Boing Boing » charitable giving

Geeky tornado relief fundraisers

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:30:45 +0000

Alan sez, "Two items here on the same theme: Ruben Bolling, comic author of Tom The Dancing Bug, contributor to JoCo Funnies, etc. has a raffle posted on his blog. If you donate to the American National Red Cross through a page he has set up, you will be entered into a drawing for a personal comic from Bolling; Greg Pak, creator of the 'Code Monkey Save World' visuals and co-conspirator in the recent Kickstarter with Jonathan Coulton is offering free CMSW stickers to people who make a donation to any recognized organization helping tornado victims."

My Little Pony fans successfully register a 501(c)3 charity for fannish good works

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 14 May 2013 22:00:44 +0000

The Brony Thank You Fund spun out of a ~~Reddit forum~~ Indiegogo fundraiser for fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ("bronies" and "pegasisters"). After raising money to run an ad thanking the show's creators for doing such a great job, the organizers donated the hefty excess balance to Toys for Tots. The project continued to gain momentum and it is now a registered 501(c)3 charitable organization through which fans of My Little Pony can make tax-free donations that will be funneled to worthy causes. They claim that they're the first media-related fandom to register as a charity -- I'm pretty sure that some science fiction conventions are run as 501(c)3s, though.

The Thank You Fund Enters a New Phase (via /.)

MIT student raises funds for young Boston bomb victim's family

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:58:09 +0000

Catherine sez,

On Monday, the Boston Marathon was bombed. On Monday night I was feeling blessed and thankful to not know anyone directly affected by the bombs. But on Tuesday morning I woke up to an email from my colleague Chris Peterson at the MIT Center for Civic Media. Chris's family are friends with the family who lost their son Martin in the attack. He sent us photos of he and his brothers playing with their children and the reality was all too close. It is devastating. This family will have a long road of healing in front of them that most of us cannot even begin to imagine.
My friends at MIT and I have spent the past couple of days helping Chris build a site to raise money for the Richard family. We are coordinating with St Marks Area Main Street, a non-profit community organization based in Dorchester, MA, where the family lives. The site is made with the support of the family and their spokesperson. 100% of funds raised goes to the family. Please give what you can. It's the very least we can do to come together in solidarity with these innocent people and help them to rebuild their lives in the wake of senseless violence. In the photo on the site Martin is holding a sign he made in school that says "Peace". Let us spread that peace.

The Richard Family Fund (Thanks, Catherine)

Save Noisebridge!

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:30:18 +0000

A reader writes, "Noisebridge, San Francisco's Hackerspace, is having some hard times, so we're throwing an epic benefit and party this Saturday, to include eclectic performers, interactive art, a raffle and more! For more details, if any BBers want to put on demos or ideas share them.

Last day of fundraising for Parltrack - turning Parliamentary records into searchable databases

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:26:15 +0000

Stefan sez, "Amelia Andersdotter Pirate member of the European Parliament and members of European Digital Rights call for support and donation on the last day of the Parltrack fundraising campaign."

Fundraiser for the Public Domain Review

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 03:46:53 +0000

Adam sez, "The Public Domain Review is a not-for-profit project dedicated to showcasing the most interesting and unusual out-of-copyright works available online. We've been featured on Boing Boing before. We have just launched our fundraising campaign to try and keep the project alive."

Donate Now to Save The Public Domain Review!

London's FREEDOM anarchist bookstore firebombed

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 06:33:52 +0000

FREEDOM, a legendary anarchist bookstore in east London, was firebombed on Friday morning. This is the store that Peter Kropotkin helped found in the 19th century, and the home of a monthly newspaper that published Emma Goldman. No one was hurt, and no one seems to know who did it, or why. The store was uninsured.

They're having a community clean-up day today. I wish I could go, but it's my daughter's fifth birthday, so I'll be donating to the repair and rebuilding fund. This is a ghastly, senseless act.

The bookshop has been firebombed. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but there’s quite a lot of damage from both the fire and the water used to douse the flames.
If you’d like to help us sort out some of the mess, please come down to the shop on Saturday 2nd February from 1pm and give us a helping hand. See here for details.
We’re still assessing the damage, so watch this space for further news.
If you’d like help us out financially, cheques or postal orders made payable to Freedom Press can be sent to Freedom Press, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX.
You can also help by ordering books through our website here and then emailing us at subs@freedompress.org.uk to let us know that your purchase was a donation.

I can't say enough about what a tragedy this is. FREEDOM is an institution and an incredible bookstore.

Freedom firebombed

(Photo: International Times)

World SF Travel Fund fund-raiser

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 23:20:33 +0000

Lavie Tidhar writes, "We are now running the second World SF Travel Fund fund-raiser. The Fund was established in 2011 to help bring one or two international persons involved in science fiction, fantasy or horror to travel to a major genre event. The first recipient was Charles Tan from the Philippines, who travelled to the US for World Fantasy Con, and in 2012 we helped Swedish authors Nene Ormes and Karin Tidbeck travel to Toronto for the same convention. This year, we hope to help bring over to World Fantasy Con in Brighton two more guests, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, a writer from the Philippines now resident in the Netherlands, and Csilla Kleinheincz, a Hungarian-Vietnamese writer, editor and translator. We are looking to raise $3000 to help cover this and possibly next year."

Jay Lake cancer fundraiser: expect a 3D scan of my head while making a funny face originated by John Scalzi

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 22:20:40 +0000

Last week, I blogged about the fundraiser to help sf writer Jay Lake with his cancer therapy (he's hoping to have his genome sequenced and to find some new avenues for treatment) and expenses. The fundraiser involves sf writers and friends doing "public acts of whimsy" as progressively higher sums were raised.

