Account of Donations We Made

[qesehmk]

This is a list of donations we have made so far out of our advertisement revenue. Howsoever small, these donations thank the visitors of this site without whom these wouldn't be possible.

All Time Total - $2481
2013 YTD - $236
2012 Total - $1228
2011 Total - $1017

Q2 2013 - $35 - ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)
Q2 2013 - $50 - National Police Trooper Association
Q2 2013 - $25 - Yellowstone National Park Foundation
Mar 12, 2013 - $25 - www.kiva.org (http://www.kiva.org/) (loaned - India Manipur Women 1)
Mar 12, 2013 - $25 - www.kiva.org (http://www.kiva.org/) (loaned - India Manipur Women 2)
Mar 12, 2013 - $25 - www.kiva.org (http://www.kiva.org/) (loaned - India Manipur Women 3)
Mar 12, 2013 - -$25 - www.kiva.org (http://www.kiva.org) (received refund from a prior year loan to Latin American women)
Feb 10, 2013 - $25 - N (http://www.nirankari.org/)ew Vrindaban (a Project of Hare Krishna) (http://www.newvrindaban.org)
Jan 1, 2013 - $51 - Nirankari Mission - 2 of 2 (http://www.nirankari.org/)

Dec 23, 2012 - $50 - Nirankari Mission - 1 of 2 (http://www.nirankari.org/)
Dec 14, 2012 - $51 - India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) (http://www.idrf.org/)
Nov 15, 2012 - $75 - Donate to Redcross for Sandy (http://www.redcross.org/sandy)
Oct 22, 2012 - $60 - www.sphoorti.org (http://www.sphoorti.org)
Oct 22, 2012 - $30 - www.omtrust.org (http://Shankara Netralaya)
Sep 18, 2012 - $50 - www.vibha.org (http://www.vibha.org)
Sep 18, 2012 - $25 - www.kiva.org (http://www.kiva.org)
Sep 18, 2012 - $25 - www.aimforseva.org (http://www.aimforseva.org)
Jun 01, 2012 - $200 - Nad Roop (3 of 3)
May 01, 2012 - $200 - Nad Roop (2 of 3)
Apr 01, 2012 - $191 - Nad Roop (1 of 3)
Mar 09, 2012 - $51 - Ekal Vidyalaya (http://www.ekal.org/)
Feb 29, 2012 - $100 - Blake's Miracle (http://www.blakesmiracle.org/)
Jan 31, 2012 - $100 - Planned Parenthood (http://www.plannedparenthood.org/)
Jan 30, 2012 - $20 - http://247sports.com/

Past Donations
Dec 31, 2011 - $121 - Ashraya Initiative (http://www.ashrayainitiative.org/doku.php) - Extra Year Donation.
Dec 10, 2011 - $50 - Make A Wish - Arizona Chapter (http://www.arizona.wish.org/)
Dec 10, 2011 - $25 - Make A Wish - India Chapter (http://www.makeawishindia.org/)
Dec 04, 2011 - $75 - Akshaypatra (http://www.foodforeducation.org/)
Nov 06, 2011 - $80 - AID (Eureka Child Foundation) (http://www.eurekachild.org/)
Oct 23, 2011 - $36 - Udavum Karangal (http://www.udavumkarangal.org/index.php?com=29&sec=7&mtype=Section), Hyderabad
Oct 23, 2011 - $25 - Akshay Trust (http://www.akshayausa.org/), Madurai
Oct 23, 2011 - $31 - Mahaganapati Temple (http://www.ganapati.org/mgtoa/home/home_events.php), AZ, USA
Sep 06, 2011 - $100 - Hrudaya (http://www.hrudaya.com/)
Aug 02, 2011 - $85 - Sankara Netralay Om Trust, Inc. (https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1059) (C/O http://www.sankaranethralaya.org/)
Aug 10, 2011 - $25 - Indo American Cultural Connect (http://www.iacconnect.org/Home.html)
July 05, 2011 - $50 - St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (http://www.stjude.org/)
July 05, 2011 - $111 - India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) (http://www.idrf.org/)
Jun 26, 2011 - $51 - Sujnana Religious and Charitable Foundation (Tempe Venkateshwara Temple) (http://aztemple.org/)
Jun 17, 2011 - $50 - Banner Health Foundation (http://www.bannerhealth.com/Giving+Back/Banner+Foundations/Arizona/_Banner+Health+Foundation+home+page.htm)
Mar 18, 2011 - $51 - Iraivan Temple Fund (Kauai Hindu Monastery) (http://www.himalayanacademy.com/)
Feb 18, 2011 - $51 - IACRF/BEMA (http://ektamandirarizona.org/)

