2019 Gift Guide: Organizations to Support on Giving Tuesday and Beyond

In honor of Giving Tuesday, I wanted to share a few organizations that could use your support this holiday season and beyond. I decided to focus on seven organizations that I personally support; but there are a million amazing organizations working in a variety of sectors, so if you have a favorite cause or organization – feel free to mention them in the comments below! These days, I’m personally very much focused on organizations working to protect and reform our democratic systems (and they’re mostly non-partisan!), as well as organizations seeking to help asylum seekers impacted by the Trump administration’s disastrous immigration policies. Maybe you’re already familiar with these organizations, but if not I’m thrilled to help introduce you to a few organizations doing amazing work around the country. Every little bit helps!

2019 Gift Guide: Organizations to Support on Giving Tuesday and Beyond

POLITICAL NON-PROFITS

Run for Something

Run for Something has the fantastic mission of supporting young, progressive candidates running for state and local office. Run for Something aims to lower the barriers to entry for these candidates by helping them with seed money, organization building, and the training they need to be successful. They want to permanently improve and expand the definition of “politician” – making it something honorable again, and not just something for rich old white dudes or slimeballs – and bring it back to public service. They just launched in January 2017 and have already recruited more than 45,000 candidates across all 50 states. Yes to more young people in public office!

Fair Fight Action

Fair Fight (founded by Stacey Abrams) promotes fair elections in key states around the country, encourages voter participation in elections, and educates voters about elections and their voting rights. Fair Fight brings awareness to the public on election reform, advocates for election reform at all levels, and engages in targeted voter registration and other voter outreach programs and communications. Fair Fight is particularly focused on countering voter suppression – particularly young voters and voters of color – and they’re doing some really important work in many 2020 swing states.

She Should Run

She Should Run is a nonpartisan nonprofit promoting leadership and encouraging women from all walks of life to run for office by providing training and other assistance for female candidates. Women are underrepresented at all levels in the 500,000+ elected offices across the United States. She Should Run is committed to getting at least 250,000 women to run for local, state, and federal offices by 2030! 

 

Resistbot

Resistbot is a free service that helps you contact your elected officials or local newspaper via email, text message, fax, or postal letter – it makes engaging with our elected officials SO EASY! Because the goal of Resistbot is to deliver your correspondence to elected officials, their activities technically fall under the IRS definition of lobbying – and they need our donations to keep the service running! 

 

Represent Us

Represent Us is a grassroots organization bringing together conservatives, progressives, and everyone in between to pass powerful anti-corruption laws that stop political bribery, end secret money, and fix our broken elections by passing anti-corruption measures at the state and local level. So important!

 

 

IMMIGRATION/REFUGEE ASSISTANCE

Al Otro Lado

Al Otro Lado provides legal and medical assistance to asylum seekers, migrants, and deportees, including cross-border support for families separated under the family separation policy and families currently impacted by the Remain in Mexico policy program. Your donations to Al Otro Lado go directly to serving indigent deportees, migrants, and refugees in Tijuana and Los Angeles!

 

Aldea

Aldea – The People’s Justice Center provides pro-bono or discounted legal services for members of the immigrant community, including unaccompanied minors and minor immigrant children. They’re active throughout the United States, but focus largely on families and children detained at the Berks Detention Center. You can also donate via Facebook.

In addition to Al Otro Lado and Aldea PJC, you can also donate to Las Americas, an immigrant advocacy organization based in El Paso, or donate to support families impacted by the ICE raids in Mississippi earlier this year right here.

Friday Faves

Happy Friday everyone! I’m heading up to New York for the National Stationery Show tomorrow, and I’ll be sharing snaps from the show on Instagram starting on Sunday – then here as soon as I can get the photos processed. Covering the show has gotten harder (at least for me) with social media since I tend to take photos with both my phone and my DSLR, giving me twice as many photos to sort through. This year I’m hoping to consolidate with just one camera and hope for the best. You’d think social media would make it easier to cover the show, but it’s actually the opposite for me! Anyway, here are some links for your weekend!

Worthwhile Paper at NYNOW/NSS

Greeting cards by Worthwhile Paper – they’ll be at the Crow & Canary booth at NYNOW (7614)!

Raising conscious white kids

Have you been following the couture runway shows? My favorites are Maison Valentino (so much color!) and Ralph & Russo (I specifically want this dress, please and thank you). 

How cute is this wicker purse? So perfect for spring and summer!

