Anne Hill, who has a wonderfully irreverent blog of her own,  just sent me a  very useful link to charities in harmony with a polytheistic worldview.  The list recommends other sites and urges people to send in their own suggestions, as it makes no claims to being complete.  But it is an impressive start as well as a wonderful example of how the net empowers us little guys.

As we are entering into some bad times economically, and possibly health wise as well, it’s good for those of us who are economically fortunate to know where our donations will do the most good in serving others while serving our values.  This can be a challenge.

I will never forget how years ago I sold the rights to my art work to a ‘charitable’ organization that told me it wanted  to raise money for a Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Sacramento, California.  I gave them a very low price, but at the same time, fortunately, included some performance standards.  

They sold through telephone solicitations, raised the price to double what I retailed my stuff for, and sent 10% to the memorial fund.  In other words, they were basically parasites living high off other people’s good intentions.  Happily, they also ignored their performance standards, and I was able to retake control of my work.

But it was a valuable lesson for me that some ‘charitable’ organizations are essentially parasites.  And I learned never to give to phone solicitations.  I ask them to mail me, and they never do.

This list, and the means it provides for oversight, suggests a good means by which internet technology can help Pagans, and anyone else, get maximum impact from their contributions.  Hopefully it will grow and develop over time.