What’s a good charity based in Taiwan (I want to be able to do an easy transfer from my Taiwanese bank account) to donate to for Japan? I want something fairly reputable/with good transparency, so that I know the money will actually get there. Also, I want something where the highest percentage possible of my donation will actually get to Japan, rather than be chewed up by administration costs (i.e. the directors’ BMWs and overseas junkets).
I heard this advertised on ICRT. Here’s a quote from their site.
[quote]Following the massive earthquake in Japan on March 11th , and the subsequent tsunami, the ROC Red Cross is extending a helping hand.
The Taiwan branch of the Red Cross has already donated US$100,000 to quake victims in Japan, and is in contact with it’s Japanese counterpart to provide necessary assistance.
At the same time, the Red Cross is asking Taiwan residents to join them in lending whatever assistance they can provide. If you would like to contribute to the Red Cross’ Japan Earthquake Relief Fund, please go to web.redcross.org.tw.
For English assistance in making a contribution, please call the ROC Red Cross at 02-2362-8232, extension 206 or 210. [/quote]
You could even volunteer at Tzu Chi to help pack stuff -food, water, blankets, etc- that will be sent to Japan.
Another way: Google has set up a system where one can donate (to the Japanese Red Cross) by credit card - follow the special earthquake info link from the search engine’s main page (of the JP version, US version, or UK version - not (yet) available on the TW version and DE version). A similar service is available via the JP version of Yahoo.
[edit]
The R.o.C. Red Cross Society is accepting donations for this cause - details here (in Mandarin):
web.redcross.org.tw/news_001.asp … 29&insid=6
Other ways of making a donation:
Japan Red Cross (in English):
google.com/crisisresponse/ja … e2011.html
google.co.jp/intl/ja/crisisr … e2011.html
慈濟 (in English):
us.tzuchi.org/usa/home.nsf/type1/k13968
[edit2]: removed the info on Japanese sites, since it seems irrelevant on this BBS
Question for the moderators: do you think you could make this thread temporarily sticky? (Maybe a few weeks is all that’s needed.) With the large number of threads active a less active thread is gone within a day - - and strictly speaking there is little to add to this thread to keep it ‘active’, but…
These are extraordinary circumstances, and i hope i am not imposing with this request. 
If you’ve got an iTunes account (at least a US-based one) you can donate that route and 100% will go to the Red Cross.
[quote=“yuli”]Question for the moderators: do you think you could make this thread temporarily sticky? (Maybe a few weeks is all that’s needed.) With the large number of threads active a less active thread is gone within a day - - and strictly speaking there is little to add to this thread to keep it ‘active’, but…
These are extraordinary circumstances, and I hope I am not imposing with this request. [/quote]
Not at all! Good suggestion. I’ve stickied it and we can undo that in a couple months.
Edit: CNN also has a list of organizations that are doing relief efforts in Japan, and ways you can contribute:
edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiap … ml?hpt=T1#
Thanks!
Have you got a contact for that?
Maybe this weekend I could go up to Hualian with my boy and help out.
tw.tzuchi.org/en/index.php?optio … 63&lang=en
There is a link “How to help” on that page that gives you more details. 
The relevant Hualien address is here;
tw.tzuchi.org/en/html/offices/index.htm
This is a bit depressing, but it may encourage people to help out when they see the extent of the damage done. See link below. There is a line separating each image in half. Click and hold the line to drag left or right to see the before and after image unfold.
nytimes.com/interactive/2011 … unami.html
Regarding donations, Jaboney is right. iTunes actually makes it very convenient.
Here is another good one: www.HOPEworldwide.org. Over 87% of collection goes directly to relief efforts. That’s super high. (I am always a bit hesitant to give to Red Cross, fearing that most money will end up going towards their admin cost)
That must be this organisation:
disciplestoday.org/content/view/2778/211/
It sounds like they might have a structure in place in Japan, in which case it would make sense to support them in this particular situation. Not sure how one can confirm whether they are able to do anything right now, however. As regards other charities, i certainly don’t want to discourage anybody from giving to their favourite charity, but unless an organisation has its logistics in place IN JAPAN it won’t get approval to get into Japan and go into the disaster area. That’s why i mentioned the Red Cross and the Tzu Chi Foundation.
