We are all sons and daughters of the Most High God, and because of this, we need to extend the reach of our hearts to our brothers and sisters in Australia. They have been suffering for a long time with the fiery aftermath of terrible drought in their land. Those of us on the West Coast of the United States understand so well what that is like, yet the extent of the current destruction in Australia is almost unfathomable in its relentless ferocity.
Some disasters require more than our “thoughts and prayers”. We need to dig into our wallets, no matter how small the amount we can spare. If anyone would like to help Australia with a cash donation, here are eight charities that you may wish to donate to (NSW is New South Wales):
- Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery
- Salvation Army Disaster Appeal
- St. Vincent de Paul Society Bushfire Appeal (NSW). (Affectionately known as Vinnies.)
- NSW Rural Fire Service
- County Fire Authority (CFA) Victoria
- The Victorian Bushfire Appeal
- The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital
- WIRES – NSW Wildlife, Information, Rescue and Education Services
Hope this will provide sufficient information for you to act, if you are so inclined. As far as is known, the Australian Red Cross has been supported by many large organisations and sporting fixtures.
To verify that your donation is going to a bona fide charity, here is excellent information at this link. It seems that giving directly to a verified organization is better than going through sites like GoFundMe at this time, due to the probability of fraud in some cases. I believe GoFundMe does guarantee a refund if you are the victim of fraud but personally, I’d prefer not to deal with the hassle.
It is not known if donations outside the United States are tax-deductible within the U.S. I’m guessing they are not, unless the charity has a U.S.-based office. However, at a time of dire need like this, that is a minor issue. Your credit card company may charge a small fee for conversion to Australian $$. I haven’t found this to be onerous for other modern countries.
Some readers may belong to churches that will pass along the donations to those in need in Australia. However, helping wildlife is probably not on their list.
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