Individual Contributions from Site Members
Aug 05, 2011 - $125 - Udavum Karangal (Helping Hands) - By Soggadu
July, 2011 - Unknown Monthly Contribution - Sankara Netralaya - To By IATIAM

[GK1234]

If one believes GC suffering is cleaning up the past bad karmas, one has the oppurtunity to accumulate good karmas by easing the suffering of the folk with sound logical reasoning such as this entire blog itself. In addition, this act of yours tops the most. A very noble one, keep it up brother.

Earlier someone mentioned Kiva.org, my wife and I were donating to Kiva for the last 5 years, yet to experience a defaulter, we recommend the same.

[qesehmk]

GK thank you for the recommendation. I will keep that in mind and will check out Kiva.org.

p.s. - I did check out Kiva. Its fantastic. I guess the lending part will be tough for us given the accounting overhead in it. But we can certainly donate sometime in future.


If one believes GC suffering is cleaning up the past bad karmas, one has the oppurtunity to accumulate good karmas by easing the suffering of the folk with sound logical reasoning such as this entire blog itself. In addition, this act of yours tops the most. A very noble one, keep it up brother.

Earlier someone mentioned Kiva.org, my wife and I were donating to Kiva for the last 5 years, yet to experience a defaulter, we recommend the same.

[haripathhi]

Q,

If I may suggest, here's another charitable org - Shankara Eye Foundation (run by the Shankara Trust): http://www.giftofvision.org/

Every year, I try to donate something to this org which eventually helps the needy.

[qesehmk]

What a coincidence.... TeddyKuchoo suggested this to me a week back. Today I researchd it and decided to make our next donation to Sankara. And now you too recommended confirming that we have a great choice to donate to!

Thank you. This will be our next donation first week of August!


Q,

If I may suggest, here's another charitable org - Shankara Eye Foundation (run by the Shankara Trust): http://www.giftofvision.org/

Every year, I try to donate something to this org which eventually helps the needy.

[haripathhi]

That indeed is coincidence! Glad to know about this. Thank You :)



What a coincidence.... TeddyKuchoo suggested this to me a week back. Today I researchd it and decided to make our next donation to Sankara. And now you too recommended confirming that we have a great choice to donate to!

Thank you. This will be our next donation first week of August!

[iatiam]

Fellas, I am one of the "guests" who has been lurking in the background reading all the posts but not contributing to any thing in the forum. I registered a few minutes back and I am writing to let all of you know how much I appreciate the great contributions made by every one to this forum. I happened to visit the charity section of the forum and found the link to Sankara Netralaya. Happy to say that I have signed up for monthly contributions to the charity.I am impressed to find that even those questions which sound silly to me ("when will my date be current") are answered with patience. So again, I thank you for all the work done in bringing clarity to this otherwise completely unclear immigration process . May all be greened soon.

Regards

IATIAM

[srinivasj]

Hello All,
thanks for the wonderful initiation...I would like to share another cause on this forum...please help the kids who need heart surgery...

http://hrudaya.com/

Regards..

[qesehmk]

Friends,

This month we made yet another small donation. ($85 Sankara Netralaya). This will cover one free cataract surgery for a needy person.

Some of the site users asked us if THIS SITE needed donations. Forunately we don't. But if you want to donate, then please donate to our Charity of the Month. (http://www.qesehmk.org/forums/showthread.php?135-Sankara-Netralaya&p=6057#post6057)

You can find individual credits listed at the top of this thread.

p.s. - Also for next month we have two suggestions so far. 1) Hrudaya (http://hrudaya.com/) 2) Udavum Karangal (Helping Hands) (http://www.qesehmk.org/forums/showthread.php?132-Udavum-Karangal-(Helping-Hands)). We can select one of these as our Charity of Month for next month (or any other if there are more suggestions). So please feel free to add more suggestions to the different thread - as long as the charity has a registered US based non-profit front to accept donations in US. I will add a poll to select one of these charities after 10th of this month.

[haripathhi]

Q,

Thanks for the selfless service you are rendering through this website. Here's one more if I may suggest - Akshya Trust (http://www.akshayatrust.org/) run by Narayanan Krishnan (a CNN Hero: http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/01/cnnheroes.krishnan.hunger/index.html). I read about this amazing guy sometime last year and it just occurred to me that I should recommend his charitable organization on this wonderful platform. I myself, do plan to contribute something to his org sometime this year.

