We are on the threshold of a season of giving. Thanksgiving is coming up quickly followed by #GivingTuesday, Chanukah, Christmas, and a general time when folks figure out how to allocate end of year giving to charities. Many of us are making choices about what organizations we'll support and for how much. So at this time, I'd like to share a bit about myself and why RESULTS is at the top of my annual donation list of poverty-fighting organizations in the hopes that you might like to join in and donate to my RESULTS Virtual Thanksgiving Feast online donation page.
My story
I started my poverty-fighting in a soup kitchen. I loved to help people in that way, but there came a time in my early days of motherhood when a hands-on, direct service soup kitchen was not the right way for me to volunteer anymore. I was a new stay-at-home mother having quit my job as an engineer. In brutally cold Chicago winters, I stayed inside a lot and listened to news about all the problems of the world and thought about all the mothers who couldn’t feed or vaccinate their babies the way I could. But I felt very disconnected and utterly powerless to change any of it.
When I started advocating with RESULTS, all of that feeling of futility was turned completely around.
RESULTS is a movement of passionate, committed everyday people. Together, we use our voices to influence political decisions that will bring an end to poverty. Volunteers receive training, support, and inspiration to become skilled advocates. In time, we learn to effectively advise policy makers, guiding them towards decisions that improve access to education, health, and economic opportunity. Together we realize the incredible power we possess to use our voices to change the world.
This smart, effective organization taught me about the main causes of poverty (malnutrition, lack of education, etc.) and real strategies to end poverty in our country and around the world. More importantly, they showed me how to raise my voice and ask for those solutions on behalf of those in poverty who can't ask for themselves. I learned to write letters to the editor that actually got published from my local paper to The New York Times. I learned to sit down face-to-face with my Congresswoman. I learned how to speak up at town hall meetings. I learned how to inspire others to write letters to Congress.
Advocating with RESULTS made
me feel relevant, professional, powerful, and - above all - hopeful. So, I give to RESULTS not
only because of the far-reaching impact I'm able to give to other mothers and children around the world. I give to RESULTS because of the incredible effect it
has right in my home when I can be the person I want to be, when I
can create the change I want to see in the world, and when I can invite my
own daughters to do this work with me and model the kind
of strength I hope each of my children will find within themselves. 
My vision
I envision that day when no more children are dying from treatable and preventable diseases. I look towards the day when we can move from fighting to keep babies alive and move onto other things like furthering education worldwide. And not just fighting for basic primary education for all, but high-quality education and maybe even universal secondary education. It sounds kind of crazy dream now, but I think RESULTS has always been full of dreamers who know how to make our visions into reality.
I invite you now to dream with us.
You'll give the gift of survival and education to children and moms around the world!
You'll give the gift of security to Americans struggling to make ends meet!
You'll give the gift of empowerment to hundreds of everyday people turned advocates like me!
What more can a single donation do? I'm grateful for all the support you can give toward my goal of raising $800 this November. Thank you.
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