The fundraiser is going great guns, and I've thrown in my own "act of whimsy," which was unlocked overnight: because the fundraiser has crossed the $35K mark, I will "release a a CC-BY scan of my head while recreating any funny expression that John 'Rubberface' Scalzi can photograph himself making."

There are still more whimsical acts to be unlocked, all the way up to $100K ("Jay! The Musical!").

Sequence a Science Fiction Writer

Medical fundraiser for sf writer Jay Lake

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:21:10 +0000

Mary Robinette Kowal sez, "Jay Lake is an award-winning American author of ten science fiction novels and over 300 short stories. He is also one of more than a million Americans who have colon cancer. Diagnosed in April, 2008, Jay's cancer has progressed from a single tumor to metastatic disease affecting the lung and liver, recurring after multiple surgeries and chemotherapy courses, and multiplying from single tumor presentations to multiple tumors presentations. Jay is now in his fourth round of chemotherapy, but it's not clear that it's working, and his doctors have little to go on in terms of advising further courses of treatment for him. In short, things are not looking good for Jay. Not at all. A group of science fiction and fantasy authors have joined forces to raise funds for Jay Lake by committing Acts of Whimsy on the internet. These range from Cherie Priest's Steampunk fashion show for pets to Neil Gaiman's cover of a Magnetic Fields song on the ukulele."

The money will go for a whole-genome sequencing for Jay, which may point to more effective treatment avenues. I put in $200. I hope you'll help, too.

Sequence a Science Fiction Writer

Kick-ass shark-socks: patterns available for hurricane Sandy relief

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 19:33:36 +0000

Back in November, I blogged the Tsarina of Tsock's wonderful shark socks, noting that they were not yet articles of commerce and hoping that they would become such soon. Now, Tsarina writes and says,

You asked me to let you know when my Shark Week sock was released to the general public, so I thought this might be of interest. I'm not actually doing the full-on release yet, as such, but I've made the pattern available for a limited time as part of a fund-raiser for hurricane Sandy relief. If you're a real glutton for punishment you can read the whole tale of woe on my blog here:

World Without End (Thanks, Tsarina!)

Hackers for Charity

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 04:14:27 +0000

One more for the Charity Guide: Hackers for Charity:

We’re about proving that hackers have amazing skills that can transform charitable organizations. We’re about stepping into the gap to feed and educate the world’s most vulnerable citizens. We are virtual, geographically diverse and different. We are Hackers for Charity.
We employ volunteer hackers (no questions asked) and engage their skills in short “microprojects” designed to help charities that can not afford traditional technical resources. Our industry experts vet all the work to guarantee a high-quality product, and volunteers are rewarded with glowing references from our industry-recognized subject matter experts. With each project, our volunteers move one step closer to that dream job, and a charity is brought one step closer to its technical goals. We’ve designed and built web sites, set up blogs, programmed custom web applications, conducted code reviews, performed security assessments and more, all through our volunteer’s efforts. In addition, thanks to one donor, we provide hosting, bandwidth and support for the final product free of charge.
We’re also working on the ground in Uganda, East Africa to support aid organizations working to help some of the world’s poorest citizens. We provide free computer training in our computer training center, and we provide technical support in the form of computer repair, networking services and more. We have supported many local schools with the addition of computers and training software.
We also provide food to children in East Africa through our food program. All the profits from sales of my No-Tech Hacking book go into this program along with the income from our (now-defunct) Informer subscription program.

Hackers For Charity

Boing Boing Charitable Giving Guide, 2012 edition

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:00:11 +0000

Here's a guide to the charities the Boingers support in our own annual giving. As always, please add the causes and charities you give to in the comments below!

Electronic Frontier Foundation
There's never been a time when EFF's mission was more important: everything we do today involves the Internet; everything we do tomorrow will require it. No one stretches a dollar further and gets more done than EFF. They've been at it since 1990, and have been at the forefront of practically every significant online rights battle through the whole era of the Internet's rise to prominence. The world I want my kid to grow up in needs EFF in it. —CD

Creative Commons
CC celebrated its tenth birthday (!) this year, a remarkable milestone from a remarkable organization. More than anyone else, CC has reframed the way we talk about creativity and copyright in the Internet era, providing practical, easy-to-use tools to make it possible for creators and audiences to work together in a shared mission of creating and enjoying culture.—CD

Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)
Imagine a world without Wikipedia! Is there any other organization that does more to preserve the original, amazing spirit of the Internet, the sense that we're all on a shared mission to make the whole world a better place through communication and freedom?—CD

Freedom of the Press Foundation
Launched in December 2012, with a board that includes Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, and actor-activist John Cusack, Freedom of the Press Foundation provides you with an easy way to donate to journalism organizations dedicated to transparency and accountability. (I'm on the board, too.) — XJ

The Humane Society
The nation's largest and most effective animal protection organization advocates for animals through public policy, corporate reforms, and major campaigns to confront national and global cruelties -- and saves lives though rescue efforts, disaster response and veterinary support. — RB

The ALS Association
My father died in 1980 from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. A number of my family members have also died from it; we have a very rare familial strain. While there have been many scientific advances surrounding ALS in the decades since my dad died, little is known about how and why this disease manifests (particularly in familial strains), and what approaches may offer hope for a cure. The ALSA was founded in 1985, and leads the way in global research, "providing assistance for people with ALS through a nationwide network of chapters, coordinating multidisciplinary care through certified clinical care centers, and fostering government partnerships." The Association helps people with ALS maximize quality of life while enabling research for new treatments and, one day we hope, a cure. —XJ

