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Have I told you lately how much I love how smart this community is? Here's what I'm on about: Over the weekend, BlogHer community member Valiens of A Brain Like Mine blogged great questions about the BlogHers Act fundraiser to save women's lives:
"I'm wondering whether the women's health care available in any given country is able to provide birth control in any meaningful way, and I'm wondering what the general attitude and practice is among the providers in the various countries about abortion....I'm also wondering if any of the organizations being supported are specifically political in nature, or in support of, or being supported by, political organizations, and which ones they are, and what their mission statements propose. Again, this could be an important factor regarding donations. Transparency is most desirable.On top of that, I'm willing to say I have some potential donors who would have questions about vaccinations, AIDS treatments, religious involvements...more"
I love Valiens' questions because it gives me an opening to talk more about BlogHer's philosophy for our BlogHers Act fundraiser, and why we chose to work with GlobalGiving to support five projects we deliberately selected with an eye to exactly the issues she raises. Here goes...
First, a quick overview of BlogHer: As you may be aware, BlogHer is a non-partisan organization. Our mission is the same one we wrote at a kitchen table in 2005: To create opportunities for women who write and comment on blogs to gain greater exposure for their writings, opinions and beliefs -- and we find, as Valiens does, that our membership embraces the entire political spectrum. We have pro-life members. We have pro-choice members. We have every permutation of politics under the sun and we love that. This is why we partnered with GlobalGiving on BlogHers Act, our community's initiative to improve the world by harnessing the power of women online (more here). GlobalGiving is key because:
1. GlobalGiving investigates every project to make sure that:
* Their work has significant social impact.
* They have a track record for delivering on promises.
* They are not listed in any terrorist databases.
* Their projects are eligible for international philanthropic donations — so donors in the US receive full tax benefits.
Read more about GlobalGiving's due diligence here: http://www.globalgiving.com/dd.html
2. GlobalGiving offers us donors a money-back guarantee that our money will go to helping people via specific projects, not paying for administrative overhead. Read the guarantee here: http://www.globalgiving.com/guaranteed/index.html
Now, on to the five projects we selected as alternatives for donors to pick, using GlobalGiving's (incredibly, may I say thankfully?!) easy-to-use widget. We selected five different projects that we thought would offer all members of the BlogHer community at least one personally comfortable alternative to make a donation that will save women's lives. I can confirm that:
- Each project's organization is independent, not affiliated with a political or religious organization superstructure. I should note, however, that by virtue of placing a priority on the health of women, girls and female infants should be, de facto, considered "political in nature" because of the second-class status women have in these countries. Which is why these women need our help so badly! :) Also, political and religious organizations and organization members are not prohibited from giving to these causes.
- We chose these five projects because of their primary focus on saving women's lives -- including saving the lives of new mothers, their infants and their other children via clinical care and/or education -- as well as their endorsement by GlobalGiving as an organization that is working effectively within these five cultures to empower women with the information they need to survive.
- We recommend that people who do not support contraception in any way shape or form donate to the first project below, a school lunch program for girls in Burkina Faso, where education is equipping women to participate in the developing economy. Where the reproductive health programs listed below mention contraception and sexually transmitted diseases (Afghanistan, Nepal South African), these projects focus on education about using condoms safely, and distributing condoms. Note: While abortion is not a focus of any of these projects, I suspect that this is an alternative some clinics may use to save the life of the mother; This is why I also recommend the first project below for pro-life donors.
In addition to GlobalGiving's comprehensive and clickable
