Ask Lemmy

Obviously there's many non-profits who have a larger and more "necessary" impact on humanity, but a personal favorite of mine is lichess.org. It's the FLOSS, non-profit alternative to freemium and ever-more-enshittified chess.com. On lichess.org, there's zero ads or trackers (yes, not even Google analytics). And not only does it have the superior philosophy, it's actually just much faster and better as a chess server than chess.com.

Ekō covers a broad range of global action that I find important. In their words:

Ekō is a community of people from around the world committed to curbing the growing power of corporations. We want to buy from, work for and invest in companies that respect the environment, treat their workers well and respect democracy. And we’re not afraid to hold them to account when they don’t.

Barely a day goes by without a fresh corporate scandal making headlines. From polluting the environment to dodging taxes – when left unchecked, corporations don’t let anything stand in the way of bigger profits.

In an age of multinational companies that are bigger and richer than some countries, it can be easy to feel powerless. But they have a weakness. The biggest corporations in the world rely on ordinary people to keep them in business. We are their customers, their employees, and often their investors. When we act together, we can be more powerful than they are. Together, our community of millions act as a global consumer watchdog – running and winning campaigns to hold the biggest companies in the world accountable.

The company I work for is a non profit that does cancer research. It's great.

WikiMedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia. Free knowledge for everyone seems like a pretty dope concept.

Planned Parenthood.

They’ve been around for decades helping and teaching teens about safe sex and offering FREE services to both men and women. Without planned parenthood many women wouldn’t have access to birth control or be able to get it discretely and men could get condoms for free and get helpful information about anything else they might need.

It’s one of the greatest organizations ever made imo. Kind dumbfounded how people believe planned parenthood performs abortions though when they don’t.

The Internet Archive (archive.org)

May our stories be forever immortalized in there

The Trevor project. Because trans kids need love too

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). They are the ones playing defense against fascism and violations of civil liberties by the US government. This includes immigration, freedom of religion/expression, lgbtq rights, abortion rights, you name it they've done it.they are responsible for getting nunerous illegal bills/acts/laws rescinded. They do great work. The sort of work that is foundational to getting the US government on track.

Probably the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Internet civil liberties.

I think that they've done some really helpful things by throwing resources and legal or technical expertise at the right place where often there isn't another organization that would address the issue. Stuff like privacy or security issues online where no one entity stands to really benefit strongly enough from a fix to get involved, and they have the technical chops to make correct statements. When they make recommendations, I'd call them reputable and objective, someone who I'd generally trust. They've helped shape the Internet as it became a mainstream element of human society in ways that I'd call positive.

They're US-centric (that is, they don't just do the US, but do have a US focus). In the EU, EDRi is a little similar.

It looks like in the UK, the Open Rights Group may be analogous, but I haven't read enough of their material to have an opinion on them.

The local food bank. It's hard to make ends meet. If people can get food from the food bank then maybe their limited dollars can go to other things they need.

The Signal foundation https://signal.org/donate/

Free, private, secure, open-source, cross-platform text/SMS that isn't tied to someone who's trying to spy on you and sell you to the highest bidder. HAPPY to donate monthly.

Coalition for Rainforest Nations. They work with indigenous and local communities, and national governments to do everything possible to protect rainforests and reforest areas. The donations really stretch far because they predominantly work in low income areas.

ProPublica is a no paywall investigative news organization that has really hard hitting reporting that holds corrupt businesses and people accountable. They have a good track record of getting consequences for the things they report on.

World Wildlife Foundation does great work with preserving biodiversity and raising awareness of nature with the public. It's hard to care about something if you don't know about it

My local Unitarian Universalist church creates a place for LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people to feel safe and celebrated and the people do so much work trying to make our local community a better place. There's no expectation to believe any specific scripture, just a shared set of values. Find a congregation near you

Apopo

Training rats (and now dogs) to sniff out landmines and tuberculosis

Direct Action Everywhere and Sea Shepherd because they both get shit done when it comes to helping animals.

EFF and IA, maybe also FSF