No more dam breaks

The Problem: Protection of rivers and the communities living next to them

Who: International Rivers

Why are they special? Work to stop dams which they believe harm people downstream. Active in Africa, Asia and Latin America

Where: Berkeley, California

Started: 1985

What the top person makes: $70,664 (2009)

General site: International Rivers

Charity Navigator report

Link to help: Donate

Deductible? Yes


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Helping kids get ahead

The Problem: Cycle of poverty

Who: Juma Ventures

Why are they special? Breaks the cycle for youth by giving employment and teaching skills

Where: San Francisco, California

Started: ?

What the top person makes: $141,272 (2009)

General site: Juma Ventures

Charity Navigator report

Link to help: Donate

(Requires you to set up an account to donate. That's ridiculous. You guys ever heard of something called PayPal? That little start up?)

Deductible? Yes


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Buying new ideas

The Problem: Innovation

Who: X Prize Foundation

Why are they special? They give large awards for the first people to achieve various goals they set.

Example: " A total of $30 million in prizes are available to the first privately funded teams to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon and have that robot travel 500 meters over the lunar surface and send images and data back to the Earth."

One of the challenges they might set is to diversify their board--29 people, 3 of whom are women.

Where: Playa Vista, California

Started: 1995

What the top person makes: $312,962 (2009)

General site: Home

Charity Navigator report.

Link to help: Support

Deductible? Doesn't state


Image courtesy of Idea go