Thanksgiving coming; car giveaway poll

[fflo]

Well, I'm gonna be a straggler this year, for the first time. Will be spending Thanksgiving in some place call She-boy-gun. Yeah, it's a strange name, isn't it?

I've just found out that this calendar year, 2004, is the last for simple tax-deduction car donating---starting next year, cuzza something buried in the Giant Tax Breaks for Corporations bill, people will be generally be able to deduct less for their donated cars, and in many cases won't know until after the donation how much it will be worth. Charitable groups are pretty upset; asked what she thought about the new law, a spokesperson for Goodwill is quoted in this article in Motortrend as saying, "You mean how Congress is using the homeless and hungry to pay for corporate tax breaks?"

Anyway, I'm contemplating donating the Jeep instead of selling it as is or getting the steering fixed in order to sell it. Gotta do a little number-crunching first. If I do decide to donate it, to whom should the donation go?

[Poll #389853]

Whitman-Walker's a great clinic in DC (serving the GLBT community). SMYAL's a queer youth group. CORE is the long-time civil rights organization. WEAVE us "Women Escaping A Violent Environment"---cheesy acronym, but a national group of 25+ years now.

I nearly died of SIDS myself.

Comments

[groovesinorbit]

You put the wildlife one in for me, didn't you? Cool idea to donate the Jeep regardless of who you give it to. I still have hopes of turning ours into a psychedelic flower bed. This being VT and all, we are required to have an old car somewhere on the property (whenever we do buy again). This place has a bus and a car with a tree growing out of it.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of the vehicle-as-planter.

Wildlife charity actually tends to remind me these days of my other friend from Omaha (coworker), as she talks of those issues and her interest in them a lot. My tendency, unlike disclaimerwill's, is to think of charities benefitting humans and issues of injustice as most worthy. But I do like to root for the underdog, and wildlife is certainly an underdog on the planet, thanks to our dominance.

Hey, now that I think of it, your old Jeep being reclaimed/taken over by flora and fauna is a nice symbolic statement of a sort.

[groovesinorbit]

Injustice and human rights are important, but I go with wildlife and wild lands first usually. You know, people are fine ... ; )

Hey, now that I think of it, your old Jeep being reclaimed/taken over by flora and fauna is a nice symbolic statement of a sort.

Yep!

[disclaimerwill.livejournal.com]

I echo all of PiJeanF's comments above. Great causes all, I'm sure, but I picked the wildlife one because given a choice, I always go with the animal-related charity.

Not sure about my answer

[vjsmom.livejournal.com]

I'd have probably gone with Whitman-Walker because I have always been a supporter of theirs, but their administrative costs were getting a pretty large percentage of the donation money the last time I checked. I would check that out with any of these organizations befaore I made a final decision, but for the poll, I went with CORE, only because I envision even more of our civil rights being taken away now that W feels he has a "mandate."

For What It's Worth

[groovesinorbit]

(being at work and having access to foundation databases and all)

SIDS Network
Administration $14K
Program Services $76K
Contributions $91K

Whitman Walker Clinic
Administration $2M
Program Services $23M
Contributions $9.8M

Chesapeake Wildlife
Administration $331K
Program Services $1.1M
Contributions $498K

AIDS Research Alliance
Administration $91K
Program Services $1.1M
Contributions $1.2M

WEAVE
Administration $191K
Program Services $3M
Contributions $1.6M

CORE
Administration $177K
Program Services $1.1M
Contributions $1.6M

SMYAL
Administration $38K
Program Services $823K
Contributions $527K

Re: For What It's Worth

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Ah---thanks for that!

So, here are the ranks of how much they already get in contributions:

1. Whitman-Walker
2. CORE
3. WEAVE
4. AIDS Research Alliance
5. SMYAL
6. Chesapeake Wildlife
7. SIDS Network

---so maybe Whitman-Walker doesn't really need my (slightly more than) two cents.

$ spent on Administration as a % of $ in Program Services:

Chesapeake Wildlife: 30.09
SIDS Network: 18.42
CORE: 16.09
Whitman-Walker: 8.70
AIDS Research Alliance: 8.27
WEAVE: 6.37
SMYAL: 4.62

Re: For What It's Worth

[groovesinorbit]

Yeah, Whitman-Walker looks like it's doing okay. Looking at the list ranked that way, I might go with SMYAL or WEAVE if it were me. I hate to see a lot of money go toward administration.

Re: For What It's Worth

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I'm tending more and more toward WEAVE.

Re: For What It's Worth

[groovesinorbit]

Sounds good.

Re: For What It's Worth

[vjsmom.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see that Whitman Walker is doing better than they were the last year that I participated in AidsWalk (it's been a few years, I 'm sad to say). However, CORE does not do that well in applying contributions to programs, so I think I'd probably change my vote--perhaps to SMYAL. But then, atleastdefiant has a great point about WEAVE possibly using the vehicle itself in a positive way. I have fond memories of the Jeep, and I'd like to think of it being used to help someone in a direct way.

And thanks to pijeanf for all the info!

Re: For What It's Worth

[groovesinorbit]

Glad to do it.

[atleastdefiant.livejournal.com]

Maybe WEAVE would actually give the jeep to a woman needing transport after escaping the violent environment. That sounds like the most direct good, to me.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Good point!

[fflo.livejournal.com]

They also have one of the lower overall budgets and one of the best %s of $ actually spent on programs.

[atleastdefiant.livejournal.com]

By the way, hope you have a good time in Sheboykin. That's a Groucho Marx-y town, like Kalamazoo, where the name sounds livelier than the place probably is. Unless I've got Sheboykin all wrong, which is possible.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

This one's actually Cheboygan---it's in Michigan, around the tip of the forefinger, or between the tip of the forefinger and the tip of the middle finger. Maybe 15 or 20 miles from the big bridge.

Oooh, I wonder if I'll get to see the big bridge.

Holly was born in Kalamazoo. I liked that, cuz I could sing the old big band song & have it be true: "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I Got A Gal from Kalamazoo zoo zoo zoo zoo zoo zoo ... " ----d'ya know it?

[atleastdefiant.livejournal.com]

That's probably the Cheboygan I'm thinking of; my spelling has deteriorated terribly from my MR days. It's by the Mac Bridge? Maybe you'll see the dunes! I loves those things, I can't believe they're in MI. I don't know the big band song. But didn't Sammy Davis Jr. sing something about Cheboygan? I realize now that although I wrote Groucho Marx, I actually meant the Candyman. I've got a really clear impression of him saying Cheboygan in my head, and I don't know why I would hallucinate that.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

That's the one! I thought maybe you were thinking of the Sheboygan in Wisconsin (which I guess is an actual city? I dunno).

If you were going to hallucinate something, Sammy Davis Jr. singing "Cheboygan" is as likely as anything else!

[atleastdefiant.livejournal.com]

It's Tommy Davison doing an impersonation of Sammy Davis Jr., saying Cheboygan. I knew I wasn't crazy!Probably around second season, In Living Color. Okay, now that makes sense. Still don't know why he was saying Cheboygan, though.