12 Days of Christmas - Day Two Donation Ideas

Here are my Day Two ideas for donation and volunteering this holiday season.
I have worked with two organizations in the past that help families in many different ways. They both sometimes get a bad rap because of their organizational "overhead", but they both do some fabulous things.

The United Way is a big umbrella organization that actually funds many smaller non-profits in everyone's communities. When their funding decreases, they are not able to distribute as many funds to organizations that are helping individual programs that help families. http://www.liveunited.org/

I worked with the Red Cross right after Hurricane Katrina in San Francisco. The volunteer offices were a bit chaotic, but everyone at that local office took their responsibility to help everyone so seriously. I happened to be at the office when an apartment in San Francisco burned down leaving 40 families homeless. Within hours of the fire, the local Red Cross was getting the families clothes and places to stay temporarily while everything sorted out. I was pretty impressed by the speed of the volunteers. I remember thinking that I hope I never need anything from the Red Cross, but I guess I knew I could call them if I needed. http://www.redcross.org/

Lastly, there are so many local organizations that also help families in crisis. My favorite group in San Francisco is Compass Family services. www.compass-sf.org
I really love this organization because they make it so easy to volunteer or donate at any level. I am most familiar with their program helping families in transition - moving from homelessness to apartments. I happened to be at their offices one afternoon that they were teaching kids how to make their own healthy snacks. Consider checking them out or an organization like that where you live. (I'm pretty sure that many churches, including Catholic Charities, offers many of these critical services, too).