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  • Showing only topics with the tag "charities". Back to normal view
    1. Does something like a charity fund for FOSS exist? If not, do you think it could be a good idea?

      There are a lot of awesome open source projects that I'd love to donate to, however, I can't afford to donate to all of them. It would be great if there was something like a charity fund (eg....

      There are a lot of awesome open source projects that I'd love to donate to, however, I can't afford to donate to all of them.

      It would be great if there was something like a charity fund (eg. GiveWell), but for FOSS. So a lot of people donate to it, and it distributes all collected money between some curated projects (most influential/important/promising/underfunded/etc.).

      Do you know if something like this already exists? if not, could it potentially be a good idea to do? It seems like the idea of donating to open-source is currently more prominent in the community due to the xz backdoor thing.

      21 votes
    2. Alternative or fun ways to donate to charity?

      One of my financial goals for 2024 is to donate more to charity. I have a couple of major charities that I donate to once or twice a year and love the personal touch of a GoFundMe whenever someone...

      One of my financial goals for 2024 is to donate more to charity. I have a couple of major charities that I donate to once or twice a year and love the personal touch of a GoFundMe whenever someone I'm in some way connected to needs help but otherwise I find it hard to get motivated to find charities to give to.

      I used to donate regularly to Omaze, a Charitable organization that would count your donations as entries in raffles for the chance to win prizes. I never won and never really expected to but it made giving really fun and allowed me to reach a much wider breadth of charities than if I had done the legwork myself. Omaze is now shut down and while I'd rather not have to admit it, making donating fun or even just easier would get me to do it more often.

      Does anyone have any recommendations to get my charitable motivation up other than finding worthwhile charities and manually donating myself?

      24 votes
    3. US states scrutinize the amount of charity spending from nonprofit hospitals in light of high salaries and large tax breaks

      https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/nonprofit-hospitals-tax-breaks-community-benefit/ POTTSTOWN, Pa. — The public school system here had to scramble in 2018 when the local hospital, newly...

      https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/nonprofit-hospitals-tax-breaks-community-benefit/

      POTTSTOWN, Pa. — The public school system here had to scramble in 2018 when the local hospital, newly purchased, was converted to a tax-exempt nonprofit entity.

      The takeover by Tower Health meant the 219-bed Pottstown Hospital no longer had to pay federal and state taxes. It also no longer had to pay local property taxes, taking away more than $900,000 a year from the already underfunded Pottstown School District, school officials said.

      The district, about an hour’s drive from Philadelphia, had no choice but to trim expenses. It cut teacher aide positions and eliminated middle school foreign language classes.

      “We have less curriculum, less coaches, less transportation,” said Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez.

      The school system appealed Pottstown Hospital’s new nonprofit status, and earlier this year a state court struck down the facility’s property tax break. It cited the “eye-popping” compensation for multiple Tower Health executives as contrary to how Pennsylvania law defines a charity.

      The court decision, which Tower Health is appealing, stunned the nonprofit hospital industry, which includes roughly 3,000 nongovernment tax-exempt hospitals nationwide.

      “The ruling sent a warning shot to all nonprofit hospitals, highlighting that their state and local tax exemptions, which are often greater than their federal income tax exemptions, can be challenged by state and local courts,” said Ge Bai, a health policy expert at Johns Hopkins University.

      The Pottstown case reflects the growing scrutiny of how much the nation’s nonprofit hospitals spend — and on what — to justify billions in state and federal tax breaks. In exchange for these savings, hospitals are supposed to provide community benefits, like care for those who can’t afford it and free health screenings.

      More than a dozen states have considered or passed legislation to better define charity care, to increase transparency about the benefits hospitals provide, or, in some cases, to set minimum financial thresholds for charitable help to their communities.

      The growing interest in how tax-exempt hospitals operate — from lawmakers, the public, and the media — has coincided with a stubborn increase in consumers’ medical debt. KFF Health News reported last year that more than 100 million Americans are saddled with medical bills they can’t pay, and has documented aggressive bill-collection practices by hospitals, many of them nonprofits.

      (article continues)

      15 votes
    4. Automotive journalist Victoria Scott plays Need For Speed: Underground for fourteen hours and raises over $40,000 for trans kids in Texas

      @victoria scott: Coming back to update this since it's still getting RTs - we BEAT the game, all 112 races, we raised FORTY TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS for trans kids in the South, and my friends and everyone there cheering and donating and watching was incredible and amazing and I love them so much!!!

      7 votes
    5. Desert Bus For Hope 2021 begins in less than six hours

      DBFH is "the Internet's longest running charity marathon." For fifteen years now, they've fundraised on behalf of Child's Play Charity for children who live in hospitals and in shelters for...

      DBFH is "the Internet's longest running charity marathon." For fifteen years now, they've fundraised on behalf of Child's Play Charity for children who live in hospitals and in shelters for victims of domestic violence.

      The event runs continuously, 24h/day on their twitch channel for an expected period of roughly one week. During this time, unpaid volunteer entertainers play games, do contests and comedy bits, take challenges from chat for songs, dances, readings, etc. and call-ins from guests while simultaneously raffling and auctioning various game culture and pop culture related items donated by sponsors or made throughout the year by unpaid volunteer crafters.

      Every year it's a really good time with a great community, so for those who weren't aware of the event I thought I'd mention it here. Last year alone the community managed to raise more than one million US dollars, and more than 7.1 million dollars throughout the life of the project so far, entirely for charity. Hope folks from here would like to join in and (if you can) donate (responsibly).

      8 votes