[qesehmk]

H, thanks. Will add to our list for vote.


Q,

...Here's one more if I may suggest - Akshya Trust (http://www.akshayatrust.org/) run by Narayanan Krishnan (a CNN Hero: http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/01/cnnheroes.krishnan.hunger/index.html).

[soggadu]

Q...thanks to you...i have been wanting to do this for long time... I donated for Udavum Karangal 125 dollars...

[qesehmk]

Wow! Soggadu, the credit is entirely yours!!


Q...thanks to you...i have been wanting to do this for long time... I donated for Udavum Karangal 125 dollars...

[qesehmk]

Made a small donation ($25) to Indo American Cultural Connect (http://www.iacconnect.org/Home.html).

[qesehmk]

Friends,

We have added a poll to select an organization that we can donate some of site's ad revenues.
It would be great if you could let your opinion be known to help us donate in the right place.

http://www.qesehmk.org/forums/showthread.php?90-Account-of-Donations-We-Made&p=7392

The poll will close in 10 days from now.

[qesehmk]

Friends, thanks for voting on whom to donate to during the month of September. The results for Sep Donations were:
Hrudaya (15), Udavum Karangal (4), Akshaya Trust (4), Kiva (0).

So accordingly we will donate to Hrudaya in September. Thanks for your vote.

[qesehmk]

Friends,

As we voted last month, we made a $100 donation to Hrudaya (Cure a Little Heart - USA).

Thanks for your participation. Please make a few suggestions for next month. I will keep the names from prior months to begin with.

- Kiva.org
- Helping Hands (Udavum Karangal)
- Akshaya Trust
- AID (Association for India's Development) (newly added)

We will open it up for voting on 20th Sep. Until then please feel free to suggest other organizations.
p.s. - personally I am looking for an organization that is doing good work in Somalia where - shamefully in this day and age - there is acute food crisis.

[qesehmk]

Friends before we open up the vote for next months charity donation, are there any suggestions?

[grnwtg]

Friends before we open up the vote for next months charity donation, are there any suggestions?

Hi Q,

Here is a suggestion and also since topic came i just want to see if any one want to help privately also.
There is a place called Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh which is one of the back ward district and few places of it are very badly hit by flourolysis due to which people in those villages have very very low strength in bones and also few people cannot even walk.
This problem can be completely solved for future generation with purified water( unfortunately Government is not taking any kind of action after it even after being major vote bank topic).

There is an Young Lady in Texas who want to help this people she already collected and built couple of plants, i believe she is very sincere in building the plants.
Thousands of people can benefit with few thousand dollars which she is planning to collect. Cost of each plant is around Rs.120,000 which will help probably few hundred people. Here is the website information ( please go through it)
http://nalgonda.bbnow.org/


As mentioned in Site, every Penny counts.


If any body want to look at sample photos of people affected this problem:
http://www.nalgonda.org/fluorosis/flourosis_victim_pics.htm

[qesehmk]

grnwtg

Thank you. Pretty good work undertaken! Really appreciate sharing info.

Is this a registered non-profit in US (for us to be able to donate to them)?

Regards
Q

Hi Q,

Here is a suggestion and also since topic came i just want to see if any one want to help privately also.
There is a place called Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh which is one of the back ward district and few places of it are very badly hit by flourolysis due to which people in those villages have very very low strength in bones and also few people cannot even walk.
This problem can be completely solved for future generation with purified water( unfortunately Government is not taking any kind of action after it even after being major vote bank topic).

There is an Young Lady in Texas who want to help this people she already collected and built couple of plants, i believe she is very sincere in building the plants.
Thousands of people can benefit with few thousand dollars which she is planning to collect. Cost of each plant is around Rs.120,000 which will help probably few hundred people. Here is the website information ( please go through it)
http://nalgonda.bbnow.org/


As mentioned in Site, every Penny counts.


If any body want to look at sample photos of people affected this problem:
http://www.nalgonda.org/fluorosis/flourosis_victim_pics.htm

[grnwtg]

She collected donation as a part of non-profit organization, for this project i believe she donated mostly through Her Dance program but i will confirm with her and let you know soon.

Thanks for Going trought that.
Below information about her is not related to this discussion so please do ignore if any one is interested
http://echoesofindia.webs.com/presentprojectproposal.htm


grnwtg

Thank you. Pretty good work undertaken! Really appreciate sharing info.

