Help me pick some charities

[dreamshark]

When I got my totally unnecessary and undeserved Federal Tax Rebate check earlier in the year I said I was going to give it to charity. I still intend to, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I have some ideas, but wonder what other people would suggest. I would much prefer to give to organizations that offer a convenient, online option to opt out of junk mail and that will promise not to sell my name to other organizations.

I'm leaning towards the following:

Food Shelf: maybe Second Harvest, maybe the Minnesota Emergency Foodshelf Network.
Homeless shelters: Sharing and Caring Hands
Arts Organzations: HOTB, Intermedia Arts
Miscellaneous: Meals on Wheels, Toys for Tots, one of the Jewish charities that got shafted by Bernie Madoff.

Comments

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to avoid getting on mailing lists. Does HOBT have some way to opt out of getting monthly mailings? And of course I don't want to be sold to other organizations' mailing lists.

As it is, I think the junk mail we get from Worthy Causes is eating up at least a couple of hundred dollars' worth of somebody's donations (maybe ours, maybe other people's). Seems pointless.