The Days Between Christmas And New Years—When Many Decide On Who and What They Will Contribute To
December 20, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
We recently had a conversation with friends who know more about professional fundraising and we found out some important information which, if reframed by our overall goals of radically changing the world and raising big money to get Bob Avakian’s works and vision out into every corner of society, could make a big difference in whether we are able to meet our goals.
This has to do with fighting through all the way to the end of the year to ask people to make donations.
It is true that more than 50% of all charitable contributions are made during the last two months of the year. This is even more true during the LAST WEEK of the year, when a very big percentage of those donations are actually made.
This is a time when people are taking stock of a lot of different things. Yes there are the financial considerations—people figuring out what they have available to give. (For the wealthy they often get early annual reports from their accountants on how much they should donate.) And of course it is the last week they can qualify for potential tax write-offs. But there are also more ideological reasons involved. The current editorial, “A World of Savage Inequality: NO MORE,” could not have put it better. "It is a time when people reflect on the state of humanity and their relationship to it." It is a time when they are looking at all that happened in the past year, and thinking about what the future will bring and what their lives will be all about. And think about what a year it has been—with Trayvon Martin, Stop and Frisk, police and stand your ground murders—the way that the lives of black and brown youth count for nothing under this system. Think about the massive assaults on abortion rights in the midst of an unprecedented and global war on women, the UN and other scientific reports on the global warming and the crises in the environment—and how it was even possible in a world where satellites track weather for football games, that 6,000 died in the Philippines for lack of warning and shelter. The world does not have to be this way and people can make a contribution to change it all.
We talked about sending everyone we have approached—and people newly met—with this important editorial, calling on them to make a donation that will make all the difference in the world—and making this a part of how people will end their year.
The very last week of the year is when much of what is raised is actually sent in. It is a time when people make those decisions.
And don’t forget, for those who want to make a tax-deductible donation, the Prisoner’s Revolutionary Literature Fund can accept your donation. Go to their website at prlf.net and you can accomplish this online.
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