The Fate of Tyrlon and other Dubious Things

I’m on the board of a charity that my older brother and his wife started a year and a half ago. The Charity is called ChooseANeed and is located on the web at www.chooseaneed.org.

There is currently a video on the main page that will show some of the needs that have been met this past year, and you can also read about the organization in our first newsletter located here.

Over the years, many people have wished to be more informed about where the money is being spent when they donate to a charity, and what kind of personal impact they are having. ChooseANeed was created with that goal in mind. Instead of giving $500 to an organization such as United Way and never knowing where that money went, how much was spent on administration of the charity, and what kind of project you supported, with ChooseANeed you know all of that!

Let’s look at a specific example to see how the idea works. An NGO (non-governmental organization - what charities are sometimes called overseas) located a need for several wells to be dug in Uganda. They contacted us and wrote up the need, the budget, and how much local community involvement was planned and submitted it to the ChooseANeed board for approval. Once the need was approved by the board members, it was posted on the Needs portion of the ChooseANeed website. Visitors to the site saw the list of needs and chose to donate funds directly to that particular project. After the funding goal was reached (note how administrative costs and costs for the project are broken up separately!), the project’s funding was sent to the group overseas for completion. Once the project was finished, video and pictures were sent back to be posted and the need was moved to the completed needs section where you can still see it here.

The people who donated to that project are e-mailed with the ChooseANeed newsletter every few months which points out needs which have been completed, letting them know about the personal impact that they made! People are also free to visit the site every day to check up on how the need they are supporting is progressing.  ChooseANeed sticks with projects that have a specific type of impact which you can read about on the about page here. The types of needs supported are needs that are for: 1. The promotion of social justice.
2. The provision of relief for the poor, distressed, or under-privileged as determined by ChooseAneed members.
3. The elimination of prejudice and discrimination in the world.
4. The support of the human and civil rights of individuals as created by their respective governments.
5. The support of the pursuit and development of individuals personal and spiritual growth around the world.

ChooseANeed also only does projects with a cost of $10,000 or less (almost all are under $5,000), and often the projects can be as low as $400-$500. We have had people fund these type projects in one donation! An example of what you can do with $500 is build a well in Uganda that benefits hundreds of people in the community nearby. The gift of clean water can be a lifesaving one and millions of people around the world do not have it!

I’m excited by the number of needs people were able to support in the first full year of the charity (2007) and can’t wait to see the work that can be done this year to support those in need. If you have any questions about how it works feel free to ask me here or hop over to the ChooseANeed website in the contact section to send an e-mail to us. ChooseANeed is a registered 501(c)3 organization and all donations are tax deductible as allowed under U.S. law.

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