The Participatory Culture Foundation
PCF keeps on growing and making me proud to serve on its board. In addition to Miro, its brilliant Internet video client, they've just shipped their ambitious Universal Subtitles project, which aims at nothing less than to render every video on the Web universal, multilingual, and accessible. —CD

METAvivor
Funding vital metastatic breast cancer research, METAvivor's programs sustain the power of hope for people with advanced disease. The non-profit "rallies public attention to the needs of the metastatic breast cancer community, help patients find strength through support and purpose, and make every dollar count as we work with researchers to regain longevity with quality of life."—XJ

World Vision:
An oldie, but goodie. Highly rated by Charity Navigator, World Vision is the classic way to donate in someone's name as a gift. Children, families, and communities all over the world benefit. Your friends and loved ones get to see, in a tangible way, how they've helped to improve lives. Buy 5 ducks and 2 chickens for a family or a cow for a small village. In the US, you can provide school supplies, winter necessities, and food to children and families. I once bought half a cow in the name of my grandparents. As farmers, they liked knowing that they were helping other farmers. What a great way to make connections! —MKB

Marine Mammal Center
Compassionately healing seals from diseases they did not want to contract the Marine Mammal Center then releases them into their native habitat -- if you are a marine dwelling mammal in trouble, and they can find you -- its proof positive the MMC will do their all to ensure your return to health. This tireless and heroic group of full-time staff and army of well trained volunteers need our help to continue helping beautiful creatures who can not help themselves. —JW

Doctors Without Borders:
In global disaster zones, few groups make as much impact as quickly as do Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders. The international medical humanitarian organization was created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971. Today, MSF provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. We've published items about their work in Congo, Haiti, and I've met with MSF staff in Guatemala, where they have a project dedicated to violence against women and girls. The do good work. They get things done in places where it is dangerous and difficult to get things done. —XJ

Nurse-Family Partnership:
Provides in-home nurse visits for low-income, first-time expectant mothers and their babies. This program is evidence-based and studies have shown that it has an impact on both public health, and reducing child abuse and neglect. In 2010, it was highly rated by GiveWell.org. It's also one of Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy's "Social Programs That Work". —MKB

Breast Cancer Action
Breast Cancer Action "carries the voices of people affected by breast cancer to inspire and compel the changes necessary to end the breast cancer epidemic," and operates as a national, feminist grassroots education and advocacy organization. The group was founded in 1990 by women who realized the power of community, and the need for a grassroots organization with a unique understanding of the political, economic, and social context of breast cancer. BCAction’s members are women with breast cancer and their supporters — ordinary people who, by educating themselves on the facts and the issues related to breast cancer, have empowered themselves and others to create needed change to end the epidemic.—XJ

Friends of Gettysburg:
From Gen. Buford's heroic first day defense to Pickett's disastrous charge -- no three days more define the struggle we now call the American Civil War. Viewed as the turning point of the war and the high-water mark of the confederacy, walking the roads, fields and hills of Gettysburg truly allows you to feel a deep connection with men and women who struggled here. Sadly, developers and other creeps continually try to modify, encroach upon and invade this monument; luckily we have an organization that still fights to preserve and continually improve access and education in and around the park - the Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg. They tirelessly work to preserve my favorite National Park, which is saying a lot as I live inside another. —JW

Youth Radio:
Youth Radio is an afterschool program that teaches journalism, media, and audio production skills to underserved young people, mostly high school age You can hear their stories on National Public Radio, local airwaves, and of course online. A lot of the graduates stick around for a while as paid writers, producers, engineers, and teachers. —DP

Child's Play
Since 2003, this game industry charity has worked to improve the lives of children in hospitals with toys and games in a network of over 70 hospitals worldwide. Child’s Play works in two ways: with the help of hospital staff, they set up gift wish lists full of video games, toys, books, and other fun stuff for kids. By clicking on a hospital location on a map, you can view that hospital’s wish list and send a gift. Child’s Play also uses your cash donations to purchase new consoles, peripherals, games, and more for hospitals and therapy facilities. This allows children to enjoy age-appropriate entertainment, interact with their peers, friends, and family, and have vital distraction from the experience of being a child in a hospital setting with a serious illness.—XJ

Mario Marathon
A Mario Brothers gaming marathon that raises cash for Child’s Play Charity (see above). What's not to love? Here's how it works. —XJ

The Sierra Club:
The US's oldest and biggest grassroots environmental organization. Whether it's protecting endangered species, opposing dams, or helping you learn how to green your home, the Sierra Club has spent more than a century trying to keep the wonder of the natural world wonderful. —DP

Big Brothers Big Sisters:
As a former Big, this was one of the most rewarding programs I've had the pleasure of being a part of. It also works. The Big Brothers Big Sisters approach has shown success in randomized controlled trials and it's one of the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy's "Social Programs That Work". —MKB

Facing History and Ourselves
Facing History and Ourselves is an international educational group that helps young people study issues around racism, antisemitism, and prejudice in history, from the Holocaust to today's immigrant experiences to the killing fields of Cambodia. Their aim is to teach young people "to think critically, to empathize, to recognize moral choices, to make their voices heard, we put in their hands the possibility--and the responsibility--to do the serious work demanded of us all as citizens." —DP

Fundacion Sobrevivientes:
Contact asobrevivientes@yahoo.es. Telephone (502) 2245-3000

