Mother’s Day Fundraising
Hello everyone! I apologize right now for the lack of advance warning, but I thought of something only this weekend a few days ago, and it has an encroaching deadline. While this post is directed specifically at fellow bloggers, I hope it will also serve as advance warning for readers?
Mother’s Day is just around the bend on the 14th of May. My favorite way to celebrate is to share my good fortune in life, because I feel like helping others makes me a better mother and the world a better place for my children to grow up. While I am not an old softie, the fact is that where most people have a fleshy beating heart muscle, I have a melting hunk of Velveeta cheese in my chest instead, so I tend to ask for a charity donation as a gift. It occured to me that many other folks out there share this sentiment, and I have resolved to embark upon a mass-blog fundraising campaign to take place upon Mother’s Day itself. For this purpose I created a site that is currenly located at this address (if I can ever get the stupid domain redirect to take effect, you’ll eventually just have to type benevolentblogging.com: effing ipower.com sucks.) Some of us are mothers. Some are not. But we all came squalling into this world somehow, and it was not because we miraculously materialized out of thin air.
How it works is this:
For each comment left on the calendar date of Mother’s Day, each blogger will agree to donate a specified amount to a chosen charity. Which charity? How much?
The charities which I have selected as preferred charities are not random. I chose two, one focusing on women, and one that concentrates on children who do not have the “luxury” of growing up with their mother. Both are reliable, resourceful, and responsible charities.
FINCA International provides loans to low-income microentrepreneurs, focusing especially on women. From FINCA’s website - ” Of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty worldwide, women account for 70 percent. In the developing world, and even in the United States, a woman’s chances of receiving credit are markedly lower than a man’s, and yet, in an increasing number of families, the woman provides a substantial portion—or all—of the family’s income.” FINCA operates on a global level, with active programs in Latin America, Eurasia, Central Asia, and Africa. This organization receives CharityNavigator.org’s highest rating of four stars, which you can view by clicking here. Because FINCA uses loans rather than grants, every donation adds to an ever-growing pool of funds to help these burgeoning businesswomen. The loans are set at market rates, which means they are not prohibitive or unreasonably hard to pay back. Many clients take pride in repaying their loans, and feel glad to know that their repayments will mean one more woman not unlike themselves will be able to successfully care for her children and her family. (Taking care of one another is one of those things that I personally believe to be part of the meaning of life. Well, that and orthopedically sensible shoes, but as usual, I digress.)
Orphan Foundation of America, which “has served thousands of foster teens all across the United States. From teaching youth how to balance a checkbook, write a resume, and apply for that first big job, to testifying before Congress and State Legislatures, OFA has long been a vocal champion of foster teens… Each year OFA and its scholarship partners award more funding and provide a stronger safety net for those pursuing post-secondary education.” OFA also received a four star rating from CharityNavigator, which can be viewed by clicking here. In addition to financial donations, OFA also has opportunities for knitters to donate the products of their artistry. There is additionally the option for women to join the Pink Panel, run by The Benchmarking Company, who will donate $5.00 to a scholarship fund run by the OFA each time a woman joins or fills out a beauty survey.
While you do not have to select either of these charities, it would be wonderful to see a big group of us make a big pile of money for them specifically, creating a much larger force than us as random individuals could possibly manage on our own. Bloggers are a force to be reckoned with nowadays for sure, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were a force for TANGIBLE good, too? I worry that writing a blog is simply nothing more than a self-indulgent exercise. While this doesn’t allay that fear, at least we can all point to this and remind ourselves that our self-indulgence can be quatifiably projected outwards for the better of others.
So, just how much per comment should you as a blogger consider ponying up the cash for? Me, I’m choosing one dollar for every comment left under the relevant and specific post I will make for Mother’s Day. One dollar is a nice even amount. Which? While I do enjoy helping others, I do not enjoy math particularly. Adding ones makes my life so much easier, heh. However, I do recognize that this amount would place an undue onus on some of you financially, especially those of you who regularly get tons of comments. I would set an amount that you personally feel is feasible for you, be that a quarter per comment, or more.
Want to do even more? Consider “selling” ad space on your site for a set fee, and in lieu of a payment, accept receipt of donation to your charity. Or hold a prize drawing for those readers that sumbit a receipt of donation at a predetermined dollar amount of your choosing. - I know many of you who are my fellow perfumistas that are more than able to make a decant of many much-wanted and/or hard to find perfumes.
As a bonus, you as a blogger will not be acting entirely unselfishly. You will be able to draw out lurkers who usually are too intimidated or unmotivated to make a comment. Moreover, you will be able to draw new traffic to your site via a comprehensive list at Benevolent Blogging, which will list all participating blogs upon notification to me at this address. Please also email me with which charity you will be fundraising for, so that I may also mention that on the site, and please submit your participation in advance of Mother’s Day. I will forward you some images that I have cleared for distribution use for this purpose that you may use on your site to promote the event. (A special thanks in advance to Ronaldo Taveira for letting us use his images. His name will run on some of the images, and please do not remove it, as it is part of my agreement with him.)
All I ask is that you email me within a few days after Mother’s Day how much money you raised in total. I will not need to see your receipts, as we are working strictly on the honor code here.
Mother’s Day was originally instigated “by Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War as a day honoring (in her opinion) the inherent pacifism of mothers.” (quoting Wikipedia.) Ms. Howe was wrong, which I say not as a discredit to woment, but as a more balanced and realistic view of men AND women. Perhaps rather than honoring anyone’s “inherent” pacifism, we should all like to celebrate our own inherent goodness. (I may be just as deluded as her, I admit!)
Quoting briefly from Ms. Howe’s original Mother’s Day proclamation:
Arise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
I would like very much to make this some sort of annual event if it has even a modicum of success.
Also note that if you’re in one of my email address books, you will likely be receiving the text of this post as an email ;)