Charitable needs around the world

A look at acute needs in various regions of the globe — from aid for refugees in countries neighboring Syria to the effects of Zika in Latin America — and charities working to help. Map illustrations by Jacob Turcotte. 

5. Veterans' needs

Jacob Turcotte/Staff
Map illustration

United States

Why here? For those who want to give in the United States, caring for military veterans ties into several of the most pressing issues facing the country, including homelessness, hunger, domestic violence, and mental health. “The number of organizations we report on has doubled in the last few years,” says Mr. Taylor at the the Wise Giving Alliance. “That’s one indication there is a continuing need to help current and former members of the military and their families.”

Aid organizations: Hope for the Warriors, Puppies Behind Bars

About these groups:  Since its founding in 2006, Hope for the Warriors has gained a reputation as top charity for military veterans; it has a full four-star rating from Charity Navigator.Puppies Behind Bars enlists inmates to train service dogs for war veterans; it operates on less than $2 million annually and also has perfect score from Charity Navigator. 

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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