Fundacion Sobrevivientes (In English, "Survivors Foundation") works to end violence against women in Guatemala, where there is an extraordinarily high rate of sexual assault and gender-based violence, and where rapists and murderers operate with impunity. They provide legal aid, mental health care, and security for rape victims, including children. They assist women whose children have been stolen from them to be sold illegally into adoption. They provide support for families of the "dissapeared." Founder Norma Cruz was featured in the documentary Killer's Paradise. Her work links the murders of thousands of Guatemalan women to the country's 36-year civil war. She, her colleagues, and family are frequently targeted by those who seek to prevent the center's work. How to donate: here. —XJ

Innovations for Poverty Action: Highly rated by GiveWell.org, IPA does the studies that find out what kind of poverty interventions actually work and where those interventions work. IPA is led by scientists and uses randomized controlled trials to help make sure that charities are reaching their stated goals and doing what they're supposed to be doing. When they find programs that work, they also assist in scaling those programs up from trials to full-scale interventions. —MKB

Free Software Foundation/Defective By Design:
The Free Software Foundation's principled litigation, license creation and campaigning is fierce, uncompromising and has changed the world. You interact with code that they made possible a million times a day, and they never stop working to make sure that the code stays free. —CD

The Internet Archive: A free repository for all of human knowledge, a bottomless source of bandwidth and storage, the Internet's collective memory, the reinvention of the library right before our eyes. I don't know what I'd do without it. —CD

National Academy Foundation:
The NAF supports Career Academies in low-income public high schools, programs that are proven to make a difference in kids' lives. Studies have shown that graduates of Career Academies see an average 11% increase in annual earnings, an effect that stays strong over the long term. Basically, they start out making more money and keep making more money. —MKB

Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation:
My aunt Heather died of breast cancer when she was only 41. My whole family is now involved with the society. I don't live in Toronto and can't join the annual run for the cure there, but at least I can donate to the cause. —CD

Open Rights Group:
This was the year that the UK government broke its promise to reduce surveillance, and announced, instead, that it wanted to have warrantless, ongoing access to the nation's entire Internet traffic for police and government. It was the year that the courts began to aggressively issue censorship orders against ISPs. We live in an era where people who say dumb things on Twitter and Facebook face jail time. The UK Open Rights Group is the leading national voice on fighting the country's slide into digital insanity, a country where all rights are suspended whenever a computer is involved. —CD

Kiva:
Since 2005, Kiva has been a pioneer in providing micro-financing to the "working poor", offering users the ability to choose their cause of choice. Micro-financing has shown itself to be a boon to the developing world, and especially in creating newly-empowered women entrepreneurs. Kiva has focused on this goal, and makes a difference in the regions they support.—Ken Snider

(I like Kiva, too. It's a fun family activity to look at the proposals and decide where to make investments. Also, Kiva Cards are a cool gift to introduce your friends to the fun world of microinvesting! —Mark Frauenfelder)

The Gutenberg Project: The world's leading access-to-public-domain project. They have truly created a library from nothing, and oh, what a library. Last year marked the sad, premature death of its visionary founder, Michael Hart, and supporting his life's work is a fitting tribute to one of the Internet's true pioneers —CD

Mission statement: "Founded in 1991, the Institute for Justice is what a civil liberties law firm should be. As our nation's only libertarian public interest law firm, we engage in cutting-edge litigation and advocacy both in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion on behalf of individuals whose most basic rights are denied by the government--like the right to earn an honest living, private property rights, and the right to free speech, especially in the areas of commercial and Internet speech. As Wired magazine said, the Institute for Justice 'helps individuals subject to wacky government regulations.'" —MF

I've been a member of the American Civil Liberties Union for many years. They need all the support they can get to keep Americans safe and free from a government that answers only to their corporate string-pullers. —MF

The MetaBrainz Foundation:
I'm on the board of this charity, which oversees the MusicBrainz project. MusicBrainz is a free and open alternative to the evil (dis)Gracenote, which took all the metadata about CDs that you and I keyed in and locked it away behind a wall of patents and onerous licensing deals. The org that controls the metadata controls the world -- this needs to be in the public's hands. —CD

Any homelessness charity that uses Critical Time Intervention strategies: Homelessness charities are inherently local things. Find one near you, then find out whether it uses CTI, a method of reaching people during crisis situations so that they never become homeless to begin with. CTI has been found to reduce the likelihood of homelessness by 60%, 18 months after people were randomly assigned to CTI-based programs. —MKB

The Clarion Foundation:
I'm also a volunteer on Clarion's board, helping to oversee the world-famous Clarion Writers' Workshop, a bootcamp for sf writers that has produced some of the finest talents in our field, including Octavia Butler, Bruce Sterling, Nalo Hopkinson, Kelly Link, and Lucius Shepard. I'm a graduate myself, and an instructor (I taught in 2005 and 2007 and will teach again this coming summer) -- I received a substantial scholarship to the workshop in 1992 and it changed my life. I will pay that debt forward every year. —CD

Amnesty International:
Justly famed for their principled, effective campaigning for justice and fair treatment under the law, Amnesty has its finger in every pie -- freeing Gitmo detainees, defending jailed journalists, fighting torture and human trafficking, and standing up to bullies wherever they find them. They deserve every cent we can give them. —CD

Hospice Net:
I make a donation to this charity every year in memory of my dear friend, former Boing Boing guestblogger Pat York. Pat was killed in a car accident, and her family nominated this charity for memorial gifts. —CD

