So the ALS ice bucket thing got me thinking

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First off, I should say I have some philosophical issues with the ALS challenge, which is actually relevant to the question I'm going to get to. My issues are that personally, I don't like being shamed into participating in something and donating to something I wouldn't normally donate to, just so i don't look like a jerk for not doing it.

ALS is a terrible disease, and I'm glad that it has a charitable foundation that supports research, etc. for it. However, there are many, many worthy causes in this world, and I don't know about you, but I have a finite amount of money. The amount of my budget I set aside for giving can vary, but it gets to a point where that's it, that's as much as I can give before I can't pay my own bills and end up homeless. So when I do give my money, I have to make choices among the thousands of organizations that need donations, because I can't give to all of them.

So a long time ago, I made a deliberate decision to only give to those causes that I have a personal connection to. For me, I don't know one person with ALS. However, I do have a son on the autism spectrum. That IS a cause I am personally connected to. So my question for you is, what organizations are out there that support some aspect of autism that would be good places to send my donation(s)? Why should I donate to them - what do they do, how do they do it, etc? Which ones should I avoid?

I'm starting research online, but I am new to this journey, and I imagine some of you have already thought this through. So what is your favorite autism related charity and why?

Oh, and I have two parameters based on my personal belief system: 1) the charity must recognize that a person with autism is NOT hopeless, and is in fact a real human being that is valuable to society, etc. (I think you get my drift), and 2) no research on embryos or other products of abortion.

Regardless of its legal/political slant, I love the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) http://www.autisticadvocacy.org/ whose motto is "Nothing About Us Without Us." They shame other autism groups and government agencies successfully to appoint people with autism or Asperger's Syndrome to their governing boards.

So not Autism Speaks, then.

For what I see often large charities fund research and run national ad campaigns(awareness), local charities run programs to directly fund agencies providing services to families and individuals. I wouldn't just donate to an ASD charity for the sake of supporting an ASD charity, rather decide on what type of support you want to help fund. Also it may be worth seeing who provides therapies and services like OT, speech, providing communication devices etc. in your area, with the ASD numbers the way they are they make up large portions of the clientele. They are always starved for cash and the parents often are too. I'd give to ASAN however other then that I feel better giving to local causes as far as not wasting the money.

Hopefully some people in the Atlanta Georgia area reply.

I totally agree. I like to research a charity before I give money. I don't like it when I find out that my money may go to buying fancy chairs for the executives, ok I know that's not as awful as some of the animal testing that goes on, but I'm just giving an example of how the money sometimes doesn't go where you would expect it to.

I've just been nominated and I'm not going to do it.

I like the rice bucket challenge in India. I may give some rice to my local food bank instead.