Is this a registered non-profit in US (for us to be able to donate to them)?

Regards
Q

[qesehmk]

Thanks. As long as we can donate to a US registered non-profit, we can certainly consider this charity.


She collected donation as a part of non-profit organization, for this project i believe she donated mostly through Her Dance program but i will confirm with her and let you know soon.

Thanks for Going trought that.
Below information about her is not related to this discussion so please do ignore if any one is interested
http://echoesofindia.webs.com/presentprojectproposal.htm

[iatiam]

Here is a suggestion - SEVA International

http://www.sewausa.org/

[qesehmk]

Thanks. We will add this to next month's list. Unfortunately people started voting and besides the poll can only be deleted and not modified.

Really good suggestion though.


Here is a suggestion - SEVA International

http://www.sewausa.org/

[gcseeker]

Q

(general post about charities...can be moved to the charities section ..was not sure how to link the quote from here.)

Voted for Akshaya this time. I cannot stop myself from sharing one small piece of information. KIVA definetly does some good work in the african continent and is based on the concept of Microfinance ( pioneered by one good doctor from Bangladesh who later won the nobel peace prize ) . There are a lot of Microfinance based organizations in India as well and what started with noble intentions has now gone the wrong way. Looking at the vast potential of squeezing poor people with loans many wall street firms started forcing the microfinance firms to start IPO's in the Indian stock market. With the start of the IPO's the microfinance firms started charging equally bad interest rates as the local village money lenders.

OutlookIndia did an fantastic piece on Microfinance firms in India in Oct 2010 titled "Is it Micro Usury" . The malpractises of the Microfinance industry led to almost 50 farmer suicides in the state of Andhra pradesh in a single month in 2010 which prompted the local government to pass strict regulations against this.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?267394

Original principles of Microfinance are good...treating people with dignity and beleiving in their abilities ...and filling in the vaccum of lending small amounts which no Indian bank is willing to do.

Please do not contribute to any of the Indian Microfinance firms at this time without researching them.Many of them have turned into commerical entities.

Just felt like adding one more piece of information.India has one of the highest farmer suicide rates and this problem is multipronged.

PBS America at one point of time did an nice documentary titled "the dying fields"

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/the-dying-fields/introduction/967/

This was the basis of the Aamir Khan produced movie " Peepli Live " too.

Agreed the gc process is very painful for most of us...but looking at some of this stuff puts things in perspective atleast for me.

That's also the reason I love this site ,the caring atmosphere of the posters and the noble intention of helping others along the way.


Friends, if you would like to - please vote to select a good charity. http://www.qesehmk.org/forums/showthread.php?90-Account-of-Donations-We-Made

We will donate from this site's revenue to the charity majority of YOU vote for.

[qesehmk]

gcseeker thanks for your thoughts. As you can see we are not doing anything very significant. But to be honest it makes all of us feel good ... and it doesn't hurt anybody or cost a lot to do.

Appreciate taking the time to pen down your thoughts.


Q

(general post about charities...can be moved to the charities section ..was not sure how to link the quote from here.)

Voted for Akshaya this time. I cannot stop myself from sharing one small piece of information. KIVA definetly does some good work in the african continent and is based on the concept of Microfinance ( pioneered by one good doctor from Bangladesh who later won the nobel peace prize ) . There are a lot of Microfinance based organizations in India as well and what started with noble intentions has now gone the wrong way. Looking at the vast potential of squeezing poor people with loans many wall street firms started forcing the microfinance firms to start IPO's in the Indian stock market. With the start of the IPO's the microfinance firms started charging equally bad interest rates as the local village money lenders.

OutlookIndia did an fantastic piece on Microfinance firms in India in Oct 2010 titled "Is it Micro Usury" . The malpractises of the Microfinance industry led to almost 50 farmer suicides in the state of Andhra pradesh in a single month in 2010 which prompted the local government to pass strict regulations against this.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?267394

Original principles of Microfinance are good...treating people with dignity and beleiving in their abilities ...and filling in the vaccum of lending small amounts which no Indian bank is willing to do.

Please do not contribute to any of the Indian Microfinance firms at this time without researching them.Many of them have turned into commerical entities.

Just felt like adding one more piece of information.India has one of the highest farmer suicide rates and this problem is multipronged.

PBS America at one point of time did an nice documentary titled "the dying fields"

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/the-dying-fields/introduction/967/

This was the basis of the Aamir Khan produced movie " Peepli Live " too.