Two great jobs charities: Year Up is a national program that trains highly motivated, low-income young adults for well-paying careers. Candidates spend six months going through intensive training and six months on an internship. Most end up with jobs that pay upwards of $40,000 to $60,000 a year. At the other end of the jobs spectrum is The Hope Program, which focuses on getting extremely disadvantaged New Yorkers a job. The Hope Program is working with people who would otherwise have trouble finding any kind of employment at all, folks with histories of substance abuse, homelessness, and prison records. Helping people overcome those barriers and find employment can be a key to making sure they don't end up back in a bad situation. —MKB

ACLU:
For the liberties the EFF doesn't cover, here in sticky meatspace, we have the ACLU. Fearless upholders of the Constitution -- an org that knows that you have to stand up for the rights of people you disagree with, or you aren't in a free society. Unwinding the violence done to fundamental freedoms over the past decade (and the new assaults, from drones to wiretapping) will take time and money. The number of bad laws and regulations to overturn is staggering. —CD

Liberty:
Britain's answer to the American Civil Liberties Union. Every single time I read or hear a news-story about incursions on human rights in the UK, there's an articulate, knowledgeable Liberty commentator countering government's flimsy arguments and campaigning for our freedom. In an era where politicians spy on us seemingly through naked instinct, like ants building hills, it's groups like Liberty that present our best bulwark against tyranny. —CD

Child Rights and You:
I travelled to Mumbai in 2009 for research and was overwhelmed by the terrible, ubiquitous child poverty -- thousands and thousands of children, barefoot, disfigured, begging. I asked my Indian friends about it and was told that it was endemic to Mumbai and India in general, and that many children are exploited by desperate parents or criminal "pimps" who muscle them out of the majority of their earnings. As a new parent, I couldn't help but wonder again and again how I would feel if it were my child living in those circumstances. I'm no stranger to poverty -- I helped build schools with Nicaraguan refugees in Central America, worked to set up an NGO in sub-Saharan Africa -- but I'd never seen anything to rival this. On advice from my Indian friends, I investigated and made a donation to CRY. CRY works to remedy the root causes of child poverty in India, in cities and the countryside, with a special emphasis on protecting girls from exploitation. The problem is deep and huge, but the solution has to begin somewhere. CRY also maintains a UK site for British donors. —CD

Software Freedom Law Center:
As the leading legal clinic defending the interests of free software authors, SFLC is a nexus for the defeat of stupid software patents, work on free software stacks for use in defeating network censorship and shutdowns in repressive regimes, and fighting obscure but vital fights like the battle over UEFI, which threatens to make it both legally and technically challenging to install GNU/Linux on your own computer.

Neighborworks America: This national charity has done a couple of things I really, really like. First, it's a leader in providing counseling to families at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure. At a time when there are lots of scams ready to prey on the weak, Neighborworks protects and helps people keep their homes. Second, they're working for sustainable, affordable housing, making sure that all people can afford homes that are energy efficient and environmentally safe. —MKB

MySociety:
Software in the public interest -- it's a damned good idea. MySociety produces software like Pledgebank ("I will risk arrest by refusing to register for a UK ID card if 100,000 other Britons will also do it") and TheyWorkForYou (every word and deed by every Member of Parliament). It's plumbing for activists and community organizers. —CD

Project Noise

Project Noise creates videos and media campaigns at no or low cost to organizations working to better the world. - MF

The Foundation Beyond Belief:
This is a great one for anybody who wants to donate to one place, but have their money reach multiple causes. It's also a good charity for people who want to donate to charity as an expression of humanist values, rather than religious ones. It works like this: You donate to the Foundation Beyond Belief. Every quarter, the Foundation picks ten charities, one in each of nine categories—health, poverty, environment, education, human rights, peace, animal protection, child welfare, other worldviews—plus the Foundation itself. You can tell them how you'd like your gift divvied up among the categories. At the end of the quarter, 100% of the donations go to the chosen charities and the cycle starts over again. —MKB

Cards Against Humanity: data on pay-what-you-want holiday pack -- plus $70K donation to Wikimedia

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:45:02 +0000

Andrew, sez, "Cards Against Humanity (the Kickstarter-funded, adult version of Apples to Apples) made a 'pay what you want' holiday expansion. They published the results of the experiment."

Camille adds, "The results are detailed and interesting...they list out their costs and revenues, with a map showing average price paid by state, and a fun exploration of what they could buy with the profit they made ($70K). And the best part is...they didn't buy any of that stuff, and instead made a generous donation to Wikimedia!"

Cards Against Humanity: Pay-What-You-Want Holiday pack (Thanks, Andrew and Camille!)

UK record industry seeks to financially ruin leaders of the Pirate Party

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 17:42:34 +0000

Ever since the UK record labels got a court to order our national ISPs to censor The Pirate Bay, the UK Pirate Party has been offering a proxy that allows Britons to connect to the site and all the material it offers, both infringing and non-infringing.

The record industry has finally struck back. Rather than seeking an injunction against the proxy, or suing the party, it has individually sued the party's executives, seeking to personally bankrupt them and their families. It's an underhanded, unethical, and unprecedented threat to democracy -- essentially a bid to use their financial and legal might to destroy a political party itself.

There's a fundraiser, and I've given more than I can afford to it -- £500 -- because this is plain, old fashioned, corporate bullying. I don't always agree with everything the Pirate Parties do, and I'm not a member of the UKPP, but I'm glad the Pirate Party exists, and I believe that hosting a proxy to the Pirate Bay was a political act, and that the record industry has gone after the personal lives of the executive in order to terrorise people who organise against them. They mustn't be allowed to do this.

