A few weeks ago, right after the earthquake struck Haiti and devasted the country, I gave $200 to Partners in Health, an organization that was on the ground there and doing excellent work. It turned into $400 because an extraordinary man, Cliff Landis, had set up a page with $10,000 in matching funds at the site, and these funds were exhausted in a few days. A Kossack, edumgr, was inspired to start a $1000 challenge grant, which was also matched in short order.
I'm ready to give another $200, and there's another pot of matching money available: $26,500 from the Firland Foundation and its Workshop employees. But I want more: I want to match your funds when you donate via the Firland page. That way, $1 can become $4.
Above-the-fold update: all $200 has been matched; thank you! Remember, $1 can still become $2 by taking advantage of the Firland match.
It has been inspiring to see the donations come from the members Daily Kos, their families, friends, church groups, acquaintances, and other connections, in the thirty days since the earthquake struck and devastated the country.
Dallasdoc started a series of daily or twice daily diaries with an incredible number of resources for anyone wishing to donate to Haiti Earthquake Relief, the latest of which (number 52), by allie123, is here.
Over $125,000 is known to have been donated by Kossacks and their friends and relatives to ShelterBox, a group that sends tents and living supplies to stricken areas in reusable boxes, and is currently supplying Haiti with thousands of ShelterBoxes that each contain a tent and supplies. (The number is based on the donations reported in TexMex's series of diaries, the latest of which is here.
Kossacks continue to do what they can to help: some are down there now, some will be going soon, and others are donating and gathering together information about organizations that are on the ground in Haiti, helping out as best they can with the resources they have.
The details of the match are as follows: I will match up to $25 of any donation, no matter how small or large, made to the Firland Foundation page for Partners in Health.
If you make a $25 donation, I match your $25, and Firland matches both yours and my donations, meaning Partners in Health gets $100.
If you make a $10 donation, I match your $10, and again Firland matches both yours and my donations, meaning Partners in Health gets $40.
If you make a $100 donation, I match the first $25 of your donation, Firland matches your full $100, and they match my $25, meaning Partners in Health gets $250.
I got the idea of matching up to $25 from a series of matching fund offers made in the ShelterBox diaries, one of which was mine.
I should mention that the Firland Foundation's Haiti Earthquake Relief Campaign was originally started with $25,000: "We are providing a match of up to $25,000 in unrestricted funds for PIH." But they later added an update:
Thanks to the generosity of the Firland Workshop employees who have contributed an additional $1500 to our matching fund, Firland Foundation will now match 1:1 up to $26,500 in total donations made to PIH through Feb 28th.
That's impressive: their own employees added $1500 of their own money to the matching fund to encourage others to donate. I'm certainly encouraged.
Their page has a "Click Here to Donate" button; I hope you'll use it. And I hope I'll be using it, too, to match your donations.
Dallasdoc wrote a diary on Four Star Organizations helping out in Haiti, of which Partners in Health was one, and followed up a week later with a diary updating information on Partners in Health and Portlight. The main Partners in Health website is here, if you want still more information.
As of a few minutes before publication time, $22,271 of the matching funds have been raised; this leaves $4,229 to go. The amount left to raise has been under $5,000 for several times; let's get it down below $4,000 tonight. Thank you!
Update: Thanks to $245 donated in the comments to this diary, of which $145 is being matched, the Firland matched total is up to $22,526, meaning that only $3,974 is left to raise in matching funds on the page, so we did indeed get it down below $4,000 this evening. That's fabulous! With my $145 it'll be down to $3,829...but I'm still hoping to get another $55 to match here and use up the entire $200.
Update 2: Change the above numbers to $270, $170, $22,551, $3,949, my $170, $3,779, and another $30 to use up the entire $200. My thanks.
Final update: $300 was donated in the comments to this diary (and one in Friday's Haiti Earthquake Relief diary), and I've matched with my $200 (and already received my email thank you). Since this diary was posted last night, a total of $510 was added to the amount on the Firland Foundation page for Partners in Health; $500 of that amount, and 10 of 11 donors, were from this diary. Thank you all. There are still $3,719 in matching funds available from Firland; their match continues until the money is claimed or through February 28, 2010, whichever happens first—the page has received $22,781 in donations as of 2:45pm EST today.
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Good thing I didn't ask for matching nomination submissions, because you folks outdid me today, and I would have been embarrassed at not making the cut. We always greatly appreciate all those who take the time to submit their favorites in advance of the 9:30pm Eastern Time deadline. The address of our mailbox for top comments submissions remains:
TopComments AT gmail DOT com
(change " AT " to "@" and " DOT " to ".")
Anyone can send great comments to our address. Be sure to include the direct link to a comment—the URL—which is available from that comment's date/time; we need that to find your choice. Please always include your Daily Kos user name in the body of your message, so we can credit you properly. I say again: both link and username are important. If you send a writeup with the link, we are able to include that, too, though we reserve the right to edit if necessary; should you only provide the link, then you have to take whatever writeup we create...and we can be excessively extremely creative.
From NCrissieB:
In Thursday’s Morning Feature about whose interests we advocate for, addisnana offered this wonderful, inspirational, true-life story.
From m00finsan:
LeanneB has one of the strangest responses to droogie6655321's Headlines. I will debunk them. diary today, and the ensuing thread is a guaranteed laugh.
