Unless you are living under a rock in the United States, you will have heard about the devastation of Hurricane Helene. It's a devastating and destructible natural disaster. Large areas were affected, and people are struggling to find basics for survival.
When these events occur, most humans want to help. It is difficult to know how we can help these unfortunate souls. There are reports that a lot of the large charitable organizations spend more on salaries and "administrative costs" than they do actually helping people. I don't have the time, energy, nor desire to do a deep dive into each of these organizations to determine who should or should not receive our hard-earned money.
Instead, we have chosen two organizations that we feel are doing a lot of "boots on the ground" work and that we respect. I am sure that they are not the only ones, but they are two that I feel are doing the most with the money given to them. If you feel led to donate to the Hurrican Helene relief cause, please do so in a way to ensure that your money is used in the most efficient and productive manner.
Full disclosure: We have no direct connection to either of these organizations. We have simply followed their work during other storms and feel that they do a good job with the funds allocated to them. Please do your own research.
1. Ryan Hall Y'all - The gentleman that runs this organization does a phenomenal job reporting on weather events throughout the country. He is based out of eastern Kentucky. He has used his passion for the weather to build a team of storm chasers and relief helpers. You can access his website here.
He developed a nonprofit organization to assist victims of the storms that he reports about that is called The Y'all Squad. You can assess this info here.
2. Grindstone Ministries - This organization is based out of Oklahoma. They organize, travel to and assist victims of natural disasters that may get overlooked by the other organizations (aka smaller, poorer, more rural areas). You can learn more about their ministry here.
We are not currently able to travel and physically assist the relief efforts underway in these devastated areas. We want to assist in our small way, so we are making modest donations to both organizations. We encourage you to consider if this is something that your family can assist. If each of us helps (even in small ways), the residents of these areas can recover more quickly from this horrible event.