Instead of targeting just the Pirate Party, the BPI’s solicitors are now threatening legal action against six individual members. Aside from its leader Loz Kaye, the BPI also sent threats to four other members of the National Executive and the party’s head of IT.
“We had been anticipating legal action ever since I received an email from Geoff Taylor of the BPI. What has taken me aback is that this threat is personally directed. I simply can not see what the music industry think can be positively gained by threatening to bankrupt me and other party officers,” Kaye says.
Making the site’s members personally liable is the ultimate pressure, as they then have all their personal belongings – including their family homes – on the line. Kaye is disappointed with the BPI’s move, not least because the music industry group refused to negotiate the issue.
“Throughout, the party and I have been open to dialogue. Contrary to reports I offered to meet Geoff Taylor for discussion, but this has been rebuffed, at this point we are talking with our legal advisers and will respond to the solicitors in due course. The Pirate Party’s political position remains this – site blocking is disproportionate and ineffective.”

Music Industry Threatens to Bankrupt Pirate Party Members [TorrentFreak]

EFF Power Up fundraiser: every dollar you give is matched 2-to-1

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 17:00:44 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is running a fundraising challenge called "Power Up Your Donation," where every dollar donated is matched two-to-one by a group of major donors. My family has put up part of the $140,000 matching fund, because we're living in a world where technology could go either way: it might end up continuing to empower us and improve our lives, or become the agent of an unimaginably invasive corporate surveillance state. Without EFF and groups like it, we don't stand a chance. I worked for EFF for many years, and I've never seen an organization watch the pennies more closely and make a dollar go further.

Power Up Your Donation | Electronic Frontier Foundation

SF writers Jim C Hines and John Scalzi dress up as sexy female assassins to raise money for The Aicardi Syndrome Foundation

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:00:48 +0000

Science fiction writers Jim C Hines and John Scalzi donned sexy garters, high heels, little black dresses and, um, crossbows, and replicated the odd cover of Vicki Pettersson's "The Taste of the Night," competing to see who could was most credible as a sexy female assassin book-cover illustration lady. They were raising money for The Aicardi Syndrome Foundation, a very good cause indeed. Also, Scalzi wore a wig.

Be sure and click the link below for the backstory that makes this all somehow plausible, to see the mind-searing full-size images, and to learn more about the most excellent fundraiser.

Pose-off with John Scalzi (via Whatever)

ORG needs your money to kill UK copyright trolls

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:16:45 +0000

Jim from the UK Open Rights Group sez,

Last year, the porn company Golden Eye asked for 9,000 O2/Telefonica customer details in the UK, in order to send them letters demanding payments for alleged copyright downloads. However, in March a judge decided that 6,000 names and addresses could not be given to Golden Eye. Golden Eye was not an normal copyright licensee of the works allegedly downloaded by these 8,000, but had instead acquired a licence from the actual copyright holders to pursue infringers on a revenue sharing basis.
The judge wasn't happy with this arrangement, saying: "that would be tantamount to the court sanctioning the sale of the intended Defendants' privacy and data protection rights to the highest bidder. Accordingly, in my judgment, to make such an order would not proportionately and fairly balance the interests of the Other Claimants with the Intended Defendents' interests."
The judge's decision is now being contested by Golden Eye. If successful they would gain access to the details of just over 6,000 of around 9,000 subscribers. We are therefore asking for donations, towards the costs of intervening, and for people to join ORG to support the legal project.

As TorrentFreak says, "Donating to ORG is like punching copyright trolls in the face."

ORG applies to intervene in Golden Eye case - and we need your help (Thanks, Jim!)

(Disclosure: I helped found ORG and volunteer on its advisory board)

Clarkesworld is an excellent science fiction pub, its publisher has hit hard times and needs your support

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 22:31:54 +0000

Martin sez, "Neil Clarke over at Clarkesworld SF blog/magazine is ill and just lost his job. John Scalzi has called for uniform support by subscribing to Clarkesworld magazine. It's a highly regarded mag for up and coming sf authors and might need some attention."

I agree with John's assessment. Clarkesworld is a fabulous publication, a labor of love, and something that makes the world a better place. It has been a launching-spot for numerous wonderful writing careers, and deserves your support (and Neil Clarke is a first-class mensch). I just subscribed. You can also donate.

Clarkesworld is an excellent magazine, and it’s also a story market that pays more than the SFWA minimum for professional-level sales, meaning that it’s a good market for writers, too. You can read its content for free on the Web site, but there’s also an option for you to subscribe to the magazine as well, and have it delivered to your e-reader, or to donate to the site to support it.

Today is a Good Day to Subscribe to Clarkesworld Magazine

Rolling Jubilee: Occupy raising money to buy up, and wipe out, debts

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:33:32 +0000

David "How to Sharpen Pencils" Rees describes the Rolling Jubilee, a project from Occupy Wall Street to buy up, and zero out, other peoples' debts:

Now OWS is launching the ROLLING JUBILEE, a program that has been in development for months. OWS is going to start buying distressed debt (medical bills, student loans, etc.) in order to forgive it. As a test run, we spent $500, which bought $14,000 of distressed debt. We then ERASED THAT DEBT. (If you’re a debt broker, once you own someone’s debt you can do whatever you want with it — traditionally, you hound debtors to their grave trying to collect. We’re playing a different game. A MORE AWESOME GAME.)
This is a simple, powerful way to help folks in need — to free them from heavy debt loads so they can focus on being productive, happy and healthy. As you can see from our test run, the return on investment approaches 30:1. That’s a crazy bargain!
Now, after many consultations with attorneys, the IRS, and our moles in the debt-brokerage world, we are ready to take the Rolling Jubilee program LIVE and NATIONWIDE, buying debt in communities that have been struggling during the recession.
We’re kicking things off with a show called THE PEOPLE’S BAILOUT at Le Poisson Rouge on Thursday, November 15. It will also stream online, like a good ol’-fashioned telethon!

