Look, Ray! Turtles!

akamine_chan pointed out over on ds noticeboard that today is World Turtle Day, an excellent time to make a donation in honor of Ray's mysterious turtle. I am totally on board as I am all about saving the world for the most trivial, geeky, fannish reasons.

There are many turtle-related charities, it turns out, including the classic World Wildlife Fund which has an "adoption" program for various endangered species where you get a plushie and an adoption certificate (too cutesy for me, but probably good for a kid), and this Baja California based group which lets you NAME a turtle for $150. This is a very exciting opportunity which proved to be too much pressure for me. (Also a little more than I had budgeted for random turtle donations?)

In the end, I donated to the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, so, please don't tell me they're horrible. Or do. Or don't. I don't know. They weren't on Charity Navigator, but they were recommended by Earth Island which is four stars. Do we even trust Charity Navigator? People are always complaining that the CEO's make way too much even on the four-star charities. How do you research your donations?

ETA: As long as it's still WTD, here are a few others:

Oceana - $35 donation gets you a food network sea turtle cookie cutter, for all your sea turtle party needs

Adopt a giant tortoise from the Galapagos! Also works if you are a fan of Dr. Stephen Maturin

Marine Conservation Society - UK based (amounts are in pounds), also have a specific "adopt a turtle" program which I stumbled on NOT EVEN LOOKING FOR TURTLE STUFF ANYMORE.