Agreed the gc process is very painful for most of us...but looking at some of this stuff puts things in perspective atleast for me.

That's also the reason I love this site ,the caring atmosphere of the posters and the noble intention of helping others along the way.

[grnwtg]

Thanks. As long as we can donate to a US registered non-profit, we can certainly consider this charity.

Hi Q,

You can donate throught either Sanatana Dharma or Lions Club. Only 3 people voted for this yet, this is like a healthy competition i guess :)

[10102007]

My vote is for St. Jude's Children hospital

[qesehmk]

Thanks. If more people like that one we will do that.

Hi Q,

You can donate throught either Sanatana Dharma or Lions Club. Only 3 people voted for this yet, this is like a healthy competition i guess :)


My vote is for St. Jude's Children hospital

10102007, thanks. We donated to St Jude a couple of months back. But come Dec, it would be a good idea to do again.

[grnwtg]

Just wanted to put in one sentence for http://nalgonda.bbnow.org/
Its a Deadly disease which has affected thousands of people but this can be curable with few thousand dollars ( for few thousand people).


Hi Q,

Here is a suggestion and also since topic came i just want to see if any one want to help privately also.
There is a place called Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh which is one of the back ward district and few places of it are very badly hit by flourolysis due to which people in those villages have very very low strength in bones and also few people cannot even walk.
This problem can be completely solved for future generation with purified water( unfortunately Government is not taking any kind of action after it even after being major vote bank topic).

There is an Young Lady in Texas who want to help this people she already collected and built couple of plants, i believe she is very sincere in building the plants.
Thousands of people can benefit with few thousand dollars which she is planning to collect. Cost of each plant is around Rs.120,000 which will help probably few hundred people. Here is the website information ( please go through it)
http://nalgonda.bbnow.org/


As mentioned in Site, every Penny counts.


If any body want to look at sample photos of people affected this problem:
http://www.nalgonda.org/fluorosis/flourosis_victim_pics.htm

[qesehmk]

Friends,

The results for voting on charity came in as follows: Akshay Trust and Udavum Karangal tied at 7.

We have donated as follows:
$36 - Udavum Karangal (to provide 1 student with school bag, shoes, & all books).
$25 - Akshaya Trust
$25 - Mahaganapati Temple, AZ

Kiva, AID, Nalgonda will be carried over to next month. We will also add www.sewausa.org (http://www.sewausa.org) & www.americares.org (http://www.americares.org) to that list.

Thank you for your involvement!

p.s.- Please understand that these donations are quite small and are given from the ad revenue which itself is meagre to say the least. But what's important is that people on this forum keep the spirit of "Good Karma" in mind. The objective here is not to boast what we do or dont but rather to just do one small bit that we can do.

[username]

Q, can you also add Akshaya Patra (http://www.akshayapatra.org/) in your future donation drive.

[qesehmk]

sure. absolutely. We will do so for next month.
Q, can you also add Akshaya Patra (http://www.akshayapatra.org/) in your future donation drive.

[qesehmk]

Guys ...

The votes for this month were -
AID - 7
Nalgonda Water Project - 6
Sewausa - 2
Kiva - 1
Americares - 0

Accordingly we have donated 80 dollars for AID (Specifically, Eureka Child Education Fund). We have 51 dollars more to donate this month. But Nalgonda hasn't confirmed their US registered non-profit status. If we don't hear from them we will donate to sewausa by next week.

For next month the poll is modified to add akshayapatra. Please vote and help us make a small difference.

[essenel]

Q, Kiva only requires a $25 donation per lender. You choose the person that you would like to help and it pools together several lenders to get that person the loan that they need.


GK thank you for the recommendation. I will keep that in mind and will check out Kiva.org.

p.s. - I did check out Kiva. Its fantastic. I guess the lending part will be tough for us given the accounting overhead in it. But we can certainly donate sometime in future.

[qesehmk]

Friends December donations made to Akshaypatra for $75. Another $75 donation is available and will be made to some local charity in Arizona.

[essenel]

Q, try charitynavigator.org. This website evaluates and rates charities based on several criteria and is a great resource for figuring out who you want to donate to. It might be a good idea to do a some independent checking before actually donating.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/


Friends December donations made to Akshaypatra for $75. Another $75 donation is available and will be made to some local charity in Arizona.

[username]

Friends December donations made to Akshaypatra for $75. Another $75 donation is available and will be made to some local charity in Arizona.


