Earthquake Donation Websites

[Quest]

Sites where you can donate to the earthquake relief efforts:

MercyCorps:

http://www.mercycorps.org

Worldvision:

http://www.worldvision.org/

http://www.worldvision.org.hk/

Redcross:

http://www.redcross.org.hk

http://www.redcross.org.cn

东华三院 hk:

http://www.tungwah.org.hk

Paypal + MissionFish China Earthquake Relief Fund:

http://www.paypal.com

http://www.missionfish.org/NPMMF/cphomepage.jsp?NP_ID=-32

Please add more if you know more.

Your help is much appreciated.

http://bbs.hangzhou.com.cn/thread-4780268-1-1.html

http://bbs.cctv.com/viewthread.php?tid=755347&extra=page%3D1&frameon=no

http://tv.bbs.cctv.com/viewthread.php?tid=755091

[bhchao]

You can also send donations via Tzu Chi:

http://www.tzuchi.org.tw./

http://www.tzuchi.org/global/index.html

How you can donate: http://www.tzuchi.org/global/help/index.html

Tzu Chi is a fantastic organization. They help people all over the world and 100% of donated funds sent through them go to the affected areas.

[bhchao]

Also Oxfam:

http://www.oxfam.org/en/donate/

http://www.oxfam.org.hk/public/contents/news?ha=&wc=0&hb=&hc=&revision%5fid=76895&item%5fid=75992

[skylee]

UNICEF in HK -> https://www.unicef.org.hk/payment/unicefdonation_type1.phtml?lang=en

The Salvation Army in HK -> http://www.salvation.org.hk/english/index.htm

[shibole]

Mercy Corp had a matching donation offer from Western Union up to $250,000 but thats been fulfilled already.

Anyone know of any other matching going on?

Also, my wife is being a bit cynical about resources actually making it to the disaster victims. Anyone know which of these charities have or are working directly with people on the ground?

Thanks.

[liuzhou]

Anyone else in China receiving con trick SMS messages pretending to be the Red Cross and eliciting donations? I've had a couple in the last 24 hours.

[Quest]

I donated via paypal/missionfish; however, if you can get through to the China Red Cross website, that'd be the most direct way to help as they are supplying large amounts of food water and other necessities. If you are in China, you can transfer your donation to their bank account; details can be found on http://news.cctv.com/special/C21392/01/index.shtml Other than that I'd donate to Hong Kong charities aiding the effort, as they are pretty trustworthy and have plenty of experience avoiding and dealing with corruptions in China. If you feel more comfortable with major world charity organizations like mercycorps and worldvision, redcross etc. I am sure they will do their best to ensure your donation will be used properly. The Chinese government has also promised they will monitor and use these funds and aids properly.

Sanitary conditions are deteriorating as corpses start to rot in the high temperature. The thousands of homeless survivors are in urgent and desperate need of water, food, antibiotics, etc. for life support. Please help.

[been2china]

My wife is an overseas Chinese. She wants to send a donation from a UK GBP account and wants it to go directly to China and not via a local Red Cross appeal. This is because she wants the donation to be 'ring fenced' for the China Earthquake relief only and not to be diverted into any more general fund. If you read the small print on the UK Red Cross appeal it does actually say something like "If more is received than can be practically/usefully spent it goes into a more general international disaster relief fund" so I can see her point.

Looking at the site http://www.redcross.org.cn/ she finds that it changes to http://202.108.59.10/ which gives us a concern about "is this the genuine site?". Moreover there do not seem to be correct account details to accept GBP (special accounts are needed to receive foreign currency in China). Needless to say it is impossible to reach China Red Cross by phone or email to ask the question.

Any suggestions?

[bhchao]

I called Tzu Chi Foundation yesterday and made a donation via credit card. They have an excellent reputation with usage of funds. The Mandarin-speaking lady who I spoke with over the phone sounded very sincere, and assured me that the donation will go directly to Sichuan.

[liuzhou]

China Mobile are sending out messages warning people against scam SMS messages from scum pretending to be the Red Cross. They also say that the Red Cross will not accept donations of clothing or other material. The logistics of getting it to where it may be needed is not something they can cope with at the moment.

