Some Organizations Worth Knowing About

I’m sure there are many other good organizations out there, and I’m always looking for them, but listed below are some groups that I believe are doing good work in the areas I currently care about most — environmental sustainability, helping people who are impoverished and hungry, improving our country’s governance and the fairness of our tax system, and enabling women to have only children they want to have.

I’ve marked with a + a few organizations that I believe are doing especially important work and could use a lot more resources effectively. I’ve given them substantial donations, and would give them more substantial donations if I could. The other organizations also seem valuable to me, but their needs are smaller.

Environmental Issues, Anti-Poverty, & Reproductive Health – International

+ Pathfinder International. Pathfinder and similar organizations address several of my most heart-felt concerns simultaneously. Overpopulation drives all kinds of environmental stresses, so one of the key solutions is enabling people to have only children they want. Simultaneously, people cannot work their way out of poverty unless they can limit the number of children they are trying to support. Many women worldwide are maimed or killed by pregnancy, childbirth, and sexually transmitted diseases, which has devastating consequences for their children as well as themselves. If we want to live in healthy societies on a healthy planet, women need to be able to choose when to have children, receive adequate maternity care, and have access to treatments for childbirth injuries and STDs. Pathfinder provides comprehensive reproductive health care for women, men, and adolescents, including contraceptives, maternity care, treatment for HIV and other STDs, fistula repair, and abortion and post-abortion care. It also does educational work around women’s right to say no to forced marriage, early marriage, and rape. Other organizations do similar work, and I don’t know how to evaluate which are most effective on the ground, but I like Pathfinder’s philosophy and it seems to produce quantifiable results.

I was surprised when I learned that Americans give only about 2% of their charitable donations to a category called “environment and animals.” I consider climate change, agricultural unsustainability, declining clean water supplies, and other environmental stresses one of the greatest threats to people’s quality of life in the next generation. In 2010 I gave 39% of my “for the world” money to groups working on environmental issues.

Environmental Issues – National

+ Union of Concerned Scientists. UCS supports the use of scientific evidence to solve environmental and other problems. It has programs on global warming, clean energy, clean vehicles, nuclear power, food & agriculture, nuclear weapons & global security, and preserving scientific integrity. It is considered a reliable source of information on these topics. It has produced and publicized important research on climate change, energy-efficient vehicles, etc. In addition to its staff experts, it has an active grassroots lobbying component for ordinary people who want to take action on these concerns.

Environmental Issues – Regional

+ Conservation Law Foundation. Some environmental issues benefit from a regional approach: they easily cross state boundaries but benefit from deep local knowledge, and trying to get things done on the national level can take a very long time. CLF is a regional organization that works throughout New England to protect our land, water, and people. It primarily relies on detailed local expertise and staff attorneys to press for the creation and enforcement of policies that protect the quality of life in New England, but it also has a grassroots lobbying component and a small “CLF Ventures” arm that seeks to use market forces to protect the environment. It always has many irons in the fire. I once read one of CLF’s internal monthly reports on work in progress, and it was impressive.

Hunger – Local

+ Food for Free. Food for Free rescues fresh food that otherwise might go to waste and gets it to people who need it. It focuses on providing foods with high nutrient density, especially fresh produce, to food programs, senior citizens, and people with disabilities. Its goal is not just to remedy short-term hunger, but to help people avoid obesity, diet-related illnesses, and other health effects of food insecurity and poor nutrition. A friend of mine is its development director and for several months my partner volunteered on one of its trucks once a week, picking up and delivering food. These inside views make me believe it is an effective organization.

Anti-Poverty – International

+ Oxfam America. Oxfam takes a comprehensive approach to improving people’s lives, with programs that vary greatly depending community needs. It recognizes that advocacy and empowerment are an essential part of economic development, as well as access to such obvious necessities as clean water, adequate food, health care, and ways to earn a living. It also does crisis intervention work in cases of natural disasters, but it is not a “run to the newest headline” sort of organization.

Governance – National

+ Common Cause. Common Cause is one of the foremost organizations working for government accountability and transparency. If you care about government serving all of us instead of just people and corporations with lots of money to spend, you should know about Common Cause.

+ No Labels. A new organization, No Labels was founded in the fall of 2010 by a group of prominent Democrats, Republicans and independents who are worried about the political culture of our country. It is devoted to the idea that Americans of all political stripes need to come together, focus on what is good for the country as a whole, and solve our shared problems. The No Labels website includes a declaration of principles that want as many people as possible to sign. One of their key goals is to provide political cover to legislators who want to compromise and work across the partisan line, but fear backlash from partisans within their own party. I don’t know how successful they will be, but I hope they will be a useful counter-force to hyper-partisanship.

Economy – National

Citizens for Tax Justice. CTJ seeks to create a fair and sustainable tax system by doing research and advocacy on federal, state, and municipal taxes. It promotes progressive taxation, closing corporate tax loopholes, adequately funding important government services, reducing the federal debt, and implementing tax policies that minimally distort economic markets. Because it is constantly involved in lobbying, donations to CTJ are not tax-deductable. Its sister organization, however, is the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a purely research organization focused on national, state, and local tax policies.

Economic Policy Institute. A think tank with the tax line “Research and Ideas for Shared Prosperity,” EPI supports research and educational efforts that promote a healthy economy for everyone. Its website is full of fascinating studies and perspectives.

Demos. A progressive think tank and advocacy group, Demos focuses on strengthening democracy in the United States, promoting a public sector that works effectively for the public good, developing policies that expand economic opportunity, and advancing the ideals of strong democracy, shared prosperity, and effective governance on a global level.

United for a Fair Economy. UFE’s big goal is to reduce economic inequality through education, advocacy, etc. Much of its organizing work focuses on low-income communities, but it also has an affiliated group called “Responsible Wealth” that networks people in the top 5% of the income and/or wealth curves. In recent years some of its most interesting work has focused on tax policies.

Reproductive Health – National

Physicians for Reproductive Health and Choice. PRHC is a doctor-led advocacy organization that promotes evidence-based health policies and works to make contraception and abortion available to all Americans.

Medical Students for Choice. Even if abortion is legal, it is unavailable if doctors do not know how to provide it. Medical Students for Choice helps medical students who believe in reproductive choice receive the necessary training.

Governance – State

MassINC. An independent think tank focused on public policy in Massachusetts, MassINC supports civic journalism, publishes a high-quality quarterly magazine, and sponsors public forums on various topics. If you are interested in Massachusetts’s future, or concerned about the decline of civic journalism as newspapers struggle with their financial models, you should know about MassINC.

Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. With the tag-line “Information, Participation, Democracy,” MassBudget is the go-to place for people interested in Massachusetts budget and tax policies, including how they affect education, health care, and economic development. It is widely considered reliable and gently progressive in its orientation.

Environmental Issues – Local

Mystic River Watershed Association. Citizens group cleans, monitors, and protects my local watershed.

New England Wildflower Society. Protects and educates about natural habitats.

Massachusetts Audubon Society. Maintains wildlife preserves and educational programs.

Trustees of Reservations. Maintains open spaces for recreational purposes.