Please Donate to the 2nd DU Year-end Charity Donation Drive -- Supporting America's Second Harvest!

[Skinner]

A week and a half ago, I asked all of you to suggest charities for our second annual charity donation drive. Many were suggested, and we are sorry that we cannot help all of them. The DU administrators considered all the suggestions, and decided to support America's Second Harvest -- the same charity we selected last year. We selected it again for a number of reasons: Many DUers expressed support for the organization again this year; America's food banks are struggling this year, and the need seems to be even greater than it was last year; We knew that they already had the technology to do this; And, we knew that it is a non-controversial charity that the vast majority of DUers can support.


About America's Second Harvest

America's Second Harvest—The Nation's Food Bank Network is the largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the country with a Network of more than 200 Member food banks and food-rescue organizations serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The America's Second Harvest Network secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually; and supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs and Kids Cafes. Last year, the America's Second Harvest Network provided food assistance to more than 25 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including nearly 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors. For more on the America's Second Harvest Network, please visit secondharvest.org.

http://help.secondharvest.org/democratic


How to Donate

To donate to America's Second Harvest, simply click on the link provided to go to their special donation page. This page was set up especially for the members of Democratic Underground so they can keep a running total of the amount of money we raised.

YOU MUST CLICK ON THIS LINK BEFORE YOU DONATE IF YOU WANT YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO BE INCLUDED IN OUR TOTAL:

http://help.secondharvest.org/democratic

Please feel free to share this link with your friends and family.

America's Second Harvest will email me periodic updates to let me know how much our members have donated. I will post an update in the DU General Discussion forum (and on my DU Journal) to let you know how we're doing.


About your Donation

100% of your donation goes directly to America's Second Harvest. Democratic Underground is NOT collecting or forwarding the donations, and Democratic Underground does NOT get any part of what you donate.

Donations are tax deductible. You will get a receipt for your donation directly from America's Second Harvest.

Democratic Underground does not have access to any of your personal information, or any information about your donation to America's Second Harvest. We won't know who donates, or how much you donate. All we know is the total value of all the donations made through our link.

http://help.secondharvest.org/democratic


The Charity Donation Drive ends at midnight December 31.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in this thread. We hope this donation drive is a big success!

http://help.secondharvest.org/democratic

David Allen (Skinner)
Dave Allsopp (EarlG)
Brian Leitner (Elad)
Democratic Underground Administrators

Please kick and recommend this thread so more DUers will see it. Thanks.

[EFerrari]

1. Skinner, is there any way to find out how much we raised last year?

It might be fun to try to top that amount.

[Skinner]

3. Last year we raised $24,525 in financial donations.

There were also some offers of in-kind contributions, but I did not include those in the total because America's Second Harvest did not take advantage of them.

[EFerrari]

13. I had no idea! That's amazing!

:wow:

[annabanana]

2. done & kick!. . . . . . .n/t

[glowing]

4. Great choice.. Sad that our govt relies so heavily on charities to take

care of its citizens.. Its really a shame. I'll see what I can do after I do some budgeting. I'm a little stretched with the new house and Christmas this year.. and my own family members needed a helping hand to make it thru, so, its tough out there... Then again, I never know if I'll need to use its services.... And if its true.. giving means you recieve back ten fold.. and I've always found this to be true.. the more you give, the more you recieve and the more joy you receive in your heart. This is what Christmas means.

[intheflow]

17. That's Papa Bush's "thousand points of light" strategy.

Presented in his 1991 SOTU. x( The idea that if everyone just stepped up and did some volunteer work, the government wouldn't have to provide a social safety net for the least among us. :grr:

[glowing]

35. There is nothing wrong with volunteering and helping and learning

about your community, environment, and your impact on the world. On the other hand, we pay taxes to ensure that the govt protects us.. if we have a bad year because the plant laid us off and we need a little extra help making it through for a couple of months, we should have the help without having to lose everything completely and go to living in our cars--if they haven't been repo'd. There are no services to help people stay afloat... There are only services if you are absolutely destitute, and there are only "helping aids" when you are extremely wealthy--like tax cuts and govt bailouts.

[riona]

5. Done

:kick:

[Snarkturian Clone]

6. Locking

Flamebait.

:bounce:

[KittyWampus]

11. Does Second Harvest distribute meat?

LOL

[Lasher]

7. Can you ask them not to put us on a mailing list?

I keep getting snail mail from them and the donation via the DU drive last year is the only one I have made to them. And I don't think it's a particularly good idea for a list of DU members' names and addresses to exist anywhere outside DU.

[Skinner]

You should ask them directly.

DU is not handling any of the transactions, so we have no control over what they do.

[hfojvt]

26. thanks, let me know if that is possible

I feel like my last year's donation of $15 has come back to me in postage.

[maddezmom]

8. kick and a question

Are you guys considering doing some of the challenges like last time?

[Skinner]

20. If anyone would like to fund a challenge, please contact me directly. (nt)

[Imperialism Inc.]

9. Do the funds get matched?

I'm glad to see Second Harvest get the nod. My extended family has decided to give all the money we would have spent on each other for gifts to Second Harvest this year. We think it will be something like $800 and I couldn't be more thrilled. They have a couple of matching funds offers out there. One from Tyson for the first $50,000 and one from their board of directors for the first $250,000. Does giving through DU take advantage of either of these matching funds offers and if not can it be set up that way?

[Skinner]

21. I am not aware of any matching program. (nt)

[hisownpetard]

10. Done.

[I Have A Dream]

12. K&R! n/t

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

14. Thank You For A Great Choice.

I already donated directly via phone a few weeks ago, but I'm thrilled to see that the DU group effort will go towards this cause. I could just tell on the phone with them that they are truly in need of whatever assistance they can get this year, so I think it's awesome that DU is going to do its part.

:thumbsup:

[intheflow]

15. K&R n/t

[Redstone]

16. I'll reply to this one too..Skinner, please read this:

I'll make the same offer I made last year, if you can find someone at S.H. who will reply to my messages...

Redstone

[Skinner]

18. Unfortunately, I don't think they can do it.

I don't think they have any use for it at the national level, and they don't know how to pass it off to a local food bank.

[Redstone]

22. OK, thanks for the answer. I'll work with the local people directly again.

Redstone

[Change has come]

19. Done.

Thanks for organizing this.

:kick:

[EFerrari]

23. Kick!

:kick:

[Skinner]

24. Kick (nt)

[bpeale]

25. i, personally, have decided that makeitrightnola.org has earned my money

of which i have very little. personally, i want to make a difference by helping to put a roof over someone's head. secondharvest would be my SECOND choice.

[Suich]

27. K&R! n/t

[mzmolly]

28. Skinner, this is amazing. I'm glad to contribute in the name of DU.

Thanks again for helping a wonderful organization!

:toast:

[Breeze54]

29. Kicking and Recommended

Great choice!

[proud patriot]

30. Kick

[Blue-Jay]

31. What happened to Vegan Heifer International?

[Flying Dream Blues]

32. Done! Thanks for this! nt

[Lochloosa]

33. Kick....

[lizziegrace]

34. I agree that this is a worthy charity

I donated last year. So far, I've gotten no fewer than 6 solicitations for money from them every single month since June. I wish the money spent on paper and postage would be spent on the hungry and not used to fill my mailbox.

[OregonBlue]

36. Done and K & R. The rich are getting richest at the fastest pace in history and the food banks are

empty.

[Lochloosa]

37. Done...

[bdamomma]

38. done

[Raksha]

39. Done!

I did this last year too, but it looks like they need it even more this year. Sign of worse things to come...