‘Tis the season!
As Tom Lehrer put it:
“It’s always seemed to me, after all, that Christmas, with its spirit of giving, offers us all a wonderful opportunity each year to reflect upon what we all most sincerely and deeply believe in.
I refer, of course, to money.”
So: what’s the most effective fund-raising ask you’ve been hit with this holiday season, and what made it special? (My favorite so far this season is after the fold. I like the attention-getter it has, the way it concisely states the unique contribution of the cause, and closes with a direct ask and a thank you. I’m always amazed, but I never fail to get at least one fund-raising letter each holiday season which doesn’t tuck a “thank you” in at the end.)
I could wait for this diary a couple more weeks. But then we’d all be without the perfect opportunity to plug our favorite charities just as other people are thinking of opening their wallets.
And there are no shortage of fascinating opportunities to make a difference with some cash–and no trivial amount of well-dressed scams and flashy money-pits as well. I want to know where all y’all recommend giving…
From Wikipedia author Aniruddha Kumar
I can speak Hindi, Urdu, English, Sanskrit and Moroccan. But I can’t read what’s on my computer screen.
Being blind online means I have to listen to all the text — including ads. That’s one of the reasons I rely on Wikipedia so much. It doesn’t waste my time by making me sit through advertising like almost every other website.
Wikipedia is one of the most beautiful things in the world. It takes the concept that everyone has a basic right to information and makes it into something real — a tool that’s free for anyone to access, even blind people like me, and completely neutral.
When I first found out about Wikipedia — that I could be part of this amazing collective project — I knew I wanted to contribute. And I’m asking you to join me.
Will you support Wikipedia with a gift of $5, $20, $50 or whatever you can afford?
Wikipedia gets almost as many visitors as huge sites like Google and Facebook, but it operates on a tiny fraction of their resources. And it depends entirely on donations from readers like you.
Instead of ads, Wikipedia has a community of millions of volunteer editors double-checking every word and citation. I’m so grateful for them – their work makes learning online possible.
The philosophy of Wikipedia is to make a sea from drops. And it applies to everyone who contributes, whether a few edits or a few dollars.
Thank you,
Aniruddha Kumar
Wikipedia Author
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If I send her $1,000.00 I get back 10 million!
a flock of ducks instead.
https://secure1.heifer.org/gif…
I have an intense love-hate relationship with this fine organization.
I love the work that they do, how they do it, and the message they have. (I also love that it allows me to give them a gift every year on behalf of my hard-to-buy-for mother-in-law, who is far to much of a true saint for me.)
Be forewarned, however, these people are the most intense, relentless, and tenacious marketers you will ever run across in this lifetime. Once you make that first gift, you will be forever after bombarded with mail and e-mail requesting additional giving. (You will feel kind of good about it, however. And the people and families whose lives you’ve changed by your gift will, I hope, feel a bit more well fed, empowered, and hopeful themselves.)
Excessive marketing can be a pretty big downer, especially if it’s a big portion of the overall budget. Looks like Heifer’s marketing, spends $.19 on fund-raising for each dollar raised. That’s not too bad, although it’s toward the back of the pack for well-respected charities. (For some comparisons, Wikimedia spends $0.08, Goodwill Denver $.05, Doctors without Borders spends $.13, and the American Heart Association spends $.18.) Quite respectable.
What is most effective about their asks, tho?
I’m not entirely sure — there’s the untold joy of helping folks, but more importantly I think, the practical joy of knowing that in some little way you’re helping people to actually help themselves as an effective solution to some of their poverty and hunger.
http://www.heifer.org/ourwork/…
And, maybe it just personally appeals to that frustrated-I-never-got-to-be-a-Peace-Corp-volunteer in me?
PS. It was actually a Bob Ewegen column that first caught my attention.
You can give somebody a flock of little fuzzy ducklings. You can give the flock of ducks in the name of all your in-laws, then send them (the in-laws) a nice card with lots of animals on it telling them you donated a flock of ducks in their names, and they have to thank you for what is really a pretty crappy Christmas present because otherwise they are heartless bastards who hate poor people and ducklings.
we’re giving desks. My wife and I decided that each of us would gift the other by contributing to K.I.N.D.(Kids In Need of Desks)and buy two desks for a school in Africa.
The program is promoted by Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC.
it’s not the gift, but the thought that counts.
This is a thread for charitable giving David.
Investment, uh, opportunities don’t count.
And Dio, Ralphie and I can have a perfectly good thread without you hijacking the thread. Jeez.
a lovely lass, but she doesn’t make music videos
Didn’t need one.
Just called the Salvation Army and told them I wanted to adopt a family. They sent a family number, first names and ages, and a list of what they needed. Got a cordless drill and bits for dad, scooters for the kids, a gift card for clothes for the kids, and seven boxes of food (including, of course, the Christmas ham, potatoes, yams, and stuff for a casserole).
Dropped it all off Tuesday. Last year we got a family through a charity that works with the Housing Authority–an abused single mom relocated from elsewhere and her three girls.
I’d rather do things directly. I don’t like the overhead associated with the fundraising agencies, so I rarely respond to “asks.”
But there are other charitable organizations that will still hook you up with a family.
The Salvation Army here still needs turkeys. Just here in Grand Junction alone, they plan to send out 2100 food boxes to needy families and they’re short of turkeys.
or otherwise experss devotion? They used to engage that way which was my only ever objection to them.
I will do what you did locally but I’ll just call Social Services
I don’t know if SA makes you pray or not. I think if you go there for their sit-down dinner they probably pray. I’ve never had to go, thankfully.
I know that they have a food table for walk-ins, mostly bread and canned goods, when you first walk in the door. You don’t have to pray to take stuff, just sign for it and write down what you took.
The adopt-a-family stuff is either picked up by or delivered to the families. They have dinner in their own homes.
The interesting thing about the Salvation Army is that even though I’ve donated food for locals and money for disaster relief, I’ve never gotten onto a spam or sucker list. Never once got a snailmail or email from them except a “Thank You.”
Here’s a blog story with links to first-hand accounts of SA discrimination.
Make of it what you will. They do help need people, but not all of them apparently need apply.
I’m feeding a single dad with 8 and 6 year old boys and a 4 year old girl. Everything I bought went directly to the family with nothing skimmed off the top for the organization. I’m sorry the organization discriminates against gays, but this family needed help under any circumstances.
Normally I’m pretty stuck on donating to evaluated charities only, so the SA wouldn’t make my list. (I think it’s partially that I like reviewing data.)
But I have to admit this is a damn good approach Ralphie.
Who knew doing good didn’t have to be wonky? (I think I just learned something about myself. Sigh.)
I check first to make sure they already have an installation on the ground.
After the Haitian earthquake, I looked into it and found out they had a hospital nearby that they had operated continuously for a long time that was undamaged.
I got familiar with SA through Ham radio, maybe during Katrina or the Banda Aceh earthquake/tsunami (I don’t remember now). During a disaster, they operate something called SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network).
Rather than doing direct first-responder communications on site that would overlap or interfere with other organizations (usually done with VHF or UHF) they run a network on HF that sends health and welfare information or inquiries to and from anywhere in the world.
They’ll report status information on individuals through the net, and then a Ham in a nearby community can copy the traffic and contact the family by phone. Families can also inquire with a Ham and we’ll get the inquiry to the disaster site via the network.
Ralphie–where’ve you been all my life?
I dunno. I’ve been a nerd since I was about 5 years old.
Rude, nerdy, but me.