DVD SALE - IMPORTANT

Well, good thing we didn't sell the DVD's last week...only one person came to my room to hang up flyers. So, I reserved Jan. 6th and 7th (Tuesday and Wednesday) of the week that we are back to have a table in E-Commons to sell the DVD's. However, because of Friday's snow, we had no meeting and therefore no one is slated to man/woman the table on these days. If we can work this out through the blog, great. If not, we may have to cancel and find new dates.

Also, I think we should have an example of what one of the DVD's would look like, so people can see ahead of time what they are purchasing. Can anyone make a case and label for the DVD?

Please respond if you could sell at the table Periods 4-8 on Tuesday (Jan. 6th) and Periods 4-8 on Wednesday (Jan. 7th). Thanks!

hey guys, I checked out global impact
5.3 percent of every dollar Global Impact spends is for administration and fundraising.
However, the idea of them as a middle man, probably isnt best.

- Danielle

Charity Research

Since no one else seems to have found anything, here are the charities that I have researched.

nothingbutnets.org- $10 buys one mosquito net for a person in Africa. They have distributed nets to refugee camps in Chad, and hope to be able to send some to Sudan as well. According to the FAQ, this organization takes no overhead from the donation- all of it goes to purchasing, shipping, and educating people how to properly use their nets. The nets help stop the spread of malaria.

divest for darfur- i could not find a breakdown of where the money goes.

kidsforkids.org.uk - I found a pie-chart on their website, but was unsure as to whether or not there are any overhead costs. Maybe Mr. Cone or Mrs. Donohue can figure it out? http://www.kidsforkids.org.uk/about_importantinfo.asp

Because of homework, those were the only charities I had time to break down. Of course, we can always send our money to savedarfur.org or the solar cookers again, but it may be nice to do something different for a change. 

Update-Meeting 12-12

Sorry it took so long for me to update the blog! We had a pretty good turnout, but definitely not as many people were there as there has been in the past. Spread the word! Invite your friends to come and remind them of meetings.

This is the meeting run-down:
-We are considering selling the DVDs from the Comedy Hypnosis Show. We were thinking of doing this on this Thursday or Friday, but we may have to change the date if needed.

-Please everyone check out the sites mentioned in previous posts about the charities we could donate to. This Friday we will vote on which one we will give our Comedy Hypnosis money. If you find any information on the charities, please post them on the blog.

-In the Spring we are planning to have our Dine Around and Scavenger Hunt. The Dine Around is tentatively scheduled for and the Scavenger Hunt on .

-We have our display in F tower, but we may need to re-amp it. We also could possibly use the display case in the front or near the library, but we would have to rotate with other clubs. If there are any ideas please post and/or bring your ideas to the meeting.

-We are also looking to other events, but we need ideas. We don't really have anything planned for the Winter/early Spring, so any ideas would be appreciated. Bake sales and pizza sales went well, but did not make much money. But they still are options. Anyone else have other fundraising ideas?

I think that's pretty much it, but if I forgot anything I'll post a comment. Everyone, please start using the blog!!!!! It can help keep communication open. :)

-Erin

Check this out

The new UN Envoy Nominee (Susan Rice) is very intent on helping Darfur. Read or listen to the story.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97661695&sc=emaf

Some More Charities!

Does anyone know if there is a way to make a poll online here so we can decide which charity to donate to? It would be a good way to get people to actually use the blog- and it's more organized than a poll taken at a meeting.

Anyway, here are a two other charities I have found: 

Global Impact's Darfur Crisis Fund 

This group donates to a few different Darfur-related charities, however, I don't know how much we really want a middleman involved.

Kids For Kids

This charity is aimed at improving the lives of children in the remote villages of Darfur. It is unique because instead of focusing on the refugees themselves, the aim is to help prevent people from becoming refugees in the first place. It's a British charity, but they accept donations in American dollars, too.

PS- This article was interesting and yet disgusting at the same time. Louis Vuitton is suing the "Divest For Darfur" Charity for using a bag that resembles a Louis Vuitton design in a highly circulated picture. It's not like this organization was using it to profit personally, you'd think that a company would WANT positive advertising connections to such a great cause. 

Well, that's all I have to say for now. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Organizations

Along with the organizations mentioned by Jen and Sharon I found an organization that we could potentially donate to.

Divest for Darfur (http://www.savedarfur.org/page/content/index/) is different because the money goes towards encouraging investment firms to withdraw investments from companies that help fund genocide in Darfur.