Akshaypatra: http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-nys-happy-meal-treat-for-13l-unprivileged-indian-students/20111110.htm

[qesehmk]

Essnell, username thanks for your thoughts.

Friends - we donated $75 today to Make a Wish. By end of Dec 31st we will donate at least $100 more. So if there are any suggestions please provide in next 5 days.

[essenel]

Here are some suggestions for members to vote on:

1) My friend does a lot of work for Ashraya Initiative For Children in Pune and can vouch for this charity. This charity was started in Pune by an American college student, Elizabeth Sholtys in 2004. They currently support 260 children in Pune in residential and outreach programs, but have been struggling recently because of the economic climate and are in dire need of help.
http://www.ashrayainitiative.org/doku.php

2) Direct Relief International
Credentials: http://www.directrelief.org/AboutUs/Credentials/Credentials.aspx
This is an international charity, highly rated for efficiency and transparency. One can donate to US programs, International Programs or Emergency Programs. They do work in several countries: http://www.directrelief.org/WhereWeWork.aspx




Essnell, username thanks for your thoughts.

Friends - we donated $75 today to Make a Wish. By end of Dec 31st we will donate at least $100 more. So if there are any suggestions please provide in next 5 days.

[qesehmk]

Friends, The voting for Year end charity is open. Please vote. We will donate at least $104 to the charity of your choice on Dec 31st from our Ad Revenue.

[immitime]

Suggestion for charity.

http://www.aimforseva.org/

[jackbrown_890]

just voted:
I like essenel's suggestion..Ashraya..i checked their site,,and they also have program called sponsor a child, and i liked their educational outreach program..... i have come across other similar programs in the past,,but this does look like more grassroot effort..i would definitely support it..
we all are here b'cuz we were lucky enough to have good education....and so i would actually request everyone to, once in their life time, sponsor 1 child's education for at least 1 year.

[qesehmk]

immitime,

Thanks for your suggestion. Will certainly add for next month.


Suggestion for charity.

http://www.aimforseva.org/

JB, thanks a ton for your thoughts. I wholeheartedly agree.

just voted:
I like essenel's suggestion..Ashraya..i checked their site,,and they also have program called sponsor a child, and i liked their educational outreach program..... i have come across other similar programs in the past,,but this does look like more grassroot effort..i would definitely support it..
we all are here b'cuz we were lucky enough to have good education....and so i would actually request everyone to, once in their life time, sponsor 1 child's education for at least 1 year.

[essenel]

just voted:
I like essenel's suggestion..Ashraya..i checked their site,,and they also have program called sponsor a child, and i liked their educational outreach program..... i have come across other similar programs in the past,,but this does look like more grassroot effort..i would definitely support it..
we all are here b'cuz we were lucky enough to have good education....and so i would actually request everyone to, once in their life time, sponsor 1 child's education for at least 1 year.

jackbrown, I completely agree. Sponsoring a child's education or at least providing some level of sponsorship can be extremely helpful to that child and it doesn't cost that much either. It's usually a small monthly amount like $25, but it can go a long way for that child. Most good charities do not directly give the money to the child's family (because it can be misused). Instead, they buy educational supplies, clothes, etc and pay tuition fees for the child.

[qesehmk]

Friends,

We donated $121 to Ashraya Initiative (http://www.ashrayainitiative.org/doku.php)today as majority of you voted for this month.

Thanks for your involvement and votes. For next month if there are charities of your interest...pls feel free to mention.

Happy new year!

Regards,
Q

[qesehmk]

Friends for the month of January we donated $100 to planned parenthood. In case some of you are not following what happened today, here is the news:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46228814/

Thanks to all for their support of this forum.

ps. - Also donated $20 to 247sports.com - an organization that works for tobaccofree youths.

[Pundit Arjun]

Excellent choice, Q.

Friends for the month of January we donated $100 to planned parenthood. In case some of you are not following what happened today, here is the news:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46228814/

Thanks to all for their support of this forum.

ps. - Also donated $20 to 247sports.com - an organization that works for tobaccofree youths.

[qesehmk]

Friends,

From our February ad revenue we donated $100 today to Blakes Miracle (http://www.blakesmiracle.org)

It's a charity that supports children health and drowning prevention.

Thank you all since your visits allowed this!

[nishant2200]

Friends from our February ad revenue we donated $100 today to blakesmiracle.org.

Its a charity that supports children health and drowning prevention.

Thank you all since your visits allowed this.

keep it up!

