Many of you are now thinking about your end-of-the-year giving plans.  Here’s an option I would like to ask you to consider.

The Blog has received two challenge grants that between them total $25,000.  That is to say, to meet the challenge, we need to raise $25,000 ourselves.  When/if we do so: whammo – that’s $50k.

The funds must come in, or be pledged, by December 31.  For us to meet the goal we will need lots of small donations (a dollar counts!), a number of good-sized donations (pick an amount), and several very sizeable donations.

One of the reasons I’m *especially* keen on this opportunity is this.  As of now we have distributed $425,000 to our charities THIS YEAR.  That is by far the best we have ever done.  Last year was our record year, with a total for the year of $340,000.  But now we are close to a ratherremarkable milestone:  $500,000 in one year.   Them’s newsworthy numbers.  I’d LOVE to be able to do it.  And oh boy would our charities love us to do it.  (As with all blog donations and membership fees, every penny that comes in from these challenge grants will go directly to the charities we support.  We take none of it for overhead.)

Would you be willing to donate – at any level?  Every little bit helps.  Every big bit helps.  It all helps.

Please think about it.  If you would like your donation go to one of our charities or another, all you need do is let us know (zap us a note:  [email protected] ) and we will set aside your moneys as you wish.  For your easy recall: these are the ones we support, all of them highly reputable and, in fact, absolutely amazing)

  • Doctors Without Borders
  • CARE
  • Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina (my local)
  • The Urban Ministries of Durham (brilliant local charity dealing with hunger and homelessness, working to get people into jobs and housing to solve the problems)
  • Durham Literacy Center

I hope you can contribute.  To do so, all you need to do is get onto the blog, scroll down to the bottom of the landing page, and choose your option, either PayPal or Stripe.   (If you would like to tell us directly that you’ll be making a donation, go ahead and zap us a note.  Or zap one directly to me personally!).

Many, many thanks for your support and for being on the blog.  I really appreciate it.  It’s been a great year and we’d love to see it go out with a bang.