The votes are in. Your charity of choice is "Hope for the Warriors"

Hey folks. Don't ever doubt the power of democracy or the importance of one vote. Yesterday voting closed on our "you choose the charity" contest and the charity Hope for the Warriors won over the other competitors by a mere vote. Tied for second were the Penfield Children's Center and the Center for Inquiry, third place went to the Carnegie Institution for Science. Thanks to all who voted.

From now on all proceeds from the blog that don't go into operating costs or giveaways will be donated to this worthy cause. We are also working on getting a donation button for the main page that will allow you to donate in the name of the blog should you desire to do so.

Here is the Hope for the Warriors mission statement:

Hope For The Warriors® is a national, nonprofit organization that supports wounded U.S. service members, their families, and families of the fallen. A group of military wives founded the organization in 2006. They stood together as they witnessed, firsthand, the effects of the war on service members and their families. Since that time, Hope For The Warriors® has grown tremendously in the span of programs offered and the number of wounded and family members assisted. 

While founded and headquartered in North Carolina, the organization maintains offices in New York, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. Its representatives cover California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and Wyoming, enabling us to maintain a nation-wide presence. The leadership of the organization still remains in the dedicated hands of military wives. 

Together, our board of directors, staff, and volunteers work tirelessly to serve those who have sacrificed so much. The integrity of our organization is paramount and therefore our representatives are as honorable and noble as our mission and the people we serve. 

Join us in our mission to ensure that no sacrifice forgotten, nor need unmet.

You can read more and donate here.

Choosing a charity: vote for the nominees!

Here they are folks. Cast your vote for our charity of choice. Voting ends on 11:59pm EST on February 15^th.

Last Day: Help us choose a charity!

Fellow members of Smarty Nation, we need your help. As we mentioned on the most recent episode of the podcast, we would like to advocate for a charity using the blog and podcast. We would like your help in nominating one. Our plan is to collect a list of potential charities and then to choose 4-5 favorites and let you vote for your favorite. So please let us know which charity is your favorite so that we may direct our attentions toward it.

You can tell us in the comments below, tell us on facebook, twitter (@smartppllike), Google+, myspace (just kidding), or you can email us at: stuffsmartppllike [at] gmail.com.

We will collect nominations until 11:59pm on January 31st EST. Once we have the nominations we will post the finalists and open up the voting. Thanks for reading, together we can hopefully make a difference.

Considering a can drive? Don't.

During the holidays many people feel generous and turn their attention to helping those in need. A popular way to do this is to have people donate unused canned and boxed goods to be donated to the needy. Slate provides a very compelling argument as to why these drives are just a plain bad idea. In brief, people often buy food at a premium price to donate (because they don't have surplus canned goods at home) rather than pooling money and buying in bulk. Thus:

Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania, explains that food providers can get what they need for “pennies on the dollar.” She estimates that they pay about 10 cents a pound for food that would cost you $2 per pound retail. You’d be doing dramatically more good, in basic dollars and cents terms, by eating that tuna yourself and forking over a check for half the price of a single can of Chicken of the Sea.

Charities, it seems, have known this for a while but are reluctant to turn away people for fear of insulting them.  The best option, it seems, is to donate money to charity. And while you are at it, tell us about your favorite charity.