Thank you for coming to look at this page, which is for people who want to send a gift in thanks for my gift of tutorial pages on the internet, or the freeware that I have made available
If you have a PayPal account which is backed by a bank account, please send your thank$ to...
I'm afraid that's a graphic and that copy/paste won't work. Copy it "by hand". (Don't post your eddress (email address) online in machine-readable form unless you want spam.)
Don't let the ".co.uk" worry you if you are not in the UK. You can sent the money in any currency. That is one of the joys of PayPal!
But if your PayPal spending is charged to a credit card, please don't send money that way, as it is expensive for me to collect it. Please use a check to: TK Boyd, PO Box 367, Essex, CT, 06426, USA, with a cover note reminding me (and reassuring the IRS) that this is a gift. I can accept checks drawn in US dollars or pounds sterling. (Cheques!) Please note: If you make a gift to me, you are not donating to a "charity". The gift would not be deductible against your income taxes.
(I won't know anything about your credit card or bank account, of course, if you use PayPal... but which source you use affects how much of your gift reaches me.)
Even if your PayPal is backed by a bank account, if you would rather send a contribution to a good charity, the following are ones I support. They are "charities" as far as the IRS is concerned, so, yes, US taxpayers can deduct the gifts from your income at tax paying time...
(If you are not in the US, I'll come to that in a moment)
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Help bring healthcare to the people living on the river in Peru...
(Have a look at the "biography" pages. Amazing lady... I've met her. The "Letters" page will give you an idea of what she does... with our support.)
They aren't a "big" charity... no fancy donations options. You just put a check in an envelope and send it to...
Amazon Medical Project, Inc. TM Kim Stokes, Administrator PO Box 194 Mazomanie, WI 53560
(Address checked November 11... please don't hesitate to pester me if this (or anything else on my sites!) seems out of date. (The AMP snailmail address is at their website.))
(They have a "donation form", if you want to help them with their paperwork, but it probably isn't necessary.)
Of course, alternatively, you could send your money to one of the huge "charity" industrial giants, if you'd rather. Have you seen their plush offices in central Washington DC? And their regional offices in "the field"? Of course many of the "big boys" do do good work. And maybe there's a logic in overlooking paying $1,000,000 to bring in $500,000 if the alternative is to pay $500,000, but only bring in $200,000... but that game will fall down if donors become more savvy. Long live CharityNavigator.org, and similar ventures! I've also heard, from someone who would know, that in his small "random sample", it seems to him that the people from Save the Children stay in modest hotels instead of 5 star palaces. That isn't to say that no other charity has the same policy... but it isn't true for all of them.)
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Closer to home, for US citizens, I commend...
American Indian College Fund....
(N.B.: .org, which is where the link will take you.)They DO provide direct support to individuals, but an even more important part of what they do, at least it seems that way to me, is to foster excellence in the educational opportunities on the reservations. I've visited some of their colleges. Ever visit a slum? In the middle of wastelands? So poor that there isn't a lot of trash around? That's a reservation. And yet, in some there is a "jewel", obviously cherished by the whole community: The tribe's college... where academic studies and/ or vocational training can be had, in a setting where the student's family and friends, and their beliefs, customs, traditions are welcome.
They are a bigger operation, and have most things a donor might want, except (at Nov 11) a way to give via PayPal. There's a way to give by credit card online. They do DEMAND an awful lot of information. I can understand them WANTING your telephone number, but it seems the form won't go through unless you supply one. Of course you might make a typo, if you do want to contribute, but don't want to chance sharing your phone number.
As for not accepting PayPal... do remember that the charities (and others) that do accept PayPal won't receive all of the money you donate. But that's true if you pay by credit card, too, or insist that they hire office staff to process checks. "You pays your money, you takes your choice!"
www.collegefund.org/content/how_to_donate
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Alternatively, please support the International Rescue Committee. Their webpage is at....
The IRC goes to crisis zones to rescue and rebuild.
They are big, but CharityNavigator gives them full marks, and the Forbes Investment Guide named them one of 10 "Gold Star" charities.
Also, while I have "issues" with the behavior of Microsoft in the commercial community, I never saw a "stupid" charge leveled at Bill Gates that I accepted as valid. His foundation regularly donates to the IRC. Want to match one of those gifts? Better use a check. Your credit card might struggle with $2,000,000.
As with AICF, they accept credit card donations via an online form, but not PayPal donations.
You can still give to the College Fund or IRC. (Or even to Amazon Medical, but not online, apart from a "written-by-hand" email... but they can accept credit card gifts that way.)
If you want to give to IRC, you can use Gift Aid, if you dig down just a little bit in their site (if the link I just gave doesn't work.) (You can't use CAF vouchers, however.)
Alternatively, for UK donors, either....
Go the London musical "Billy Elliot"... you will have a tremendous "night out" (even if you go to the Thursday or Saturday matinee!), and you will be supporting an amazing "centre of excellence". You can see the theatre from Victoria train station. A wheeze, if you are worried about last trains: Drive to Gatwick xxx, leave the car in the long term car park (£11.50... November '11. I wish my wages went up as fast as those car park charges), take the Gatwick Express (£23 cheap day return)... half hour journey to/from Victoria, trains every half hour, even late in the evening.
OR... make a contribution to your local cathedral, if they still have a "proper" choir. Another centre of excellence. If you have no particular local allegiance, the choir at Chichester is one. Please make a note with your donation "For the expenses of the choral foundation" on your donation. You can use the Gift Aid scheme here, too.... Chichester Cathedral, Royal Chantry, Chichester, PO19 1PX
One more option... and this one DOES accept PayPal...
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
This is the "meta-organization" which includes Wikipedia under its umbrella. (You can also donate by more traditional means.)
Thank you for reading this far. However, I would rather that you had became "distracted" somewhere above, and went off to donate! It is not too late....
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