[YuehanHao]

Less direct than the China and HK sister branches, but perhaps some others in America might find it easier to designate relief to China through the American Red Cross:

https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=1552980036&df_id=3198&3198.donation=form1

"The American Red Cross honors donor intent." [statement quoted from a different page on their website]

约翰好

[trien27]

I don't know if it's true, but the other day I went to http://www.yahoo.com.cn and they have a link on the top of the page to donate to the earthquake.

[skylee]

I've donated to Oxfam HK and Red Cross HK (would have donated all to red cross if I had been able to access its online donation page earlier) using credit card. [Too bad there is a typo on the webpage.]

I'm not a generous donor according to HK standard. But I will try harder this time.

[Quest]

A lot of american corporations have a donation matching policy, you may be able to double your donation.

202.108.59.10 is registered under:

inetnum: 202.108.59.0 - 202.108.59.255

netname: PEOPLE-NEWS

descr: People Daily Online

country: CN

admin-c: CH455-AP

tech-c: SY21-AP

mnt-by: MAINT-CNCGROUP-BJ

changed: suny@publicf.bta.net.cn 20020408

status: ASSIGNED NON-PORTABLE

source: APNIC

role: CNCGroup Hostmaster

e-mail: abuse@cnc-noc.net

address: No.156,Fu-Xing-Men-Nei Street,

address: Beijing,100031,P.R.China

nic-hdl: CH455-AP

phone: +86-10-82993155

fax-no: +86-10-82993102

country: CN

admin-c: CH444-AP

tech-c: CH444-AP

changed: abuse@cnc-noc.net 20041119

mnt-by: MAINT-CNCGROUP

source: APNIC

person: sun ying

address: fu xing men nei da jie 97, Xicheng District

address: Beijing 100800

country: CN

phone: +86-10-66030657

fax-no: +86-10-66078815

e-mail: suny@publicf.bta.net.cn

nic-hdl: SY21-AP

mnt-by: MAINT-CNCGROUP-BJ

changed: suny@publicf.bta.net.cn 19980824

changed: hm-changed@apnic.net 20060717

source: APNIC

However I do think it's genuine if it's redirected from http://www.redcross.com.cn which is listed as the only online donation route on China's cctv website: http://news.cctv.com/special/C21392/01/index.shtml

[Quest]

For some reason the China Redcross website redirected to http://exqo.com/cng

this is a little out of the ordinary.

[bhchao]

Donations to help the earthquake victims are also tax deductible, provided that the organization you are contributing to is a non-profit.

[Quest]

I just read missionfish's fee schedule, wish I hadn't donated through them. Also, money won't go to the non-profits for 30 days... then the non-profits will have to send aid to local partners. Wish there was a more direct route for us in America. Too bad most of the local websites aren't setup properly for overseas donations.

[skylee]

Perhaps you could try donating online via Red Cross HK which accepts VISA/ Mastercard (and they have managed to correct the typo ). Having filled out the first page you will be directed to a payment gateway provided by Bank of China (HK) -> https://www.redcross.org.hk/donation/user_donation.asp?langId=2

[YuehanHao]

Seeing a post above about anomalies with the China Red Cross page, I thought I'd add that my wife came across a page the other day describing hackers who had apparently altered the Red Cross' bank account numbers posted on that website to match their own:

http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/200805/news-gb2312-600164.html

(I'm presuming this website is reputable -- don't use or know much about it myself)

Same sorts of things happened here in the U.S. after the terror attacks several years ago now. Disasters always bring out the best and the worst of human nature. I'm sure everyone is cynical enough by now to be careful in donating, but for whatever it's worth ...

约翰好

[cdn_in_bj]

Those that are overseas can make a donation through the American Red Cross:

http://www.redcross.org/news/in/profiles/Intl_profile_ChinaEarthquake.asp?s_src=HomeLatestNews

There is also the option of making a wire transfer to the China branch, however I only caught the SWIFT code on the fundraising show last night, which isn't enough as the SWIFT code only identifies the bank. I will try to find out more information.

For those of us in China, I hear you can walk into most bank branches and they will have an "express line" for donations. I'll be making a trip this afternoon.