The Amalgamated Compassion Fund’s New Baker’s Dozen

I spent some time around Thanksgiving taking a look at the annual grants that I make from the Amalgamated Compassion Fund, my donor-advised fund, to charities. This list, now totaling 13 organizations, only includes those that receive grants from my donor-advised fund, not those that get my money or time directly.

To improve access to educational resources, I make annual grants to the Technology Access Foundation and the Seattle Public Library Foundation.

To provide social and legal services for those in need, I support the Downtown Emergency Service Center, the Chief Seattle Club (new this year), the Ballard Food Bank (also new to the annual list), Northwest Harvest, and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.

To support investigative and opinionated reporting at the national and local levels respectively, I support ProPublica and The Urbanist Fund. The latter is a 501(c)3 organization that operates separately from The Urbanist, a 501(c)4 organization that writes about housing and transportation issues in the Seattle area, and that I also support.

To protect digital rights and civil liberties, which I worry might become endangered in the years ahead, I continue to make grants to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU Foundation. New to the annual grant list are two open source social technologies, Mastodon and Signal Foundation. I use both of these; I think it’s important to have open source and nonprofit media for important communications.

I encourage my friends to make grants to causes that matter to them, whether they use a donor-advised fund or just good old-fashioned direct giving. Direct aid and mutual aid to people in need are also worthwhile to investigate. If you have the means, there are communities near you that could use your help. Reach out.