New Year's Eve Donations

The Wikipedia article on New Year's Eve sums up the reason for this article quite well:

The Germans spend much money on firecrackers each year.

After improving the language on the somewhat crude paragraph about my home country's absurdities on the last day of the year let's get to it. As the article correctly summarizes, Germans just have to have their fireworks that go boom and make bright colors on New Year's Eve. The country that you, dear reader, are from probably has similar customs just maybe not on that specific day. Consider the U.S. on the 4th of July for instance.

Now, why should you care? Well, look at it from this side: you are spending money to literally blow it up. That's a bit disheartening when you think about it. There is, however, an easy way to totally lessen the burden of your hedonistic tendencies: donate! More precisely, match the amount you spent on fireworks and send a check with at least that amount (you could round it up while you're at it...) to a cause or group you believe in.

You might now ask yourself why such a post appears on a blog that mostly talks about tech. Easy, the following list combines this altruistic goal set forth above with the nerd's interests. It's like a textbook definition for a win-win situation: you get to blow stuff up, you get to feel good about it and you are helping projects that ultimately make your own life better.

OK, it might not be that altruistic anymore if you think about it like that but these organizations can really use your help and often a little bit goes a very long way. The list is biased and incomplete so feel free to mention additional ones in the comments.

Disclaimer: The original idea isn't mine, several charities have run ads along these lines but general credit goes to my Mum for consistently doing it every year.