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I donated to Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, and the Japanese Tsunami.

I decided not to donate to the Red Cross for the same reasons. I usually donate with them or Doctors Without Borders if it's something out of state or the country. But for something that hit locally, like Hurricane Sandy, I prefer to work with local organizations where I can really see my donation at use.

@Mrs. Bee: I also purchased items from the Sandy registry.

I do donate to natural disasters, if they're far away I feel like it's the least I can do, since I can't actually be there to help.

Thankfully where I'm from we don't have much for natural disasters, but if we did I would be sure to actually go out and be there helping where it's needed. I think it's important for a healthy community.

@mrsbells just curious, why do you think its worse to donate $?

We always donate to the Red Cross. If something happened close to where we lived, I'd donate to a local organization that I was familiar with. I love how motivated people get to do clothing drives, etc. from out of state, but I hate how much $ then goes towards shipping it, and that I don't know who actually gets stuff or how it is distributed. Coming from a nonprofit background I've heard plenty of (smaller scale or non-disaster) examples where a bunch of donations go to waste because they weren't necessarily needed in the first place, or there isn't a good distribution system in place.

Not saying that is what is happening at ALL in this instance and the Amazon registry is a great idea - just my experience and why we tend to donate $ instead of mailing socks or something similar to that.

@tororojo: very true. If you donate to a specific ARC disaster relief effort, any money that may be left cannot be used for other needs