You’ve got most of my favourites up there, but I would also add :

Privacy International (UK)
http://www.privacyinternational.org/

Privacy International (PI) is a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations. PI is based in London, England, and has an office in Washington, D.C. We have campaigned across the world to protect people against intrusion by governments and corporations that seek to erode this fragile right. We believe that privacy forms part of the bedrock of freedoms, and our goal has always been to use every means to preserve it.

MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) (US)
http://www.maps.org

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is a membership-based non-profit research and educational organization. We assist scientists to design, obtain approval for, fund, conduct and report on research into the healing and spiritual potentials of psychedelics and marijuana.

With sound research results, psychedelic psychotherapy and medical marijuana research have the potential to help millions of people in alleviating the pain, psychological distress and other symptoms of such illnesses as cancer, AIDS and addiction. Research will also help us to better understand our human potential and bring the tools of science to the study of spirituality, meditation and mental functioning.

Campaign for Dark Skies (UK)
http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/

The CfDS aims to preserve and restore the beauty of the night sky by campaigning against excessive, inefficient and irresponsible lighting that shines where it is not wanted nor needed.

We believe that light should only shine where it is needed and wanted, and no-where else. Doing so is both easy and cost-effective – and with significant health and safety benefits.

Much wasted light shines up into the sky, causing the visual orange “smog” that hangs over towns and cities at night, intruding into the countryside, and destroying our view of a star-lit sky.

This Light Pollution is a visible and needless waste of resources, which contributes to global warming – hundreds of millions of pounds worth of electricity is wasted each year in the UK alone through poor lighting.

Because astronomers are the most sensitive to the effect of light pollution, the CfDS is a sub-section of the British Astronomical Association, although our membership is made up of a wide range of people, from lighting engineers to astrophysicists.

SEVA-like, naturally

Simplest put, the universally accepted definition of charities is orgs that help the needy. The only orgs listed above that do that are Sobrevivientes, CRY, and Hospice.net

Before the TV show on Discovery, had many of you heard of the Sea Shepherds? They’ve been my group of choice since the early 1990′s. They DO things.

Efficient? no. Inspiring? HELL YES.

DPA is the nation’s leading organization working to end the war on drugs. We envision new drug policies based on science, compassion, health and human rights and a just society in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more.

Mission and Vision

The Drug Policy Alliance envisions a just society in which the use and regulation of drugs are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights, in which people are no longer punished for what they put into their own bodies but only for crimes committed against others, and in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more.

Our mission is to advance those policies and attitudes that best reduce the harms of both drug misuse and drug prohibition, and to promote the sovereignty of individuals over their minds and bodies.

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Distributed Proofreaders has provided the majority of files in the Gutenberg archive for several years, and those in turn are used by Librivox and dozens of other open-access and for-profit organizations.

If you want to actually help the commons grow, think about starting at the bottom of the pyramid, not the top.

Any charity that gives you soup and a sermon at the same time is more interested in giving you a sermon than in giving you soup. Real charity doesn’t come with strings attached.

Look up charity in a dictionary – it refers to helping the needy every time.

A US 501(c)(3) is not a charity , but a non-profit organization. You can read the full text of the law here http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode26/usc_sec_26_00000501—-000-.html –

(3) Corporations, and any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes, or to foster national or international amateur sports competition (but only if no part of its activities involve the provision of athletic facilities or equipment), or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, no substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation (except as otherwise provided in subsection (h)), and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.

I prefer giving cash directly to those who are in need.

Why? Even if all you want is to feed the homeless, is giving directly to homeless people on the street better that giving to a soup kitchen?

I’d say certainly not. For one thing, economies of scale are much more efficient, even when you take into account overhead. If I had $30 to give out, I could either hand out enough individually for six people to have one hot meal, or give a soup kitchen enough for at least ten people, or more if their overheads are low (I could make a soup on $25 for at least 20, and have).

We can argue about this all day, but it won’t change the fact that I personally know dozens and dozens of people who use “charity” and “nonprofit” or “public interest group sustained by donations.”

Microloans can make a real dent in poverty, and can help bootstrap small local economies. Kiva.org makes it so simple to contribute to microloans by loaning just $25, and the default rate is under 2%.

And because the money stays in the system unless you ask for it back, it’s really easy to keep using that same money to do good: in just a few months, I’ve made $150 worth of loans using only $90.

My other charities, looking at my history from CharityNavigator:
– Central Asia Institute (see Kristof’s column in the Times, “It Takes a School, Not Missiles)
– Doctors Without Borders
– RARE
– Feeding America (was Second Harvest)
– Global Hunger Project
– Conservation International Foundation
– Center for Biological Diversity
– Greater Boston Food Bank (charity starts at home, after all)

GiveIndia tells you up front that their cost of fundraising is 9.1% which is one of the lowest in the entire industry. And US as well as UK donors get tax benefits.

Check it out.

Look up pedantry while you’re in there, it refers to the self-flagellation of needy intellectuls.

“a foundation created to promote the public good (not for assistance to any particular individuals)”

One: Why didn’t BoingBoing list Child’s Play?

Two: While I am very much a fan of the work done by Creative Commons and EFF, do you really put them on the same list as CRY or Amnesty International? I would gladly surrender the battles over copyright and DRM if it meant we could win out on human rights and poverty. Priorities.

“This is a nonprofit organization providing a public service as defined by the Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3).”

“A legally incorporated nonprofit organization that operates for the public benefit and has federally registered charitable status Charitable status allows an organization to issue tax receipts for donations, and involves rules and regulations about governance, advocacy and operations that may …”

“as a noun, refers to a kind of non-profit organization that solicits and is able to accept donations or gifts from individual and corporate donors. A registered charity is a charity which has successfully applied to the federal government under the Income Tax Act for charitable status. …”

“an activity or gift that benefits the public at large”

Also, The Canadian Diabetes Association does a year-round program called Clothesline (http://www.diabetes.ca/get-involved/supporting-us/clothesline/), where you can donate clothing and household items. They’ll even pick it up from your domicile! Granted, they then give your donation to Value Village, but in exchange they get money for diabetes research, education, service and advocacy.

Friend was once gonna do some writing work for Doctors. Went to their office in NY. They asked him to wait in the conference room. It was kind of messy – used paper cups, plastic forks, paper plates and a half-eaten supermarket cake. When the Doctors’ folks arrived, they apologized for the mess. That morning they’d had a party celebrating their Nobel Prize.

I like BB for many reasons. The lists here are one of them.

Look at your own definition:

Scientific, literary and educational purposes don’t ‘refer to helping the needy’ (not directly anyways). And plenty of charities on Cory’s list have the main purpose of promoting, furthering literacy and access to information and technology (=science, education).

More importantly, why are you so offended and pushing this ‘tomato-tomatoe’ argument?

You think that’s a “string attached” that negates the fact that they’re giving charity??? If I’m hungry and have nowhere else to go, I can certainly listen to a sermon in exchange for free food.

In contrast, try getting something as basic and essential as food for free with less hassle out of a government run Department of Social Services.

Most charities either screen or ask you to hear them out on their worldview.

In the end, they’re helping people who can’t afford to help themselves, and that’s what is really important.

BTW, I’m totally with #11 MDH on the issue of only giving to charities that don’t spend too much of the money that comes in on fund raising. That’s one reason I support Southern Baptists and their World Hunger fund. Their fund raising efforts are made using un-designated money that comes into the Southern Baptist coffers. All contributed money that comes in designated to the World Hunger fund is used to feed hungry people. Tell some of those hungry people they aren’t receiving “real” charity, and they’ll rightfully laugh.