How to Help when America Won't
I keep thinking about Peter Singer’s thought experiment, about the child drowning in the pond.
Right now, today, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Congressional Republicans, and engaged Trump supporters, are knowingly walking past the child, uncaring.
Except it’s not one child, it’s thousands.
This piece from Nicholas Kristof provides a concise overview of the possible impact. The numbers are staggering. It’s hard to watch. Hard to understand. Hard to acknowledge that the United States is turning its back on so many vulnerable people. But it’s happening.
So today I’m focused on ways you can help through giving.
Every dollar counts now more than ever.
We are a community of people who believe in taking action. Our role is to help you make the most effective donations possible in the fight against extreme poverty. Since our founding in 2013, we have compiled a list of research-backed charities working on interventions against the multidimensional factors of poverty, resulting in over $100 million donated to high-impact charities.
Our mission is to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care. By establishing long-term relationships with sister organizations based in settings of poverty, Partners In Health strives to achieve two overarching goals: to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them and to serve as an antidote to despair.
We draw on the resources of the world’s leading medical and academic institutions and on the lived experience of the world’s poorest and sickest communities. At its root, our mission is both medical and moral. It is based on solidarity, rather than charity alone.
When our patients are ill and have no access to care, our team of health professionals, scholars, and activists will do whatever it takes to make them well—just as we would do if a member of our own families or we ourselves were ill.
Save the Children believes every child deserves a future.
Our founder Eglantyne Jebb saw children dying of starvation and wracked with disease after the end of the First World War. So, in 1919, she launched the Save the Children Fund to raise much-needed funds to end children’s suffering across war-torn Europe.
Today, over 100 years later, we work in the United States and around the world to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We do whatever it takes for children - every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.
GiveWell is a nonprofit dedicated to finding outstanding giving opportunities and publishing the full details of our analysis to help donors decide where to give.
We recommend a list of Top Charities to donors. We also offer donors the option to give to our Giving Funds. GiveWell is focused on finding a small number of outstanding giving opportunities, not on reviewing as many organizations—or as many causes—as possible.
Every day, Doctors Without Borders teams deliver emergency medical aid to people in crisis, with humanitarian projects in more than 70 countries.
Helen Keller overcame tremendous obstacles to her health and wellbeing – and helped millions of others to do the same. Guided by her remarkable legacy, Helen Keller Intl partners with communities that are striving to overcome longstanding cycles of poverty. By delivering the essential building blocks of good health, sound nutrition and clear vision, we help millions of people create lasting change in their own lives. Together with a global community of supporters, we are ensuring that every person has the opportunity – as Helen did – to reach their true potential.
Our founders knew that the majority of deaths in the world’s poorest communities are due to curable diseases not treated in time. In the shadow of Mali’s capital, they witnessed neighbors struggle and often fail to access a health care system designed to exclude them, simply because they were poor. Patients got care too late, or not at all. Muso was born from the question: what would happen if we designed a different kind of health care? What if we could create a health system that functioned alongside patients, that reached and treated every patient early, in the first moments of their illness?
To end the child and maternal mortality crises and deliver universal health coverage at scale, Muso collaborates with policymakers and implementers to design, test, and scale evidence-based health systems that deliver care with speed: to all patients who need it, when they need it.
The Valentino Achak Deng (VAD) Foundation's mission is to empower children, youth, and women from poor communities in South Sudan through educational opportunities and other sustainable development initiatives.
While traditional schooling education is at the core of our strategy, the VAD Foundation believes that students and community members must be empowered to thrive beyond the classroom.
Our farming and vocational skills programs stimulate job creation while offering students, youth, and community members the chance to build livelihoods and pursue lifelong learning opportunities. Our goal, as an organization, is to promote economic development and security to provide a foundation for resilient and thriving communities in war-torn South Sudan.

