It's great that you already do good stuff in the world - we want to hear about it. Consider doing our Charity Exchange - it's totally free. Tell us about the charity you are passionate about. We'd love to post it.
One of the things that Heather, Rob's beloved, found odd when she was running her nonprofit was that periodically she would get messages from people saying....."I don't like your charity, I like such and such a charity, I saw yours and thought, no, it reminded me about the other one and I'm donating to them". And sometimes they'd attach a donation receipt. And Heather would think, Great - if we raised their awareness back up about the issue again so that they donated, that's fantastic. Sometimes she'd write or one of the other members would write a position paper and again a message would come in - "I read it and I disagree and so I am going to take action with such-and-such organization instead". And usually, such-and-such had a pretty similar viewpoint and so again, they didn't mind. Awareness was raised which was at least half the point.
The point is - if you're not helping because you support another water organization - we've received a few messages like that - that's totally cool. More than one water organization can do good in the world! We like this one particularly and yet we still see the value in others. And if the charity you are passionate about happens to be one of the other water orgs, we'll be more than happy to post about them, so don't worry about that!
If you're not helping because you don't have funds, there are ways to help that you don't need money for - check it out.
We do want to say this about funds - $1 is the minimum donation. If you feel like you can't donate a dollar because
a. I don't know this guy Rob, I only like to donate when I get to know the person. Well, get to know me. Contact me on email or get to know me on Facebook or read my Rainbow Traffic Solutions blog. The other part when I say we BTW (most of this site is written by me, Rob) is Pattyde from Rainbow Traffic Solutions.
b. I don't know about this charity I can't connect with it personally. That is hard because a lot of where they donate is in Africa and most people can't just pick up and go there. You can go to the charity:water website and look at the videos, check out the GPS coordinates that have the wells pictures with stories about the villages they have helped. If you still aren't into the charity (not everything is for everybody), tell us about the charity you are into on our Charity Exchange! We want to hear about it!
c. I can't donate to everybody that asks or I'd be broke. Well, that is tough I know, but it is partly how we look at it and partly priorities. There are 5 pizza parlors down the street from me that have pizzas for $20+. $20 provides clean drinking water for 1 person for a year. The pizza parlors are constantly full around here, the water project not nearly funded. A small coffee refill or coke refill at 7-11 is $1. If you give up one of those 1 time- you've got the buck. We're trying to make it easier on you by offering the promo codes as a thank you. Partly it is how do you want to live your life? If you feel like you can give up one night on a Redbox rental for this, than cool! It's not a question of guilt, it's a question of service and it's question of quality of life - if I can improve somebody else's life so drastically by doing something so minor - all of these minor actions add up.
d. I've done enough! I can totally understand that actually. I've seen charitable burn-out first hand and know it exists. But I know you can come back from it as well. And I know that you never get to be "done". You're "done" when you're dead. You can maybe slow down and stop doing it full time 24/7, but done, not so much. If you feel this way, how about writing about it? You could write about all the great stuff you did - don't worry if it didn't all work - write about what you tried to do. Then let us know, we'll shout you out to the world. You could also write about your fantasy project and if you want - we'll post that too. Maybe someone will come along and help you make it a reality. Sometimes that is all it takes to get us out of burnout mode and back into action.
Thanks for visiting!
E-mail: rainbowtrafficexchange@gmail.com
Facebook:http://facebook.com/robdomanesq
Facebook Biz Page: Rainbow Traffic Solutions
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rainbowsolution
