Text: Ricken Patel
Dear friends,
Afghan intelligence just informed us that suicide bombers targeted an Avaaz event in Kabul.
Thank god we had changed the location last minute. But this comes on the heels of recent news that our middle east campaigner had been detained, and that Saudi Arabia had joined China in blocking our site.
We’ve been targeted, sued, and smeared, and our site is cyber-attacked virtually every single day…and that’s how we know we’re doing something right.
Our team regularly decides whether to face these fights or run from them. And every time we can be fearless, because you are, and Avaaz is 100% funded and powered by you.
Darknesses are rising, the going is getting tough, it’s time for us to get going. Click below to chip in , and for the cost of drinks or a meal out, keep our movement strong and fearless, now more than ever:
To donate another amount, click here.
This is Avaaz’s moment. We’re everything that the rising violent ethno-nationalists and corrupt mega-corporations are not. We’re global, hopeful, humanitarian, democratic. We are the change we wish to see, and the fight for that change is on more than ever — we need to rise to it.
Avaaz runs many fundraisers for many causes. But to sustain our campaigning on climate, forests, human and women’s rights, peace and wildlife conservation, democracy and much more, we rely 100% on small online donations from our amazing community to keep the whole thing going. We don’t accept any funding from governments, corporations, foundations or large donors.
This funding is absolutely essential – it maintains our website and technical infrastructure, our security, and supports the tiny Avaaz team. I’m incredibly grateful for those Avaazers that make this entire movement possible for the rest of us. Click below to join them, and make even more possible:
To donate another amount, click here.
I see the impact of our donors every day – how ambitious we can be, how many challenges we can take on at once, how deep we can go into each campaign. There are many things that make Avaaz possible, but our precious sustainers are at the top of that list. So even if you can’t pitch in today – I hope you’ll join me in feeling gratitude for those who can!
With hope and gratitude,
Ricken and the Avaaz team
P.S. If you’re still mulling this over, here are my top 5 reasons to support Avaaz:
1) Your money actually goes to social change – I’ve looked at how massive charities got massive, and it’s really ethically tough. You have to use incredibly expensive techniques like street approaches, phone calls, or TV ads and fancy dinner fundraisers. A *very* high percentage of the funds raised (often 50-100%!) never get to the charity’s programs at all, taken by the huge fundraising costs, which are often paid to a privately contracted company. The only way Avaaz raises funds is this email, which costs almost nothing to send!
2) Accountability is built into our model – Every Avaaz campaign decision is ultimately made by our movement, through statistical polling and testing that tells us exactly what the movement as a whole wants to do. This means that what we do each week with the money donated to us is both transparent to our movement and determined by it. On top of that, each Avaaz campaign is only as strong as the number of people who choose to join it. We’re one of the most purely people-powered organizations in the world.
3) We’re unique, and desperately needed – There just isn’t another Avaaz. We are the only totally global, multilingual, campaigning movement of our size and scale in the world today, and our rapid-reaction, multi-issue, high technology approach is also unmatched globally. And wow, do we see needs for our movement everywhere we look. We get lobbied by hundreds of groups every week because people see how our blast of global attention, smart strategy, and the efforts of our amazing team can really move issues in a way few other things can.
4) We win – if you’ve read this far you’ve probably been with Avaaz for a while and you know what we’re capable of. Go to our highlights page and see over 60 significant victories our movement has achieved together, and that’s just a small fraction. And we don’t just take on the easy wins, or claim that we won something when we had almost nothing to do with it. Alongside our massive grassroots movement we also have what might be the world’s finest advocacy team, ensuring that people’s voices are actually in the room where decisions are made, and matter.
5) There’s a magic in Avaaz – this one might seem fluffy, but our polls show that over 60% of our movement feels it. There’s something truly special about the spirit of this movement, of bringing people together across every border and barrier in hope and love and smart, effective action for the world we all dream of. I don’t have a word for this magic (the team calls it “Avaaziness” 🙂 but I feel it every single day I work here. Its what has fueled my belief that we are the change we wish to see in the world, and that together we have the capacity to shape history.
Make a donation here.
