squashed:

There aren’t a lot of natural disasters worse than the earthquake that just struck Haiti. The earthquake is such a disaster that the people who are normally in charge of telling you what a disaster it is are mostly dead or missing.

Earlier, I posted a list of charities that are set up to quickly get relief to those who need it. All of these charities are legitimate and regardless of denominational affiliation are dedicated to providing humanitarian relief. Here’s an updated and expanded list.

• Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
• American Jewish World Service
• United Methodist Committee on Relief
• Catholic Relief Services
• Church World Service
• The Red Cross (Or text “HAITI” to “90999” and $10 will be given automatically to Red Cross, charged to your cell phone bill. I don’t think the Red Cross donations are earmarked for this specific disaster.)
• Mercy Corps
• UNICEF
• Doctors Without Borders

An even longer list of charities is here. And Tumblr has a list here.

Red Cross allows Amazon Payments. Is it bad that I trust Amazon with my bank account information more than Red Cross? Is it worse yet if I admit I was looking for the paypal link?

As an additional note, Red Cross (and probably most of the others, but you might want to check first) is a qualified organization under IRS rules. Print out that receipt and save it. Donations made in 2010 can be reported on your 2010 return. This means that you will not get your tax deduction on the return you file this April, but rather the return you will file in April of 2011. I just called the IRS to confirm this. They’re a friendly lot.