We have chosen give2asia as our organization for handling donations. They are a local San Francisco based non-profit organization, but what we like the most is that 95% of the donations go to the Japanese NGOs working to help disaster victims (the remainder 5% is used for coordination, whereas 9% is used for that purpose with Red Cross). We wanted to make sure that more dollars went to the victims than for other purposes.
Give2asia uses the donations to support the immediate needs of survivors as well as short-term to long-term recovery projects undertaken by the local partners for the affected communities. Red Cross, on the other hand, saves the excess donation for future disasters. This means that the money donated to Red Cross might not be used for the Japanese. This is another reason why we chose give2asia. We believe that long-term support is as or more important than the immediate support. We are here to stay and help support the victims in the long run.
http://give2asia.org/japantsunami-2011
