heric, I always donate to Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders first when I make international disaster donations. They are already in there, on the ground, in all the worst hit countries.

Their organization is very tight, very quick first responder teams on all the continents who go out to quickly assess where the needs are greatest and will be of greatest benefit on the ground. Then usually within 24-48 hours, they start sending in their volunteers who will stay in the region for 3-9 months, depending upon the need. They are very good at what they do, and they don't soak up a lot of donation money in administrative costs because they are very well organized to mobilize immediately and with great effectiveness. They always have a separate administrative team on the ground to coordinate goods and services, so the field teams don't have to do that part of the work on the ground in the nearest big city to coordinate things coming in and things going to the field.

A friend of my daughter's mom is a doctor who has volunteered for a couple of tours with them in the last ten years, and since we heard straight from the horse's mouth about their organization, we've been donating to them ever since.

I also always look for organizations that can set up camps for the displaced quickly and efficiently, in the area of the disaster, if possible. Catholic Relief Services is pretty good at this if I decide to go locally.

I won't donate to Red Cross/Red Crescent anymore because of the negative things I've heard from people in the disaster relief business about them. And then there was the whole 9/11 debacle. And there are only a handful of UN organizations I will donate to anymore either because of this sort of thing. I do still donate to the UN Population Fund, as that money goes directly pregnant & nursing women, who are often the first to be overlooked in disasters. But I'm not too keen on how much money it takes the UN orgs to administer relief. It is a massive bureaucracy, burdened by way too much inefficiency. Unfortunately, they are sometimes the only resort, not just the last one.

As to money, I can rarely afford more than $10.00 to give to a couple of charities. But I also know that 1,000 people donating $10 each equals $10,000 pretty quickly, and 10,000 people donating $10 each equals $100,000.

That adds up to some serious change in no time at all. So as our mighty firefighter above says, don't ever think your small money donation is insignificant. It never is, because it all adds up to real help. Truly.

Another bit of info people interested in donating to international relief efforts now and later might like to know about is the Reuters AlertNet website. It is a great website, that is jam packed with concise, up to the minute information on disaster relief around the world. For instance, right now you are two clicks away from a comprehensive list of disaster relief aid by country if you wish, or by charitable organization if you wish. It's an excellent resource to use to find a charity worthy of your support.

One final thing I'd like to say about disaster relief. I only support organizations that stay in the field long enough to finish the job, and who don't rob from the suffering Peters in Sudan to pay short term for the suffering Pauls in Sri Lanka. What I mean is, too many charitable organizations shift too many resources away from the areas like Sudan or Nigeria or Somalia or Turkey or Afghanistan where the ongoing relief needs are the most crucial to break the cycle of dependency upon foreign aid. That isn't responsible or effective crisis or relief management. So that is another thing I investigate about charities before I donate.

Once you've done your homework, you can donate worry free, knowing your dollars will get the best bang for the buck on the relief front. That is very important to me, because I know that millions and billions of dollars get wasted over the years that don't need to get wasted, by inefficiency, bureaucratic in-fighting, and "values" politics (a lot of religious relief organizations are guilty of the values politics thing in the international relief game) and way too much aid from them comes with "values" strings attached. Hence, I always look very carefully at any religious organizations when I donate.