Education

The first thing that I have decided to do to contribute to the world is to finish my university degree. That being said, there are plenty of resources invovled within a university and it's the best place for networking ideas. Our biology club for instance is raising money toward the haiti earthquake fund through a pub dinner with a silent auction and 50/50 draw.

Step 1: It's worth it to research different organizations:

The one thing I have noticed is the large amount of discussion centered around how we will distribute this money. Personally, I believe that non-for-profit organizations with extreme overhead fees simply aren't worth it. Yet uneducated people who feel better when they give to charities automatically place their money on charities such as these. Not that I'm saying these charities are not doing good things, but there are many more out there who put the money DIRECTLY to Haiti or with little overhead fees. So: do your research. Because we have already fundraised for our local firefighters to bring goods and help people in a rural village in Nicaragua, we've decided to continue to support them with the goods they will bring to Haiti. We have also heard from another motivated student from the university so to hear him out and his distribution ideas should be worth our while. It's always nice to work together as a community in disasters or any other worthwhile cause. The bottom line: do your reasearch.

I found a good website that pretty much does this for you too, a network for all kinds of NGO's: www2.guidestar.org