The Jewish feminism of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

I’m into the minimalist vibes of this necklace

Maybe we should be talking about taxes instead of philanthropy

Do you know about World Central Kitchen? Founded by José Andrés, it’s a group of chefs and volunteers that provide food to natural disaster victims around the world – and to federal employees during the shutdown

These towel rings are very similar to what we have in our bathroom, and I love the extra mother of pearl detail!

So many cute pillows and blankets in this Etsy shop!

How to Help End the Government Shutdown

Activism by Carolyn Suzuki

Image by Carolyn Suzuki from her upcoming book “F is for Feminism

I live in DC, so the ongoing U.S. government shutdown is pretty much all people talk about these days. 800,000 federal government workers across the country have been scrambling to make ends meet since the shutdown began on December 21. Some are furloughed, meaning they are legally prohibited from working during the shutdown, while those deemed essential (like TSA employees) are working without pay. This Friday they will all miss their second paycheck. My husband is a federal employee at a fully funded agency, so we’re thankfully okay. But many of our friends and neighbors are affected, and I know the shutdown is impacting thousands more outside the DC area. So, I’m curious: are you affected by the U.S. government shutdown? Do you know anyone who is? Maybe you have a friend or family member that works for a U.S. government agency and has either been furloughed or is required to work without pay. Or you know a first time homeowner trying to get an FHA loan. Or there are small businesses in your area waiting for inspections or licenses from USG agencies.

Food inspections, airplane inspections, small business licensing, counterterrorism investigations, Coast Guard operations – these are critical government functions that have been impacted by the shutdown. I think we can all agree that we’d like the government to reopen so federal employees can either get back to work or get paid for the work they’re currently doing. If you’d like to help end the government shutdown, you can join the National Call Day taking place across the country TODAY to put pressure on the Senate to reopen the government.

To reopen the government, Congress (both the House of Representatives and the Senate) have to pass bills funding the government, and the President has to sign the bill – or Congress has to override the President with a 2/3 majority. Only Congress can authorize funding, so while the President can make demands, it’s up to Congress to decide what it wants to fund. When the new session of Congress opened on January 3, the House passed a bill that would fund the government without border wall funding, but Mitch McConnell has refused to allow a Senate vote – despite being a co-equal branch of government with enough votes to override Trump’s veto if needed.

CONTACT YOUR SENATORS TODAY!

On Thursday, the Senate will vote on two opposing funding bills that would reopen the government. One proposed by the White House, the other proposed by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The White House bill includes the $5.7 billion for construction of a permanent wall and would also impose serious restrictions on asylum petitions for Central American migrants, including limiting the number of people that can apply for asylum and an outright ban on asylum for Central American minors presenting themselves at the border. Those migrants would be automatically returned to their country of origin WITHOUT an asylum hearing. It would also expand immigrant jail beds by 20%, meaning the Trump administration would have extra capacity to detain families seeking asylum in the United States. The White House proposal claims to extend DACA, but instead it replaces DACA with an entirely new program that is far more restrictive, excluding Dreamers who would be eligible for or even in DACA now. The bill from Minority Leader Schumer is a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the government through February 8 with NO wall funding. It’s a temporary fix, but it would allow government workers to get paid and/or go back to work while negotiations continue. 

We need to put pressure on the Senate to vote in favor of the clean CR. You can look up the address and phone number for your two senators here or on 5Calls.org. It’s particularly important to contact your senators if you live in a state with Republican senators, but it’s a good idea to contact Democratic senators, too. You can email your senator directly by clicking the contact link below each senator’s name on this page, and you can contact Senator McConnell directly here. It’s best to keep things short and to the point when contacting your senator. Include your name and exact address so they know you’re a constituent, then tell them exactly what you want them to do. For example:

My name is Sarah Smith and I’m a constituent at 109 Main Street, Townsville, California. I’m calling to urge Senator Harris to vote for the clean Continuing Resolution that would fund the government through February 8 and against President Trump’s hateful, anti-immigrant bill. Holding America hostage for border wall funding is counterproductive and immoral. Congress must pass a funding bill to reopen the government immediately, and override the President’s veto if necessary. Thank you for your time and attention.

And if you get phone anxiety and want to get a message to your representatives out quickly, Resistbot is a texting service that will deliver your message for you. You can also use Resistbot to send a message to the White House! Text the word RESIST to 50409 to get started.

Without public pressure, this government shutdown could go on indefinitely. Federal employees are prohibited from going on strike, so sadly the Trump administration can continue forcing them to work without pay as long as it wants – at least until those employees quit and find other jobs (assuming that’s an available option for those employees). I don’t think it’s right to treat federal employees this way, and the longer this shutdown continues the bigger the impact will be. We should demand that our elected officials do everything possible to pass a funding bill and reopen the government, with or without the President’s support.