I realize this thread is two years old and the OP has already chosen a non-profit to support, nevertheless, I try not to miss an opportunity to create awareness of these great organizations.
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The first one, one that meets a very basic need that we can all understand, is Charity:Water. They were founded a couple years ago by a former night club promoter who hit rock bottom and decided to connect with Mercy Ship. After his time there he realized the tremendous need for clean water around the world and set out to do something about it. So he went to the companies that sponsored his former life and convinced them to sponsor this new endeavor. With their support covering any overhead costs of running the non-profit, 100% of the donations given go directly to the water wells projects. You can look at all their information on their website:
charity: water
There's some staggering statistics out there about just how dire the need for clean water is and how much it can improve the quality of life overall for our brothers and sisters in developing nations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCHhwxvQqxg&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rphhfy4qCfc
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Other than that one, which is one of my favorites. There's some other, equally incredible non-profits that are very much worthwhile.
One of them is International Justice Mission. It's a team of Christian lawyers and volunteers who have put together this organization that combats all the various forms of human trafficking.
From this Wikipedia article:
International Justice Mission (
IJM) is a
U.S.-based evangelical Christian non-profit human rights organization
[1] that operates in countries all over the world to rescue victims of individual human rights abuse. IJM works to combat
human trafficking including the
commercial sexual exploitation of children, forced labor
slavery, illegal detention, police brutality and illegal
land seizure. Based on referrals of abuse received from relief and development organizations, IJM conducts professional investigations of the abuses and mobilizes intervention on behalf of the victims. Though it is a faith-based organization IJM assists victims regardless of their religion. The fourfold purpose of IJM is victim relief, perpetrator accountability, victim aftercare, and structural transformation.
[2]
A few years back one of the leaders of that non-profit spoke at my college group and it was pretty profound getting to hear some testimony about what they're doing.
There's more information available on their website:
International Justice Mission - IJM Home
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A third that I'll mention is Uganda Orphans Fund. If you're interested in something similar to IJM but perhaps a little bit more focused, they're an excellent NPO. I got to travel to Uganda with the founder, Duncan Hill, about five years ago and to see just how exactly they're being "Jesus with skin on" to these children is utterly incredible.
These are children who were orphaned because of the twenty-year civil war that has been waged by Joseph Kony, and these children were forced into either serving in the rebel army (Lord's Resistance Army/LRA) or into sex slavery.
The Uganda Orphans Fund has been working to bring freedom, love and compassion to these children by building homes for them, caring for their day-to-day needs, reuniting them with family that they had been separated from, educating them, etc.
It's extremely compelling and definitely worth supporting.
There's a lot of interesting information and media on their website:
Uganda Orphans Fund
