Giving £500 to third world charity - help me decide where it should go please

[moneygiver]

I'm a very regular mumsnetter but using a different name since I don't want some cynic accusing me of being conspicuously generous to gain general approbation .

We are giving £500 to third world charity to mark the G8 summit meeting.

Where should I send it. Who in your opinion will spend the money best (i.e. lowest admin costs, highest proportion of the donation actually reaching the poor). I know there are some damn smart mumsnetters who will have all sorts of information about the efficacy and merits of various charities.

£500 is a reasonable amount for us so I would like to think it would be used to maximum effect.

Would greatly appreciate your input

Cheers
x

I was thinking more the so called 'fat cat' jobs though - save a fortune wouldn't it and there's no real reason why they have to be UK based is there? and then there's the call centre jobs to take people's direct debit details, the ad and marketing teams etc etc. Don't know really - how feasible is it? Why do they have to be UK based jobs?

Thanks for all your input.

Hatstand - I take your point....

Expat - I'm not planning to go to Edinburgh....

There are some interesting charities that you've suggested that I hadn't heard of / considered before like the womankind charity, Merlin, Intermediate Technology etc. Thanks for all the links - I shall probably end up splitting the money between a couple of the suggested charities.

Re the World Vision, Plan International suggestions - not ignoring those; already sponsoring a 7 year old boy from Zimbabwe through World Vision...although I might now do a 2nd since I've got two children...

Thanks again for taking the time to make some suggestions

I'd also recommend the route of asking you local church about any orphanage/small local charity out there that they support (just because it's supported by 'that' church doesn't mean it's nessecarily a 'Christian' place they're supporting in the 3rd world - just incase you're not a Christian and are of the view you don't only want to support christians).

There are often lots of 'small' places where the £500 would go a long way on 'one' project - rather than being split up by a UK based charity and distrebuted towards several projects IYKWIM

Completely agree hastand. Running a charity as a business may not be the most palatable idea to some, but it is the most efficient way of managing large scale donations.

My personal fave would be Action Aid, or one of teh other sponsorship charities. A long term commitment to giving from you will be more useful to them than a one off £500, and will help to bring about long term change to peoples lives.

There is the Bethany Place of Safety which quite a few of us have helped with clothes and toys - it seems a pretty hands-on sort of place - you could email Rosie for more information.

Please can I put in a word for the Medical Foundation which is the only organisation in Britain today dedicated solely to providing medical treatment and psychological and practical help to survivors of torture and their families. John McCarthy and Brian Keenan are patrons.
www.torturecare.org.uk

agree with yoyo - they are a superb organisation - what they do is very hands on, and pretty much unique

Bethany Place of Safety has a brand new website here - email from Rosie asks for loads of people to visit it please, now it's there!

Can I just pop in to say that I completely support personal giving to overseas development agencies (don't forget to Gift Aid it!) (and my personal pet charity is here - Edinburgh is not about people making donations to charity - it's about recognising that real change can only happen at national level and the politicians need to know how important we feel addressing these issues are. I'll go away now...

the times recently suggested that if every community twinned with a place in the third world we'd know exactly where our money went and what it was spent on.

I donate to a local church charity - although I don't attend the church - because they can tell you exactly where the money went. It obviously doesn't go on arms or too much greasing of palms. Unfortunately I doubt its always spent in the most effective way. Also have a MBNA charity affinity card for painless donations - something to consider moneygiver? Only for those who pay the balance of in full, don't want to encourage anyone into debt.

Of the larger charities medicines sans frontiers get my vote, too, every since I discovered they are often first to the scene of a disaster and are good at getting round red tape.

just decided to see what came up on google - this looks interesting www.directrelief.org/sections/information_center/press_detail.asp?id=73

I know its (a) american and (b) not directly about feeding people but I like the idea of making use of drugs donated by large companies.

I'd give it to Tearfund