Hurricane Helene relief: The SJ.com giving thread (with two matching opportunities!)

From time to time, we as a message board family have come together to generously support charitable causes in need, both at Christmas and when disaster strikes.

Hurricane Helene is a massive disaster, impacting hundreds of communities from Florida through the Carolinas and even into East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. People need our help.

EDIT: We now have an anonymous donor willing to match donations up to $1000. Please provide a link and short description of the charity you have chosen, along with the amount given.

EDIT II: We now have a SECOND anonymous donor who has put up an ADDITIONAL $1000 worth of matching funds for the donations jar here at Jeers.

I have contributed $50 to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Recovery Fund. My NC-based employer is very generously offering a 2x match for our donations at work. They will concentrate on grants to help communities to come in the months ahead after the TV cameras have moved on. And the parent organization has a four-star rating on Charity Navigator.

https://www.nccommunityfoundation.org/nonprofits/disaster-relief-fund

Not all are able to give and we understand. But if you are blessed to be able to contribute, please consider doing so.

 

Good list of vetted organizations can be found here:

List: Ways to donate and help flood victims in Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene

One thing to note is that organizations will become overwhelmed at some point with physical goods. The main thing they need is cash, and that doesn’t take up any room in a warehouse.

Please give what you can, if you can.

 

Part of me feels a little guilty focusing my giving there when my former stomping grounds of Upper East Tennessee and South Georgia are so devastated. But ultimately the opportunity to shake loose an extra $100 via work was just too good to ignore.

That said, this was much more than a single state.

 

These are some orgs suggested by my cousin who grew up in Edneyville and now lives in Transylvania County (and knows my reluctance to donating to orgs like Samaritan's Purse that serve their help with a side helping of hate).

https://www.communityfoodpantrync.com/

https://www.sharinghouse.org/

https://www.breadoflifetc.org/

I've directed donations to each over the last few days.

 

As a resident of Tennessee and North Carolina, on behalf of my region, I'd like to personally thank anyone who does anything - great or small - to help.
Folks need it.
If someone wants to know anything more in depth, reply or PM me. At this point, my true identity is easily made and nothing I honestly need to conceal. I am a legit eyeball witness.

 

Feeding America’s Asheville food bank “is gone” per a Feeding America national staffer. The FA affiliates in other areas of NC are helping to step in with food boxes. I don’t know logistics but you could consider Feeding America chapters for your donations, too.

 

Staying close to home here in Upstate SC:

$100 to https://give.harvesthope.org/

Lots of people across South Carolina will be out of power for another week or so, with the attendant trailing problems of income disruption and child care disruption and all that.

 

If those who have donated wouldn’t mind to share how much they donated (and where they did so if not included) an anonymous but benevolent soul has offered to do a bit of donation matching after all. So you can feel twice as good for the money you invest in your fellow (wo)man.

 

Edited my post above. To that anonymous soul, that’s pretty awesome of you.

 

May one of the mods update the title to reflect that we now have a matching opportunity?