Are you looking for a great charity to support with a tax-deductible gift?

If you have any amount of disposable income (as most of us do), I would strongly encourage you to throw your support behind something.

It doesn't take much to recognize there is an absurd amount of pain, suffering, and hopelessness in the world today. Many of these problems can be vastly improved, maybe even solved if each of us picks a cause and supports it with everything we've got.

Perhaps you'd like to help, but you aren't sure what to do? If you're looking for ideas, I'm going to give you a list of solid options below.

I have first-hand experience with some of these. Others are on the list because they've been suggested by others in the REtipster community.

Whichever cause means the most to you, my challenge to you is to make a meaningful contribution to something.

1. World Vision

World Vision has been making a massive impact in poor and impoverished nations throughout the world for decades. This organization provides relief in a number of ways, including child sponsorship, emergency relief, clean water, economic empowerment, and more.

One thing I love about World Vision is their gift catalog, which makes it easy to pick out a specific gift of almost any dollar amount that will make a difference to someone suffering from severe poverty.

I've been sponsoring a child through World Vision for the past 11 years and it has been nothing short of amazing to see the difference that a relatively small financial commitment has made in permanently changing another person's life for the better.

2. Compassion International

Compassion International is another organization best known for its child sponsorship program, which makes it ridiculously easy to make lasting changes in the life of a child through a small monthly gift. They have many other ways to give, including a gift catalog, youth development, meeting critical needs, and much more.

I can personally vouch for this one as well. I've been a sponsor for almost 20 years, I've seen the impact that the organization makes and I'm even Facebook friends with some of the kids I sponsored as small children. It's incredible to see lives changed through work being done through Compassion.

3. Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity is one that most of us are familiar with. This charity is best known for its work in constructing new homes with volunteers and donated materials. The organization works with communities all over the world to build or improve a house that people can call home. Families in need of decent, affordable housing apply for homeownership with their local Habitat for Humanity.

4. MBA Opens Doors Foundation

The MBA Opens Doors Foundation is dedicated to providing the comforts of home to families in crisis. Through their home grant program, they provide mortgage and rental payment assistance grants to parents and guardians caring for a critically ill or injured child, allowing them to take unpaid leave from work and spend precious time together without jeopardizing their cherished homes.

5. Family Promise

The whole idea behind Family Promise is to prevent and end family homelessness. They do this by providing prevention services before families reach a homelessness crisis, shelter if they do become homeless and stabilization programs once a family has secured housing to ensure they remain independent.

With affiliates all over the country, they have a presence in just about every community in the United States that are making a difference for families facing homelessness.

6. Operation Underground Railroad

Operation Underground Railroad works with law enforcement to free survivors of human trafficking and exploitation. Then they work to break the cycle.

Human trafficking is a massive problem throughout the world. Worse than it's been at any other time in human history. Operation Underground Railroad currently supports operation and aftercare efforts in 22 countries and 34 U.S. States.

Since the group is privately run, they are able to quickly respond to foreign government requests and institute investigative measures, develop intelligence and assist in enforcement operations and rescue efforts. 

7. Blood:Water

Blood:Water is a charity that works to provide clean water and fight disease in Africa. Lack of access to clean water is a huge problem with a lot of devastating ripple effects.

Think about it, if you had to spend hours each day to collect something as basic and essential as water, how much time would you have leftover to work for your family, get an education? How much more difficult would it be to stay healthy without abundant, untainted water at your disposal?

Your contributions to this charity help equip African organizations as they work to address the Water and HIV/AIDS crises in their communities.

8. Exodus Cry

Exodus Cry is in the fight to end sex trafficking around the world. Sex trafficking is a global threat to vulnerable women, children, and even men worldwide. When a person has been forced, deceived, or coerced into being sold for sex they have become a victim of sex trafficking.

Sex trafficking is a massive and sickening problem but it's just one facet of a much larger system of exploitation. To abolish trafficking, we must uproot the underlying issues that cause it. Exodus Cry works to uproot the underlying causes in our culture that allow the industry of sexual exploitation to thrive and help those who have been sexually exploited.

9. Beads of Courage

Beads of Courage provides innovative, arts-in-medicine programs that improve the quality of life of children coping with cancer and other serious illnesses. Their objective is to transform the treatment experience for children coping with serious illness by advancing the science of caring.

10. World Wildlife Fund

World Wildlife Fund works to help local communities conserve the natural resources they depend upon; transform markets and policies toward sustainability, and protect and restore species and their habitats. The efforts from WWF ensure that the value of nature is reflected in decision-making from a local to a global scale.

11. Make a Wish

Make a Wish is an organization that brings life-changing wishes to life for children with critical illnesses. This charity is highly-publicized and well-known because of the emotional impact it has on the viewer and the frequent involvement of big-name celebrities.

If you're a sucker for this sort of thing, it could be a fitting place to donate your money. Also, be sure to check out their YouTube channel, which has hundreds of similar videos.

12. Wounded Warrior Project

Wounded Warrior Project is a nonprofit organization that helps veterans and active duty service members through over twenty different programs that address mental wellness, physical wellness, independence, VA benefits, and career assistance.

13. Sea Save Foundation

Sea Save Foundation is focused on marine protection through laws on a global and national scale. Many nonprofits do work with clean-ups which solves a temporary problem, but laws are ultimately what have a lasting impact on our oceans since they determine how we manage waste, use plastics, drill for oil and punish those who poach endangered species.

This non-profit is more focused on policy than actual cleanups. They attend global conferences such as CITES and the UN Climate Action/Ocean Conference and are a voice for the protection of endangered marine animals. They also run campaigns on national and state levels to prevent shark finning, oil drilling, and more.

14. National Christian Foundation

This last one is kind of a cheat, but it's worth mentioning nonetheless. The idea behind the NCF Giving Fund is to provide a tax-saving strategy.

Suppose you have a LARGE amount of cash to give (whatever “large” means to you), but you either don't know where you want to give it yet, or you're not ready to give it all immediately.

With that National Christian Foundation, you can deposit whatever amount you'd like and you'll receive an income tax deduction at the time of your donation, and you can decide at a later date, which charitable non-profits you want to give the money to.

This can be a useful strategy if you don't have the time to decide where the money should be given, but you still want to get the tax deduction this year. It can also be useful if you want to drip the money out to your charity of choice at certain time intervals, instead of bombarding them with cash that they won't be able to manage effectively right now.

NCF also accepts non-cash donations like stocks, real estate, and business interests, which makes them unique among other donor-advised funds.

What's Your Favorite Charity?

Of course, there are thousands of great charitable organizations I don't even know about, so now is your chance to let me know what they are!

If you'd like to share which ones you believe in (and why), head over to this YouTube video, leave a comment and let us know! Your suggestion might even end up on this list someday. 🙂