Even douchebags like me can be charitable. I’m under no illusion that this site will ever generate a large amount of revenue, but regardless of the amount of money we bring in, I’ve decided that 20% of any profit will be donated to charity.

The list of charities will change and there will probably be a difference between my list and the list on Courtney’s site.

I’m posting all of this information here because there is no reason why you can’t make a donation on your own – you know you want to.

The International Children’s Heart Foundation

This is by far my favorite charity. I first heard about it when Courtney and I watched an incredible documentary on HBO a few years ago called “Chernobyl Heart”, if you ever have a chance you should watch that film.

There are a number of things about this organization that appeal to me. Of course, the fact that their main goal is to provide life saving heart surgery for babies is a good enough reason. The other thing is that their work appeals to my impatient nature and my preference for immediate results. Whereas some of the other charities I’ll mention focus on supporting research, this group makes numerous trips each year and performs thousands of surgeries that produce immediate, life-changing results for the children that they help. Knowing that the money I send can directly fund one of these surgeries is very gratifying.

You can learn more here: www.babyheart.org

Donations can be made here.

Amnesty International

Brief moment of honesty here – when I was in high-school I joined this organization because I wanted to impress a girl. Yes, certainly pathetic, but I know a lot of people who have done things that are far more absurd in the quest to get laid than to join an organization with the sole purpose of protecting human-rights.

Anyway, despite my original reasons for joining, I’ve always been a true supporter of this cause. I’ve never held much respect for authority and its never been much of a problem for me to make that clear to anyone who would listen. The funny thing is that I am only able to do this because no-one has yet decided to deny me the right to express my own personal beliefs without fear of repurcussion (yeah, yeah, some of you are saying “and its only because you live in the USA the greatest country in the f-ing world”.  Sorry, but that’s not entirely true. I love our country, I love living here and I love telling people I’m American even when I am travelling, but the bottom line is that the U.S. is NOT the “most-free” place in the world when it comes to restrictions on what you are able to do and say. According to this study: http://www.worldaudit.org/press.htm we aren’t even in the top ten regarding press freedom and general quality of democracy – but I digress). Even though most of us have been fortunate enough to live in a place where we can speak freely, there are millions of people who cannot and every year, thousands of them are imprisoned, persecuted or even executed simply because they expressed a belief that differed from that of their nation’s ruling authority.

There are few things more disgusting than those regimes that would deny basic human rights to their citizenry in the simple quest to maintain the power that they have falsely acquired and I’m constantly appalled at the measures they will take to silence those who speak out against their oppresive tactics. That is why I am glad we have organizations like Amnesty International who work to free “prisoners or conscience” and to change the behaviors of governments that participate in both simple and egregious violations of basic human rights.

To support this cause or learn more visit http://www.amnesty.org.