December 2005 Issue

Sources: Who Gives a $%&T?

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2 in 3 households give to charity: Giving USA ”Charitable Giving Rises 5 percent to Nearly $250 Billion in 2004.” .

Average of $1262 per year ”Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS),” Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, 2003.

1 in 3 households report, Melissa Brown, Managing Editor, Giving USA, Center on Philanthropy, October 3, 2005.

Car Deductions: GAO “Vehicle Donations: Benefits to Charities and Donors, but Limited Program Oversight,” General Accounting Office, November 2003.

Budget perceptions: Program on International Policy Attitudes “Americans on Foreign Aid and World Hunger: A Study of U.S. Public Attitudes,”.

Millennium Challenge Corporation Millennium Challenge Account

Doubling Aid to Africa: The New York Times The Washington Post June 2, 2005.

Partisan differences in foreign aid: Program on International Policy Attitudes “The Federal Budget: The Public’s Priorities,” .

U.S. Foreign Military Funding: Congressional Research Service Report, “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1997-2004”.

Aid for Niger: World Health Organization WHO Update on the health situation in Niger

What Do Americans Give to?: Giving USA Foundation: Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2004 AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy 2005

Families throw away 14% of food: “Household Food Security in the United States, 2003,” USDA and Food waste: “Using Contemporary Archaeology and Applied Anthropology to Understand Food Loss in the American Food System,” May 2004, Timothy Timothy W. Jones. PhD, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, University of Arizona

Typical American child receives 70 gifts: Prices and Quantities: Unsustainable Consumption and the global economy December 2003, Juliet B. Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College

Pet gifts: American Pet Products Manufacturers Association press release, March 14, 2005.

Christmas decorations: Holiday Decorating Report, 2004: The Who, What, Where, How Much, and Why of Holiday and Seasonal Home Decorating.

His Essence Karen Tosterud, Owner

Price of French Hens and Golden Rings: PNC Bank The 12 Days of Christmas, Annual PNC “Christmas Price Index”

Estate tax consequences: Effects of Estate Tax Reform on Charitable Giving.

Donor confidentiality policy: Sandra Minutti, Director of External Relations, Charity Navigator.

Selling donor lists: Brock Meeks, MSNBC.com reporter, and Norman Silber, Hofstra University law professor.

Percentage of Income Donated to Charity: Internal Revenue Service compiled by The New York Times

Giving to religious institutions and schools: Melissa Brown, Managing Editor, Giving USA, Center on Philanthropy, October 3, 2005.

Campus Crusade for Christ: Boy Scouts of America, Easter Seals and Campus Crusade for Christ, Annual Report 2004

Taxicab tipping: “To Insure Prejudice: Racial Disparities in Taxicab Tipping” by Ian Ayres, Fredrick E. Vars, and Nasser Zakariya. Yale Law School, Public Law Working Paper No. 50; and Yale Law & Economics Research Paper No. 276.

Focus on the Family Tsunami Aid: Focus on the Family “Tsunami Relief Continuing”.

Oscar gift bags: The New York Times September 17, 2005, The Boston Herald February 28, 2005, The Guadian February 26, 2005, et al.

John Travolta and Hurricane Katrina relief: Edward Parkin, vice president for cultural affairs at the Church of Scientology International, and Scientology Volunteer Minister News press release, Sept. 5, 2005.

Carnival Cruise Lines: Senator Barack Obama press release, Sept. 29, 2005 and James McIntyre, FEMA public affairs officer, and Carnival Cruise Lines travel agents.

1906 earthquake response: A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 Simon Winchester, October, 2005

FEMA and Operation Blessing: news release, August 29, 2005

Operation Blessing Donation: Operation Blessing’s Form 990 2003, Statement 3, page 3 of 19

RNC fundraising: The Associated Press January 26, 2005

Darfur silence: “Day 141 Of Bush’s Silence,” May 31, 2005, Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times and White House news releases on Jan. 10, 2005, and June 1, 2005.

Share of Aid Given to Developing Countries 1960-2004: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Band Aid: Do They Know it’s Christmas? Lyrics and Ethiopian religion and Ethiopia’s Land

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

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