I just put in $100, which will erase $3000 worth of someone's debt.

The People’s Bailout

Solar chargers for Sandy aftermath -- donations and deep discounts

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 01:41:42 +0000

Limor and Phil at Adafruit are still baling out their lower Manhattan factory and living space after Sandy, but they're also using the Adafruit site to pass on information about relief efforts to public-spirited makers. Here's one: Voltaic systems (makers of solar chargers) are offering deep discounts and donations to people who are struggling with no/intermittent power.

Glad to hear you guys are back up and running. If you come across any specific individuals that have need for small-scale solar and/or battery power, we are happy to help with deep discounts and or direct donations. Our warehouse in NJ got power back Friday and we are trying to be helpful where we can. Jeff Crystal http://www.voltaicsystems.com/

Phil adds: "They have deep discounts they can do direct donation as it makes sense. Please write to sandy@voltaicsystems.com for details if you’re still in need of power."

Voltaic systems looking to help folks still in need #sandy

Manuscript auction to benefit Sandy victims

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 21:35:26 +0000

Mary Robinette Kowal sez,

At the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto this weekend, as much as we were talking about fantasy, we were talking about our friends and colleagues who had been hit by the storm. Some of them had to evacuate and had no idea when they'd be able to go home. One editor joked barely -- that his slush pile was actual slush now since his office flooded.
A lot of authors and editors could not make it because they live in New York. Many of those who did make it headed straight for their rooms and had their first hot shower in a week. A lot of them said that they had been unable to see images of the storm damage because they had been without power and so were seeing some things for the first time.
To help raise funds for relief, I'm auctioning off a manuscript of my novel WITHOUT A SUMMER. This is book 3 in my series and isn't out until April 2, 2012. I'll mail the winner a signed manuscript of the book five months before it's in the stores. If the fundraiser goes over $500, I'll also include book 4, VALOUR AND VANITY, which won't be out until 2013. If it goes over $1000, I'll tuckerize the winner into the series. Note: depending on your name, you may or may not be a character but your name will be there. The books are set between 1814-1818 so I do have to be cautious about committing to character names.
Over $1500, and I'll include a manuscript of a book that we haven't even announced yet. All I can tell you is that it is also historical fantasy. If it goes over $2000, I'll think of something cool. All the proceeds will go to American Red Cross in Greater New York.

Mary's Regency-plus-magic series is a delight. Here's my review of book one, and here's my review of book two.

Hurricane Sandy relief auction -- Signed manuscript of WITHOUT A SUMMER (Thanks, Mary!)

Bits of Freedom's annual donation campaign is today: defend digital freedom in the Netherlands!

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:44:49 +0000

Ot sez, "Bits of Freedom is organizing its annual donation campaign today. Why? Because privacy and freedom on the internet are under threat and we need to defend our rights online. We can only do so with your help. If you want to help, you can write a blog, use one of our banners on your own site or become a supporter. Thanks!"

Bits of Freedom is the Netherlands' answer to groups like EFF, Open Rights Group, Netzpolitik, La Quadrature du Net, and many others (thankfully, there's more than can be readily enumerated here -- it's a global movement). They really deserve your support.

Bits of Freedom is een onafhankelijke beweging, en dat willen we blijven. We kunnen alleen bestaan dankzij donaties van Nederlanders die geven om hun vrijheid en privacy. Wil jij ook meehelpen om internetvrijheid te beschermen? Word dan donateur.
Met jouw steun kunnen we doorgaan met:
* Schendingen van online rechten signaleren en aanpakken
* Slecht beleid terugdraaien en goed beleid stimuleren. Zowel in Den Haag als in Brussel
* Tools ontwikkelen en kennis delen waarmee jij je eigen internetvrijheid kunt beschermen
* Elk jaar de Big Brother Awards uitreiken aan de grofste privacyschenders

Do your bit! (Thanks, Ot!)

Sumana Harihareswara and sf writer Leonard Richardson will match up to $10,000 in donations to the Ada Initiative, funding for women in open culture and free/open source

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:13:54 +0000

Sumana sez, "Scifi author Leonard Richardson and his spouse Sumana Harihareswara are pleding up to $10,000 from their own pockets to match donations to the Ada Initiative made before November 1st. They say: 'This is make-or-break time for the Ada Initiative. Leonard and I make our living through open source and we want to pay it forward.; TAI supports women in open source and open culture."

The Ada Initiative works to increase the participation of women in open technology and culture. They gave me the wording and support I needed to create Wikimedia Foundation's Friendly Space Policy for technical events, which helps everyone at a Wikimedia hackathon feel safer so they can concentrate on rockin' out. If you liked "Be Bold: An Origin Story", the keynote I delivered at Open Source Bridge this year, thank the Ada Initiative, whose advisors helped me shape it. Everyone who wants to grow the open source community benefits from the Ada Initiative's work, and so donating to TAI is like investing in a good piece of machinery; TAI's going to make my work easier for a long time to come.
Please join us in donating to the Ada Initiative, especially if you've also gotten a good career out of open source.

Leonard And I Will Match Ten Thousand Dollars Of Your Ada Initiative Donations (Thanks, Sumana!)

