Gift Hub

Appeal to Funders from Founder of Wikipedia

Citizendium Blog:

If you agree with this appeal, please sign this petition of support!

This is a public appeal to philanthropists who are supporting the education of children.  The author (Dr. Larry Sanger) is co-founder of Wikipedia and editor-in-chief of the new Citizendium.  Originally posted March 22, rewritten March 24.  This petition was featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education blog, the Chronicle of Philanthropy blog, and elsewhere.

Via AKMA. See also. Seems the proposal is gaining traction.

Black Commentator Struggles to Survive

Black Commentator is a weekly online magazine of commentary, analysis and investigations on issues affecting the African American community. They are asking for $10, if possible, from online readers to keep Black Commentator going. For it to go under would be a great loss of the quality and the diversity of online political commentary.

Wikileaks Seeks Funding

Wikileaks, in a victory for the First Amendment, is back online.  They seek donations via an online form  They also need larger grants for capacity building. A gift to them would not be deductible, but the impact might be significant, to say the least, for those who value open society. Imagine how the world will change as those who operate with impunity in positions of power behind a veil of secrecy whether in Bejing, Moscow, NY, or DC are put at risk publicly for the deeds they do in darkness.

Seeing Beyond Sight: Photographs by Blind Teenagers

For five years Tony Deifell taught blind students to take photos. Now, his project is a book, with a preface by Robert Coles, and a documentary film in the making. Tony wrote to say that in a few weeks of putting up his cause on Facebook, he has raised "$3,980 from 109 people so far!" His goal is to raise $10,000 to get to the next stage of editing, including making a trailer. You can contribute on Facebook, or via a donation link here. 

The Point: A Tool for Organizing Group Action

The Point is a tool for organizing various forms of group action, including fundraising. They are about to launch an appeal for philanthropists to provide relatively small (~$10,000) donations.  They are willing (so I am told by an email from Andrew Mason, the Founder and CEO) to make a matching donation to the philanthropist's charity of choice.  Download details here in pdf.

What do you think about the appeal? Is this going to work? Could it be tweaked? How do social entrepreneurs (who do not have extensive contact lists and long term constituents) connect to funders? I get requests often to connect seekers with funders. I just don't know to be helpful, or if appeals like this are a Fool's Errand.

Art in Action: Green Media Arts Center Proposal

Alli Chaga-Starr, profiled here, writes,

Phil,

I thought I would pass along a big dream Art in Action holds to uplift the young people of Oakland. Galen, my amazing colleague has prepared a business plan/proposal for a creative, green youth training center in a neighborhood that we work in that urgently needs opportunities for youth. A lot of the Art in Action youth we work with are from this area, but there are so many more we could serve with our transformational model through this center. If you know some advocates in the funding world for youth, please feel free to share, or have them contact us.

Alli

Download greencenterplan21.doc

Media Transparency

Media Transparency:

follows the money fueling the right-wing movement, to show how conservative philanthropies, through their tax-exempt funding strategies, shape public discourse.

The big givers include Milwaukee's Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Scaife, Koch, Coors, and Walton family foundations. They alone have poured $28 million into the American Enterprise Institute. That kind of money buys a lot of "experts."

With coordinated giving on a grand scale, they've led the way in funding a movement to radically alter the social, legal, educational, media, political and religious landscapes of the United States, building a supply-side machinery for implementing a hard-right agenda.

Media Transparency follows their money and what it buys with a unique database -- 50,000 grants to 9,000 recipients for $3.5 billion -- and 60 to 70 original articles per year that connect the dots between the money and the movement's radical public policy goals.

Media Transparency is the essential check on this extreme agenda, as witnessed by the dozens of progressive media outlets like Alternet, ThinkProgress, Media Matters, SourceWatch and Daily Kos that rely on our research, and the more than 30 books that have cited it.

MediaTransparency is sorely in need of funding.  For less than a Senior Adjunct Fellow might earn at Heritage you can keep this important resource alive.

Funding Media Transparency

Tiny Revolution reminds us to support Cursor and Media Transparency.  (I did.) Only $150,000  a year in total funds them both. They do great work. They could make a lot more than that by agreeing to keep their mouths shut.

Solpath (Partially) Funded

Solpath's goal is to create open source grants management software. They announced today that they have gotten their first commitment from a funder.

Thirteenth Disciple

Kathleen Barbini, an independent filmmaker, sent along this notice for Gifthub readers:

FOR JESUS, produced by KB Films in association with The International Documentary Association, and shot by Academy Award winning cinematographer, Tom Horowitz,  is an independent documentary currently in production. This cinema verite exploration and  fresh look at Christianity in America, is a probing quest for the revolutionary teachings of  Jesus within the diverging, polarized,and sometimes disturbing  expressions of Christianity today.   By probing and exploring the lives of the religious right,conservative and liberal  Christians,the documentary will explore how their diverging  interpretations of the Bible impact both our Christian, political, and general culture.  We'll also discover a phenomenon in the United States --the arising movement of unchurched revolutionary Christians -- those revolting against Christian fundamentalism,  hypocrisy and stagnant Church life, and striving for a life reminiscent of early followers of Christ. 

Gifthub does not get in the middle of any financial transactions, gifts or otherwise. But those seeking to learn more or to make a contribution to these independent film-makers can go to ThirteenthDisciple.com.  Sounds like a very interesting topic. The thirteenth disciple  was Judas? And from that betrayal what Passion, Resurrection, and Redemption has the Hidden Hand of God stored up? A fertile topic for a film-maker with courage and tact, or just courage.  I await the first showing here in Dallas.