[Peace-discuss] Advice requested

Sun Dec 30 18:20:28 UTC 2018

It is useful(?) to know that others are as inundated with requests for donations as I am. Having so many requests for worthwhile if not essential causes tends to lessen the urgency to contribute to any of them— a self defeating process.

I tend to give more to those for which I think others will less likely contribute, and which, on some ambiguous scale have greater needs. But this is a uncertain evaluation.

All this private charity/giving seems corrupting. If only public institutions and programs  provided for public needs… through taxation?

—mkb.

On Dec 29, 2018, at 5:13 PM, kmedina67 via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:

 Amen Bob.

The pile of mail and emails asking for a generous donation does pick up more at this time of year.

If peace is our priority issue, then the peace groups, like just foreign policy, should float to the top.

- Karen Medina
"The really great make you feel that you, too, can become great" - Mark Twain

-------- Original message --------
From: Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>>
Date: 12/29/18 14:15 (GMT-06:00)
To: "Szoke, Ron" <r-szoke at illinois.edu<mailto:r-szoke at illinois.edu>>
Cc: Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net<mailto:peace-discuss at anti-war.net>>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Advice requested

I would assume that many people here are having the same experience.

As someone who has responsibility for fundraising for a non-profit - Just Foreign Policy - I can tell you that there is an expectation that one will send "end of year fundraising appeals." We've sent one of them every day since the twenty-fourth, some of them more fundraise-y than others. I try to include new information with each one, so that the interaction isn't wasted, even if it doesn't result in a donation.

Looking at it from the side of the potential donor, nobody has infinite resources, everyone has to prioritize.

I think that if you're a peace person, you should take into account the fact that the peace movement in the U.S. is woefully underfunded, compared to other things. Other people are going to give money to Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, NPR, etc. who are not going to give money to the peace movement.

[I say this as someone who donates money to WILL-AM, about which I feel somewhat conflicted, given that that means indirectly subsidizing NPR, which often annoyingly promotes the Pentagon line; but I much prefer the media landscape with NPR in it to the media landscape in its absence, and I listen to it all the time, though it grates, so I donate to it modestly, to do my part to keep it alive.]

So I think that everyone here who is going to donate something to somebody should, first of all, donate to the peace organization[s] of their choice.

Obviously, I'm happy whenever anyone donates to Just Foreign Policy [http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate], but putting that to the side, here are some other recommendations:

UFPJ
Peace Action
FCNL
AFSC

Two other organizations that are not peace movement per se but are extremely helpful to the peace movement on the media front are FAIR and the Institute for Public Accuracy. When I give to FAIR and IPA, I feel like I'm "offsetting" my donation to NPR. :)

===

Robert Reuel Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org<http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/>
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org<mailto:naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
(202) 448-2898 x1

On Sat, Dec 29, 2018 at 2:47 PM Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
Help!  Am I their savior?
Here are a few of the things I have been called upon to SAVE (by signing an online petition, or more to the point, by sending money) in the past few days:
Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon, National Public Radio, public libraries, African wildlife, wolves, & at least two dozen political candidates & various do-good organizations and causes of various stripes.
Unfortunately, I am not wealthy enough to be the savior of all of them, nor even probably of any of them.  Which one(s) should I choose?
Note that, for your reply to have any credibility, you must tell me how much, in actual dollars, you personally contributed to each one in the past year, & not just tell me about your good intentions, noble motives & sky-high ideals.
~~ Ron Szoke

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