In this context i think it is worth looking at this:
blogger.rpi.edu/approach/2011/03 … t-to-help/
And this, from which you can glean some information about how a help expedition needs to be organised:
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12756366
In any case, supporting the charity of one’s choice sounds like a good idea even if there is no immediate disaster situation at hand…
Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions. My wife also got on some Taiwanese bulletin boards. In the end, we went with the Red Cross. Hope most of the money gets to people on the ground.
A related post:
viewtopic.php?t=96822
And another thread:
I cannot speak for the people of my country, but as an individual i will say that i am very grateful for the support coming out of Taiwan in many forms…
I have donated to TzuChi, since I personally known a few TsuChi volunteers that have already flown into Japan with resources to help (the link below is their web donation link - opens in Chinese, but you can click on the top left button and change it to English):
tcit.tzuchi.net/WebDonation/WebDonation.html
You can also use the following channels:
Groupon – Donating through International Medical Corps.
groupon.com/albany-capital-r … ical-corps
Lifesaver – Donating Lifesaver bottles and Jerrycans through Komplexná centrálna záchranná služba
lifesaversystems.com/donate03.html
Yahoo Taiwan – Has a list of NPOs that are accepting donations
tw.charity.yahoo.com/project_lis … ect_type=1
One of our neighbors organized a clothing collection to send on through TzuChi (I think). She said they were only accepting brand new or otherwise mint items ‘so as not to embarrass Taiwan’. My wife and son had the privilege of donating lots of clothes, the closest I have to mint is a t-shirt with only 2 holes in it.
I also got a garbled message from my wife that some temporary homes were needed for stranded kids, she asked if I was okay with it but I haven’t heard anything since. I don’t know if she misunderstood? 
Probably not: in Japan homes are being sought for children who have been orphaned by the earthquake or tsunami (at least temporary homes at this time).
Not sure what people in Taiwan can do to help in this regard
If I had been caught in a major disaster, not only would I not accept anything less than brand new, I would not accept anything that did not come from a major Italian fashion house.
I mean seriously, the people in Japan would probably be grateful regardless and this is being projected upon them. Sure, they’re not going to want your old undies with skid marks, but a few faded t-shirts with holes? No problems, I should imagine.
What next, sorry no food donations unless they’re caviar? No tents or sleeping bags unless they’re from The North Face?
Those restrictions on what donations are accepted have apparently nothing to do with the feelings of recipients of those goods, they have to do with the logicistics of getting those goods to the affected ares and distributing them to the affected people.
Collecting, storing, handling and shipping goods costs money, faces restrictions, and requires a certain amount of documentation (paperwork), so the organisations that collect donated material and prepare shipments put restrictions on the kind of goods they accept, because they don’t want to end up with things they have to clean before shipping or, worse, with things they can’t ship but have to dispose off (“garbage”); they also like to minimize having to deal with items whose shipping costs are high compared to the usefulness of the materials shipped, and they prefer goods that can be handled in bulk rather than as individual pieces, for example, rather than receiving (free) used tents of different sizes that require different handling and packaging, they prefer a set of 100 new tents of the same size and type for easy shipment. And the larger organisations that work in an effected area generally prefer to receive materials that are somewhat standardized. for example, rather than receiving (free) used tents of different sizes that require different set-up approaches, they prefer a set of 100 new tents of the same size and type, so it is easy to learn how to set them up and to provide instructions to the affected people.
And if some organisation feels they don’t want anything less than “mint” (not necessarily “new”) so as to not embarrass the donors (an issue that may have a much higher importance in Taiwan than in some “western” countries), then that seems as good an explanations for the individual Taiwanese donor, as any…
What i mentioned above are just things i’ve randomly read or heard about - i suspect that, if you were to talk to the people in any of those organisations who are directly responsible for overseeing relief operations, you could get a more comprehensive explanation. 