It’s my third annual Social Media for Social Good (SMSG) fundraising drive. Today is Make a Difference Day, and this is how I’m choosing to do it. Some of you might have heard of charity:water when Rachel Beckwith’s tragic story made the news. She was an amazing little nine year old, and you can read more of what happened here. I dare you not to cry.

I spent a lot of time researching reputable international charities, and I love that charity:water is so transparent. I think it’ll be fun to check what our little ALBTALBS drive does too.

Did you know that:

• 100% of all public donations directly fund water projects, and they prove every dollar using photos and GPS coordinates on a map

• 800 million people around the world don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water

• That is one out of every nine people

• More people die from lack of clean water and sanitation each year than are killed by all forms of violence, including war

• 90% of the deaths that result from diarrheal disease occur in children under five

• About every nineteen seconds a mother loses her child to a water related illness

• In sub-Saharan Africa 16 million hours each day are spent by women collecting water. This takes time away from work, school, and family.

• 10% of disease could be reduced with improved access to clean water, sanitation, hygiene education, and water resource management.

• $1 invested in water becomes $4-12 dollars for the local economy

• Communities choose a small group of people to oversee each completed charity: water project. Equal numbers of men and women are encouraged to be included. These Water Committees are often the first chance women have to take on elected leadership roles.

• The WHO reports that over 3.6% of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply, sanitation, and hygiene.

• Feeding our world takes up to 90% of our freshwater withdrawals but many people in developing nations still don’t have access to enough water for irrigation.

• Just $20 $65 can provide one person with a clean water project in his/her village

• charity:water matters, and it helps. Read “Will the Beautiful Women of the World Please Stand Up” (this made me cry).

We can make a huge difference.

I know it’s difficult to give, but I’m asking everyone to do what they can. And if you can’t – help spread the word. This is a comment drive, so even just leaving a comment and having one friend do the same helps. Believe me – I know it’s hard out there. I know what it’s like to make well under the poverty rate. I still do. Which is why I’m doing something where everyone can get involved.

These people have already given:

• Mandy M. Roth – $25
• Michelle Pillow – $25
• Kindle Gal – $10 *ETA: Eeee! She just contacted me and said she’d give an additional $50 once we hit 250 comments!

Pledges:

• I’m going to give $300 if we reach 1,000 comments.
• Cecilia Grant will give $1 per comment up to 100 comments
• The Romance Man will give $50 when we reach 250 comments will match my $300 if we get to 1,000 comments!!!
• C2 will give $150 when we reach 500 comments
• Farrah Rochon will give $10 for every 100 comments

You can see who all the wonderful, generous people who donated are on the campaign page. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Won’t you join us?

And in the spirit of friendly competition … I’m asking – challenging – 50 bloggers to donate. Even if it’s $1. I think we can do it. (In fact – I’d love to see more bloggers donate than authors. How’s that for competition? But a concrete goal of 50.)
And if privacy is a concern, you can donate anonymously. *coughs* Someone *coughs* already donated $50 to check that out. 🙂

Let’s do this!

*ETA: I have a specific campaign created for the romance community: http://mycharitywater.org/albtalbs if you’d like to donate. Also, if you’re donating, I would love to add you to the list, to let other people know (peer pressure! :D) and to give you a shout out. Please feel free to email me with any questions, or to talk about whether or not you want your name/amount to be listed. Thank you!!!

Also, for clarification, my SMSG drives go on for a month. I figure that’s enough time for word to be spread and people to budget what they can to donate. For all of us in the states, it’s a tax deductible charitable donation! (For our international friends, I would look into that too.)

You can check out the numerous giveaways here. To enter, just use your comment url and you’re done!