The International Red Cross  is a White House recommended organization. Donations are made here and fund medical aid and efforts to reunite families separated by this tragedy.  Donations of $10 can also be made and charged to your cell phone bill by texting “HAITI” to 90999.

UNICEF has issued a call for $120 million to support relief efforts through its post in Port-Au-Prince.  Donations support the children affected by this disaster and are made here.

CARE, mentioned in the Worldly Nonprofit here, is looking for donations to address the immediate needs of people affected by the earthquake, especially women and children.  Donations are made here.

The sustainable development nonprofit in Cap Haitien, Konbit Sante, mentioned in an earlier post has set up an earthquake response fund to address the immediate needs of the country.  Already contributing $25,000 from its reserves,  monies contributed will go to the now air-lifted  patients of Justinian hospital. Donations are made here.

Mercy Corps, a Portland, OR-based nonprofit mentioned here and here in the Worldly Nonprofit, is aggressively seeking donations to offer immediate humanitarian aid as well as offer psychological support and job infrastructure long-term.  Donations are made here and by starting a fundraising page.

Doctors Without Borders is currently hoping to expand their surgical capacity and seek donations for their Emergency Relief Fund.  Donations are made here.

Informationally,  The American Red Cross has a good update-style blog.  The White House blog contains timely informations about US efforts in Haiti.  Included in the blog is a link for the Center for International Disaster Information.  Mark Turner, former Financial Times journalist, writes from within Haiti in his Blog, Dispatches From a Fragile Island.  The Charity Water website has a great blog with information photos and links to their partner organizations, Partners in Health and Concern Worldwide.  Finally, the Facebook page, Global Disaster Relief is a tool for donation, connection and news updates.

Please add your input of other good nonprofit organizations and sites for information and donation.

Here is Obama’s statement yesterday after his call with President Preval of Haiti:

As a graduate student, part-time public affairs intern and a graduate assistant, I  know too well the pangs of guilt associated with precious free time spent on frivolous computer games and applications.  

However, I was not so guilty when recently introduced to Games That Give, a company that matches advertising sponsors to hosted computer games.  A user can simply start an account and choose from one of several games to play.  As ad revenue trickles in from the corporate sponsor, Games That Give donates 70% of the proceeds to the charities they sponsor. 

There is no user cost involved, and a quick game of Tetris or Sudoku can benefit one of 14 charities including the Ronald McDonald House Charities, United Way, Mercy Corps and UNICEF.  Kind of neat.

Launched in July 2009 from San Francisco, Games that Give already has an associated blog and Twitter account  and  received positive reviews.  The Huffington Post  jokingly riffed on the “You Play. We Donate. No Catch.” motto, noting that the catch was the difficulty playing a game over a giant corporate sponsor logo.  Regardless, the company holds fast to their mission of making giving fun, easy, affordable, legitimate, and a part of extant behavior.  Check out Games That Give, and put a positive spin on procrastination.

Tod Defren, author of PR-Squared , recently mused over the differences between the PR and advertising guys when it comes to new media.  He lingered over the fact that PR practitioners may be better suited to the medium as our role is sustain relationships with our audiences…interesting.

The post got me thinking about new media, particularly blogs, and nonprofit institutions.  When it comes to securing a loyal donor base, a nonprofit organization must establish an ongoing relationship with their audiences.  A blog, while slightly labor intensive, is a tactic to reach out to donors and create an online identity.

Grassroots International, based in Boston, MA, is a perfect example of an organization on the cusp of creating an online identity.  The nonprofit spends 78% of their funds on program expenses and received a 4/4-star rating from charity navigator.  These  funds are mainly used for grants and partnerships with local organizations to sustainably (an issue close to my heart)  bring change, particularly in resource rights.

Grassroots International has some fantastic blog posts attached to the site.  Meaningful, poignant, though sometimes a bit long,  they speak to the nonprofit’s projects and issues of human rights.  Each post has a clear call to action at the end, whether it be “donate,” “voice your opinion,” or “spread the word .”

I see two ways that the blog medium could be more powerful for Grassroots International.  Primarily, the blog should have its own link, and not be buried in the news tab.  Written by many authors, blog readers could choose a post  by category.

If you allow readers a simple and fast way to access the conversation, they should be permitted to join.  Nowhere on the internal  blog posts is there a way to contribute to the postings.  With such progressive and sometimes controversial posts, this blog would be an excellent forum to foster dialogue.

What do you think?  How can blogs be best used in the nonprofit sector?