From Angie in WA State:
This comment by Nailbanger in windje's diary Anne Mitchell (whistle blower nurse) ACQUITTED was mistaken for snark or a Freudian slip, when it's truly genius commenting on the morality at play in this case.
From JanF:
In Thursday's Morning Feature by NCrissieB, DBunn's comment talks about who we are trying to help as active progressives.
From trashablanca:
A brand new Kossack named itsnotmyfault has an instant classic with this comment in an otherwise crappy and trollish diary. We need more of these kinds of n00bs around this blog and less WATBs, imo.
From bronte17:
From a timely diary by FrankCornish on Iran, What is at Stake Tomorrow, Some Possibilities, the diarist totally debunks a comment claiming that Ahm-a-dinnerjacket won the Iranian election.
And while we’re at it... for those who risk everything to bend that arc of the moral universe for their nation:
From sardonyx (your repeat Thursday diarist):
In a comment from last night, samddobermann has the best answer to a bullshit rightwing spamming email received by diarist bronte17.
drewfromct reminds us that the public airwaves are Our Public Airwaves.
James Allen is finishing college with low debt and money in the bank thanks to Democrats (fed and state); replying to a question, he explains what they did that helped him.
In Aji's excellent diary ACTION: S.D. Rez ER - Need Disaster Declaration for FEMA/Fed $$, which lists disaster declarations from the past two months posted on FEMA's website, JanetT in MD recounts how seeing the District of Columbia saying they needed federal disaster relief from the recent storms led her to wonder why the South Dakota reservations have been ignored by the feds.
A late addition from boran2 in the comments (the comment being nominated wasn't made until just after tonight's submission deadline):
Here's a snarkalicious comment from LeftHandedMan.
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Finally, we have today's top mojo using my revision of the cskendrick-devised mojo-to-Excel process.
First, Top Mojo excluding Cheers and Jeers, various pooties, search-identifiable tip jars, and first diary comments:
1) This diary is nonsense by labor in vain — 163
2) Rahm needs to go by Jeff Y — 134
3) More like... by MediaFreeze — 124
4) I'm a Plouffe fan, but this begs the question - by maxschell — 117
5) I wonder what part the America Political by xxdr zombiexx — 115
6) silly me by Deward Hastings — 106
7) thanks but I was not referring to that 'whiz kids by Badabing — 93
8) I don't really know how you mastered this skill by Nena20409 — 75
9) I don't disagree with much of what you have to by Badabing — 69
10) Senator, thanks for this: by Xapulin — 67
11) I thought it was funny... by gooners — 66
12) Great news. by One Pissed Off Liberal — 65
13) Thank you. I'm actually not such by blackwaterdog — 65
14) great diary but. by lizard people — 64
15) Loved it by SouthernBelleNC49 — 61
16) And I've Been Supporting Bernie by Empower Ink — 61
17) My husband worked in commercial radio for by lineatus — 59
18) I'm not buying any of that. by dkmich — 57
19) andrew bacevich on the presidency in 2008 by primarydoc — 56
20) With Plouffe back in this thing perhaps the by ontheleftcoast — 56
21) I'm finishing college with low debt and by James Allen — 55
22) A young Bernice Reagon with Pete Seeger by Deoliver47 — 52
23) Bill has the heart of ten men. by Eileen B — 52
24) and please everybody by Cedwyn — 51
25) Greatest headline ever, no doubt by Gangster Octopus — 51
26) Micheal Phelps would have been better... NT by LA rupert — 51
27) About who caused the deficit. by Judge Moonbox — 51
28) The Dr. had the nurse prosecuted... by Aranfell — 51
29) Would you prefer the GOPosaurs won? by Eclectablog — 51
30) Good by Dallasdoc — 50
31) Hope they get slapped with a counter-suit by lgmcp — 50
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Tips for Rachel by LaughingPlanet — 505
2) Lying is immoral. by xxdr zombiexx — 504
3) Tip Jar by Badabing — 388
4) Tip Jar by Christian Dem in NC — 312
5) Tip Jar by blackwaterdog — 268
6) Tip Jar by Eclectablog — 259
7) Tip Jar by windje — 202
8) Tip Jar by slinkerwink — 196
9) We face so many problems in this nation by teacherken — 194
10) how about tips for you by raptavio — 168
11) Now go forth and be skeptical. by droogie6655321 — 167
12) This diary is nonsense by labor in vain — 163
13) I still think this PBS doc really shows important by navajo — 144
14) Tips for Music with a powerful message by Deoliver47 — 143
15) Tip Jar by slinkerwink — 141
16) Rahm needs to go by Jeff Y — 134
17) Tip Jar by CeeBee — 125
18) More like... by MediaFreeze — 124
19) Tip Jar by bobswern — 123
20) i tried to make fun of their name by Cedwyn — 121
21) I'm a Plouffe fan, but this begs the question - by maxschell — 117
22) I wonder what part the America Political by xxdr zombiexx — 115
23) Tip Jar by Bill in MD — 111
24) silly me by Deward Hastings — 106
25) thanks but I was not referring to that 'whiz kids by Badabing — 93
26) Tip canteen by RLMiller — 88
27) Scritchie Jar by triciawyse — 88
28) Tip Jar by TexMex — 78
29) I don't really know how you mastered this skill by Nena20409 — 75
30) Bless the service and sacrifice of our veterans by SisTwo — 72
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All quotes are the property of the original authors or the websites that held them