[qesehmk]

For the month of March, we donated in advance to Ekal Vidyalaya (http://www.ekal.org/) a small sum of $51. It's a great charity doing great work for the underpriviledged and tribal students from remote/tribal areas of India. They run over 30,000 schools in India with over 1M students. It's a great success story and great work.

[qesehmk]

Friends,

For April we donated $191 and committed additional $200 for May and $200 for Jun to NadRoop - a Pune India based non-profit. It is an Indian Classical Dance School that promotes Kathak and its fusion with contemporary music and art forms. They are celebrating their silver jubilee this year.

As you know we donate this money through the ad revenue of this site. So thanks to you all for that.

[qesehmk]

Friends,

Forgot to update that we allocated additional $200 from our monthly revenue towards NaadRoop during this month. As you know this forum is run as not-for-profit and so we donate the monthly revenues (quote often more) to charitable and social organizations.


Friends,

For April we donated $191 and committed additional $200 for May and $200 for Jun to NadRoop - a Pune India based non-profit. It is an Indian Classical Dance School that promotes Kathak and its fusion with contemporary music and art forms. They are celebrating their silver jubilee this year.

As you know we donate this money through the ad revenue of this site. So thanks to you all for that.

[qesehmk]

Friends,

Header updated with Jun Donations. Just to remind - these donations are made out of the advertising revenue from this site. So thanks to all of you.

Q

[qesehmk]

Friends,

It's been a while since the last donations. We have about $100 we can donate. Please suggest names and then we can vote on them.

If we don't receive new names - we will just go round robin! So pl do suggest good non-profit charities.

[dorais]

I am not sure if this charity (Vibha) has been suggested earlier.

Website:
http://sites.vibha.org/

List of projects:
http://projects.vibha.org/projects/


Mission:
Our mission is to educate, empower and enable every individual who wishes to make a positive difference in the life of the underprivileged child.

Founded in 1991, today Vibha has a volunteer network of over 800 volunteers spread across 15 Action Centers (Atlanta, Austin, Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Twin Cities - Minnesota, New York, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Washington DC) and several other cities across the US and India. Till date, we have supported over190 projects in India and the US.

Thanks.

[qesehmk]

Thank you dorais. Will certainly include.

Others please feel free to suggest more names. We will then create a poll around 10th Sep.


I am not sure if this charity (Vibha) has been suggested earlier.

Website:
http://sites.vibha.org/

List of projects:
http://projects.vibha.org/projects/


Mission:
Our mission is to educate, empower and enable every individual who wishes to make a positive difference in the life of the underprivileged child.

Founded in 1991, today Vibha has a volunteer network of over 800 volunteers spread across 15 Action Centers (Atlanta, Austin, Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Twin Cities - Minnesota, New York, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Washington DC) and several other cities across the US and India. Till date, we have supported over190 projects in India and the US.

Thanks.

[tatikonda]

Q,

I would suggest Sphoorthi Organization, I personally donated them several times and admire/appreciate their efforts.

Also, I would like to thank you for providing such a wonderful forum and that too non-profit. hats off to you ...

http://www.sphoorti.org/

SPHOORTI is a non-profit organization working for underprivileged children - orphaned, abandoned, destitute and other vulnerable groups. Our mission is to change lives of such children - by providing them with long-term care. This includes basic needs, education and healthcare, and skills necessary to transform them into responsible citizens.

We have three Childrens' Homes (all in the same locality) - one for boys, one for girls and another for children below 6 years of age. In addition, we have a separate facility for cooking and dining.

[savinir]

Please consider

https://www.rangde.org/ -- The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities.

or

http://www.soscvindia.org/charity/sos_updates/index.php this is really a good concept where they bring in orphans and women who have no one together and make them into a family.

[qesehmk]

tatikonda & savinir - thank you. Let's include them for next month. Thank you for sharing!

Q,

I would suggest Sphoorthi Organization, I personally donated them several times and admire/appreciate their efforts.

Also, I would like to thank you for providing such a wonderful forum and that too non-profit. hats off to you ...

http://www.sphoorti.org/

SPHOORTI is a non-profit organization working for underprivileged children - orphaned, abandoned, destitute and other vulnerable groups. Our mission is to change lives of such children - by providing them with long-term care. This includes basic needs, education and healthcare, and skills necessary to transform them into responsible citizens.

We have three Childrens' Homes (all in the same locality) - one for boys, one for girls and another for children below 6 years of age. In addition, we have a separate facility for cooking and dining.


