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Dear Avaazers, I feel continually grateful for the level of trust that Avaaz donors place in our work every month, and I wanted to make sure you know what happens after you make that important choice to hope and to give! For example - take a look at this:  We're buying a rainforest! Over 90,000 of us donated enough to give $1 million to conservation organisations like the Rainforest Trust who are buying land connecting two vital preserves in Borneo that can keep the orangutans alive on this planet with us. I love this job :) These amazing girls are a second example:  Yamama and her cousin Hayat are Syrian refugees, but they're in school in part because our community raised $1 million in a challenge grant to donor governments to save Syria from a lost generation of children without education. We just got word that governments have matched us over 100:1!! UN Education Envoy Gordon Brown called our effort "magnificent" and "important in getting governments to give." And for a third, meet Gaby:  Gaby Lasky is an inspiring Israeli lawyer working with leaders of the Palestinian nonviolent movement and a tireless team to defend hundreds of peaceful activists against trumped up charges. Our community donated enough to grant $225,000 to Gaby's efforts! Many, many more stories to tell, but our community's top issue for donations has been climate change...  Here's Filipino climate ambassador Yeb Sano, delivering a massive petition spearheaded by Avaaz to the world's climate negotiators. Our climate change campaign, supported by tens of thousands of monthly 'sustainer' donors, has a large team working day and night to press our governments into action on this crisis of our time. Click here to read an in-depth report on our climate team's full-spectrum work to save the world. But it's not just the money we donate as a community, but HOW we raise it that makes us a unique force for good in the world. Here's three things that make us special:
 Most of the money donated goes to Avaaz campaigns. But a lot of it, we just give away -- over $8 million so far to humanitarian causes and partner organisations who are doing great work that is unlikely to be funded by corporations and foundations. Organisations like the The Equality Effect for whom our community raised $300,000 last year. The head of The Equality Effect said "we are enormously grateful to Avaaz members for supporting us in ensuring laws in Kenya and Malawi protect girls who are vulnerable to some of the most appalling violence in the world."  Some people criticise activism as useless or feel-good, and they're sometimes right. But Avaaz has been given awards for our effectiveness, and our community's ability not just to speak out powerfully, but to put our money where our mouths are, is a massive part of why we're a force that is changing the world. And we're just getting started :). With huge appreciation and respect for all that everyone is contributing, Ricken and the team PS - all our financial accounts are fully audited every year, and every year we get a squeaky clean bill of health. You can see the audit letters, and more financial info here. |
Avaaz.org is a 35-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook
To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email.Instead, write to us at www.avaaz.org/en/contact or call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US).
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