Ada Lovelace day coming up: party in London, fundraiser to sustain the project

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:44:25 +0000

Suw Charman sez,

Ada Lovelace Day - the international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering & maths on October 16 - will see people around the world writing or talking about the women who have inspired them. This is our fourth year, and we have planned a fantastic Ada Lovelace Day Live! event in London, with independent events being organised in around the world, including UK, Italy and America so far. Weâ€™re also running a fundraiser on Indiegogo to help us expand our work.
An evening of science, technology, comedy and song, Ada Lovelace Day Live! features accelerator physicist Dr Suzie Sheehy, marine biologist Dr Helen Scales, comedians Helen Keen & Helen Arney, robot maker and thereminist Sarah Angliss, Sydney Padua creator of the Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace & Babbage webcomic, technology and TV presenter Gia Milinovich, and science communicator Dr Alice Bell. The Women's Engineering Society will also be presenting the prestigious Karen Burt Memorial Award to a newly chartered woman engineer.
Tuesday 16 October 6:30pm
The IET, Savoy Place, London, England
Tickets: £10/info
Since its inception, Ada Lovelace Day has been run entirely by volunteers and by partnering with organisations like the Women's Engineering Society, Association for UK Interactive Entertainment, London Games Festival and BCS Women. We have managed a huge amount through the kindness and generosity of our volunteers and partners, but there is more we could do.
We now want to create a formal charitable organisation to support women in STEM, not just on one day of the year, but all year round. Some of our goals include creating educational materials about iconic women, providing media training, and building a directory of expert speakers. The fundraiser uses the 'keep what you earn' model so all money, except reward costs and fees, donated will go towards helping women in STEM.

Ada Lovelace Day (Thanks, Suw!)

Help Anil Dash give a whole village clean water

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:43:29 +0000

It's Anil Dash's 37th birthday, and he's asking his friends and fans to donate $37 to charity:water, to provide clean water for a whole village. His post gives the background on this: he grew up playing with cousins in India, and later in life discovered that the entirety of a neighboring village was wiped out by cholera, with 100 percent mortality.

* I'm running a charity: water campaign to raise $5000 to provide a clean water for an entire village. charity: water is well-known, reputable, efficient, trustworthy and effective in delivering new water wells to areas of the world that need them. I've sponsored wells before, and this is the most meaningful thing we can do. Your entire donation will go to funding water projects, not overhead.
* You should give $37. It's my 37th birthday, and that makes for a nice number. But it's also enough that you'll feel your gift. I don't want this to be a $10 pledge you absentmindedly send to a Kickstarter campaign, or a $5 gift that's "as much as you'd pay at Starbucks". I want you to make a choice, to spend enough money that you have to think about it and compare it to how much you pay for your own water bill. I know you are generous.
* I tell you the story of how the lack of clean water impacts people a part of the world where I have loved ones because I need you to understand that this isn't some abstract threat that happens to "those people over there" living some exotic life you only see in TV specials. People who die, or have their lives dramatically affected, by the lack of fresh water are exactly like me. Their family is from where mine is from, they speak English as well as I do, they use smartphones to communicate, they are like me in every way except their parents didn't get on a jet and come around the world. And as a result, they can be put in mortal danger by having a glass of water to drink.

I've just donated. Will you?

Water and Giving: Leaving a Mark

Raising money to build a Tesla museum

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 01:19:58 +0000

The Oatmeal's Matthew Inman -- who raised a small fortune for charity from readers who were offended by a groundless legal threat penned by Charles Carreon at the behest of the website Funnyjunk -- has kicked off a new fundraiser. This time, he's asking his fans to donate money towards buying the site of Nicola Tesla's lab and building a national Tesla museum on it. The charity is the beneficiary of the fundraiser needs $850,000 to buy the site, and millions more for the museum (though this might come from corporate grants -- Inman suggests that Westinghouse and GE would be good sponsors, since the former was founded by the man who was Tesla's original patron and the latter was founded by his archnemesis).

Help me raise money to buy Nikola Tesla's old laboratory - The Oatmeal (Thanks to everyone who suggested this!)

O'Reilly wants to save the animals on its book covers

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 21:53:34 +0000

O'Reilly, the published famed for the pictures of animals on its book covers, has launched a charitable drive to protect endangered animals: "The truth is that a large number of the animals featured on O’Reilly books are threatened or critically endangered. We’ve always used colophons in the books as a way to tell readers about the animals. Now we want to use social media and the web to tell those same readers how they can contribute to helping the animals in real life."

Canadian sf/f artist whose wife struck by two cars while jogging seeks donations, offers JPEG

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:02:31 +0000

Diane Walton sez, "On May 30, Clarice (an Edmonton, Alberta, Canada teacher) was hit and seriously injured by two cars, on her way home from her daily jog. Her husband's post on Facebook describing the accident went viral her amazing recovery has been watched by thousands of well-wishers. Aaron, a talented aboriginal artist, has posted a link for donations toward costs the family will, no doubt incur, during the coming months of Clarice's recovery. On Spec magazine has offered a free download of the issue that feature's Aaron's artwork on the cover. Aaron has provided a free jpg of another work, to thank donors."

Upside Comics: UK charity that uses comics to promote literacy

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:14:40 +0000

This weekend, I took my daughter to the Kapow! comics fair in Islington, London, and happened on the Upside Comics booth. Upside is a charitable trust that promotes literacy using comics. They run comics-creation workshops for kids, produce pro-literacy comics, and bibliographies of great kids' comics. They're looking for donations of comics and graphic novels, as well as cash, time and expertise.

Upside Comics use comics and graphic novels to promote literacy for children and young people. We support reading, creative writing, design and illustration.
Upside Comics is a small charity with support from the Big Lottery. The organisation was started by people working in schools and youth charities who love comics. We believe that literacy is the key to childrens' future success and happiness.

Upside Comics