Please consider

https://www.rangde.org/ -- The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities.

or

http://www.soscvindia.org/charity/sos_updates/index.php this is really a good concept where they bring in orphans and women who have no one together and make them into a family.

[qesehmk]

Friends,

The poll is now closed. The final vote was - Vibha - 4, Kiva - 3, Aim For Seva - 2.
So we have donated $50 to Vibha. $25 to Kiva. & $25 to Aimforseva.

Thanks for your suggestions.

For next month - we have wikipedia, sphoorti and rangde. We can add a couple more names in the vote if anybody has any other suggestions.

We will open the poll for vote a week from now i.e. 25th Sep and donations will be made 1st week of October.

[qesehmk]

Friends - Based on the suggestions received - for the month of October we have opened a new poll in this thread. Please vote for your charity and we will donate from the ad revenues of this site.

We will close the poll in two weeks.

[qesehmk]

Friends - this poll closes sometime this week. Please vote if you would like...

Friends - Based on the suggestions received - for the month of October we have opened a new poll in this thread. Please vote for your charity and we will donate from the ad revenues of this site.

We will close the poll in two weeks.

[qesehmk]

Friends -

Thank you for your vote - We donated $60 to Sphoorti.com & $30 to Shankara Netralaya from the site's ad revenues for the month of October.

For november - please feel free to suggest any charities you would like to.

[qesehmk]

Friends - this month somehow there were no NEW suggestions. So I just went ahead and donated $75 from the ad revenues to Red Cross towards victims of Hurricane Sandy. First $1M will be matched dollar for dollar. Check out if you are interested - http://www.redcross.org/sandy .

Thank you nonetheless since these ad revenues are because of YOU that we donate!

[qesehmk]

Friends,

As usual this month we will donate from site's ad revenues. As you may be aware - this site is run in a not for profit manner.
So if you have any suggestions for charities please let us know. The site revenues are very small as you can see from past donations. But they help us do a good deed. Then why not?

Best Regards,
Q

[qesehmk]

Dear Users,

Using this site's ad revenues we donated $51 for the month of December to IDRF i.e. India Development and Relief Fund. With this we donated slightly more than last year's donations during this year at $1178. Thank you again!

Regards
Q

[qesehmk]

The site made yet another donation ($50) for the month of December to Nirankari Mission (www.nirankari.org). Also committed $51 for January.

[qesehmk]

The site made a donation of $51 in January to Nirankari.org and also made a $25 donation to newvrindaban.org

[qesehmk]

Friends, this month we received $25 back from a previous kiva loan we had lent. Using those $25 and adding $50 more we made 3 kiva loans again. This time we loaned to 3 groups of Manipuri women. North east has been a long neglected area of India and needs your help. If you like the idea of helping those women please go online at www.kiva.org and extend your loan!

For a complete list of our donations pl see the header of this thread.

[qesehmk]

Q2 Donations Updated

[qesehmk]

Friends,

For last few months GCQ and I tried to focus our donations on innovation education in India. Indian education is generally moribund and usually doesn't foster creativity and problem solving. Rather it emphasizes - not surprisingly - on memorization. Lack of innovation mindset leads to lack of problem solving. So we thought that it would be a good idea to donate towards charities or education institutes in India that could potentially be interested in innovation efforts. The earlier the better. In education there is a saying - "Catch them young". This way the education has maximum impact. That's where we think we would like to focus our donations going forward.

Unfortunately finding credible party that has interest in education for innovation is not that simple. After trying for over 2-3 months, unsuccessfully, we need to take a different route. Instead of chasing people to donate money - let us declare our next intended donation and its purpose. Let the organizations that are already working with these goals - come to us and we will evaluate and if found good fit donate accordingly.

I will create one thread per iteration of this exercise. You don't have to help monetarily - we use site ad revenues for donations. But if you know somebody who could use the donation towards the stated purpose please pass on the information.

Here is our very first iteration of this exercise.
http://www.qesehmk.org/forums/showthread.php/2225-Donating-towards-innovation-education-Iteration-One?p=40589#post40589

Any suggestions are welcome.

[qesehmk]

Been a long time I haven't updated this thread.

In case you are looking to donate end of this year please consider Maharashtra Foundation. I know the people, they support some good causes. Here is a link where you can view their projects and donate.

https://www.maharashtrafoundation.org/projects/current-projects/

p.s. - This month we donated to their causes. Please consider them if you can.