all around the world! The World Food Programme says that 20,000 grains of rice provide enough caloric intake to sustain an adult for one day. That means it takes 100 people less than 2 minutes of consistently answering questions at a normal speed to feed an adult for the whole day!

The site also has a free FreeRice toolbar that's quick and easy to download. Once downloaded, use the search bar as you normally would your default search bar. For every 5 searches you do, FreeRice will donate 2,500 grains of rice, up to 5,000 grains per day. Search naturally, though; apparently "fake searches" to simply raise the rice donations will result in disabling of your rice donations for using the toolbar.

It is absolutely free, it is incredibly simple, and it is a really great thing to do. If you happen have some spare time, or if you are feeling a bit generous, go on there and do some good for your world, at FreeRice.