The death toll from the Tsunami in the Pacific Rim continues to rise every hour and they really need our money now! So far the US government has pledged $35 Million to help the people/countries out, however it will take more donations from individuals to make a real difference.

The American Red Cross has set up a fund to help and below is a link to make the donation part pretty easy. There are "hundreds" of other funds out there, but the Red Cross has received an A+ rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) and there is a link to that site as well.

These countries/people need our money NOW and there is no better time to donate than NOW as the year is just about over so you can take the deduction this year and you'll probably still remember it when you do your 2004 taxes next year!

I don't know if it will encourage people to donate, but I hereby pledge to donate $10 for every person that posts that they donated ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY up until 12/31/04 at 6 PM. At that point I will make my donation based on the number of responses (up to $1000). In addition for everyone that posts that they donated (even lurkers/newbies can just type "I donated"), I will have an "unofficial" drawing and award one person some type of prize. Frankly I haven't even figured what kind of prize it will be, but it will probably be "Z" related and worth something. In the worst case I'll give a ~$100 Gift Certificate to someplace.

I don't know anyone over there, I'm not a "bleeding heart liberal" and I'm not looking for a pat on the back, but after watching some of the videos on the TV/'net and hearing the death toll continue to rise every hour, I want to do something to help. Hopefully you do too. Thanks.

LINKS
Donate to the American Red Cross
American Institute Of Philantropy's ratings of "Tsunami Charities"

 

Roger,

Glad to see someone from the Z community responding to this disaster. I hope every member here can make even the smallest of donations. I made mine as soon as I read your post.

Rick aka Spydr

 

Absolutely--my entire family has donated for this cause. I think it is wonderful of you to do something like this.

It's terrible that every hour deaths are rising by thousands. I can only hope to save up to send some more to those who need it more than me.

anyone2u, I salute you, and hold you in the highest regards.

With respect,

Ravi Mohan

 

Roger,
Ditto what Rick said.
These innocent peope have just been devastated by the Tsunamis and we should all do whatrever we can to help.
My family made our donation a couple of days ago but I applaud your post. Every little bit helps.

 

I too have already donated. It wasn't much, but its all that I can afford at this point. I'm sure that this is something that will be an ongoing effort, so I will send what I can whenever I have extra. This is truely a tragedy and I am still having a hard time uderstanding myself.

 

yeah it's really sad to see all these innocent people died especially the little kids. I donated right after i read your post.

 

I'll be donating to someone other than the Red Cross. I still remember the 9/11 fiasco with those idiots.

 

Already donated.

Z-Stalker

 

Two really close college buddies are missing still, i haven't heard anything from their families, and i've been calling and writing emails.

Prayers are going out to all that did lose.

Roger thank you for taking a stance and being a great person over all.

I'm in the process of sending money out.


sang

 

My Brother made a donation and i contributed a little... it's a tragic event and we gotta do what we can...

 

Yes, I too was upset with the way they handled the 9/11 fund, but I am hoping they learned from their mistakes. BTW, I believe the problem with the 9/11 case was that they had too much money and didn't really know where to spend it so they spent it in other areas. In this case they have too many areas to spend the money in and not enough money. Still, I was miffed about what happened and that is why I did some research to find out who had the best rating and the Red Cross still came out on top (A+).

Frankly I really don't care who anyone donates to, just donate. If someone else has a better organization that they want to post a link to, by all means do it. Just make sure it is a link to a legitimate organization and has a decent track record for a couple of years. Also try to make the link go to a "donation" page so people don't have to navigate all over the home page to find it.

Thank you for all the kind words, but save them for the people that are over there working. Unfortunately I can't go over there so I'm just trying to do whatever I can here.

 

I donated here: http://www.christianchildrensfund.org/default.aspx

 

Thank you very much for getting this info out. I just made my donation.


John

 

It's nice to see that everyone cares so much. The world thinks that America's only cares about the lives of Americans because of the "whole 9/11-afgan-iraq-george W bush" thing.

As Americans we can show the world that we care for people as much as anyone else.

Omer.

 

bump

 

Well put, Roger....I just made my donation. Thanks for getting this information out to the rest of the Z community.

--D.J.

 

Happy to see the genuine concern of fellow enthusiasts. Glad to have contributed to the Red Cross effort.

 

Why doesn't someone start a fund from this forum...all the members could contribute to it for say...a month. Then donate one lump sum to an orginization. It could be the "forum donation".

 

Not a bad idea and if someone wants to start a separate fund I think that would be great. There could be potential problems/delays in setting up the fund, setting up a "non profit" corporation status, establishing a funding solution, etc. Even if you just want to make a lump sum donation to one charity in the name of My350Z.com, I have to believe collecting all the money could end up causing a few headaches. But then again, in the end, if it gets more money over there, then I think it's worth it!

I posted the above link because I wanted to bring to the attention of other forum members a very easy way to donate any amount of money to help, as well as inform/motivate people to do whatever they can to try and help. I suppose by you suggesting we try and raise a lump sum donation over a month means the latter may have worked, so I thank you very much!

3-fity, thanks for the "bump" and the additional charity link. I sincerely appreciate it. Again for the kind words from my friends and other members, thanks.

 

Another good place to donate is the Habitat for Humanity Asia Tsunami Response Fund

Habitat for Humanity has ongoing projects in many of the affected countries and their Disaster Response Unit is gearing up to help rebuild in the devastated areas.

Habitat for Humanity International has long been one of my favorite charities. I'm impressed with their commitment and the scope of their work.