Giving
Thank you so much for joining us in the HK, but no gifts please. Please consider donating to the following non-profits doing terrific work in the world instead:
The American system of government is founded on two counterbalancing principles: that the majority of the people governs, through democratically elected representatives; and that the power even of a democratic majority must be limited, to ensure individual rights.
Majority power is limited by the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, which consists of the original ten amendments ratified in 1791, plus the three post-Civil War amendments (the 13th, 14th and 15th) and the 19th Amendment (women’s suffrage), adopted in 1920.
The mission of the ACLU is to preserve all of these protections and guarantees:
- Your First Amendment rights - freedom of speech, association and assembly; freedom of the press, and freedom of religion.
- Your right to equal protection under the law - equal treatment regardless of race, sex, religion or national origin.
- Your right to due process - fair treatment by the government whenever the loss of your liberty or property is at stake.
- Your right to privacy - freedom from unwarranted government intrusion into your personal and private affairs.
We work also to extend rights to segments of our population that have traditionally been denied their rights, including Native Americans and other people of color; lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people; women; mental-health patients; prisoners; people with disabilities; and the poor.
If the rights of society’s most vulnerable members are denied, everybody’s rights are imperiled.
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all.
Our supporters are outraged by human rights abuses but inspired by hope for a better world - so we work to improve human rights through campaigning and international solidarity.
We have more than 2.2 million members and subscribers in more than 150 countries and regions and we coordinate this support to act for justice on a wide range of issues.
The ASPCA was founded in 1866 as the first humane organization in the Western Hemisphere. The Society was formed to alleviate the injustices animals faced then, and we continue to battle cruelty today. Whether it’s saving a pet who has been accidentally poisoned, fighting to pass humane laws, rescuing animals from abuse or sharing resources with shelters across the country, we work toward the day in which no animal will live in pain or fear.
The mission of Black Box Voting is to ensure fair and accurate elections through citizen oversight.
Black Box Voting investigates election problems, communicates the problems to the citizenry, and teaches citizens how to manage their own government — which means teaching citizens how to identify elections problems and providing citizens with the tools to oversee elections. Black Box Voting takes the position that being a citizen means taking an active role in government oversight. Elections procedures must be fair, they must be inclusive, they must prevent voter disenfranchisement, they must protect each individual’s vote by reducing the ability to tamper or miscount. Systems do not achieve quality automatically — citizen oversight is the key ingredient to fair and accurate elections . Because We, the People are the owners of our government, we citizens should expect to take an active role in managing the quality of the government systems we have created.
Coalition for the Homeless is the nation’s oldest advocacy and direct service organization helping homeless men, women, and children. We are dedicated to the principle that decent shelter, sufficient food, affordable housing, and the chance to work for a living wage are fundamental rights in a civilized society. Since our inception in 1981, the Coalition has worked through litigation, public education, and direct services to ensure that these goals are realized.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people’s radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.
Blending the expertise of lawyers, policy analysts, activists, and technologists, EFF achieves significant victories on behalf of consumers and the general public. EFF fights for freedom primarily in the courts, bringing and defending lawsuits even when that means taking on the US government or large corporations. By mobilizing more than 50,000 concerned citizens through our Action Center, EFF beats back bad legislation. In addition to advising policymakers, EFF educates the press and public.
EFF is a donor-funded nonprofit and depends on your support to continue successfully defending your digital rights. Litigation is particularly expensive; because two-thirds of our budget comes from individual donors, every contribution is critical to helping EFF fight —and win—more cases.
An Uncommon Approach to Environmental Issues
We start with rigorous science. Then we work directly with businesses, government and communities.
Together, we create lasting solutions to the most serious environmental problems.
Our Approach
Strong Science
Scientists founded Environmental Defense 40 years ago. Ever since then, our staff biologists, chemists, engineers and physicists have used science to cut through logjams.
Innovative Markets
Market competition is one of the most powerful engines of American innovation. Environmental Defense long ago found a way to harness that engine for environmental progress.
Corporate Partnerships
Changing America requires engaging America’s corporations. Environmental Defense emphasizes the science while forging unique alliances to produce tangible environmental results.
Effective Laws and Policies
We helped launch the modern environmental era by using the courts in a novel way in the 1960s. Today, we are more apt to craft effective policy but go to court when necessary.
FINCA International provides financial services to the world’s lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their standard of living. We target the poorest of the working poor: those who have the least access to services such as loans, savings programs, and insurance. Our clients include women, who make up 70 percent of the world’s poor; individuals unable to find work in the formal sector; families displaced by war and internal conflict; the rural poor; and those affected by chronic poverty. With more than 20 years’ experience and over 500,000 clients on four continents, FINCA offers a proven solution to poverty.
Heifer envisions…
A world of communities living together in peace and equitably sharing the resources of a healthy planet.
Heifer’s mission is…
To work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth.
Heifer’s strategy is…
To “pass on the gift.” As people share their animals’ offspring with others – along with their knowledge, resources, and skills – an expanding network of hope, dignity, and self-reliance is created that reaches around the globe.
Heifer’s History
This simple idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief caught on and has continued for over 60 years. Today, millions of families in 128 countries have been given the gifts of self-reliance and hope.
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world.
We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice.
We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable.
We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law.
We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all.
Human Rights Watch is an independent, nongovernmental organization, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. It accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly. Contribute today or view HRW’s financial statements first.
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation’s largest and most effective animal protection organization—backed by 10 million Americans, or one in every 30. Established in 1954, The HSUS seeks a humane and sustainable world for all animals—a world that will also benefit people. We are America’s mainstream force against cruelty, exploitation and neglect, as well as the most trusted voice extolling the human-animal bond.
Our mission statement: Celebrating Animals, Confronting Cruelty.
We work to reduce suffering and to create meaningful social change for animals by advocating for sensible public policies, investigating cruelty and working to enforce existing laws, educating the public about animal issues, joining with corporations on behalf of animal-friendly policies, and conducting hands-on programs that make ours a more humane world. We are the lead disaster relief agency for animals, and we provide direct care for thousands of animals at our sanctuaries and rescue facilities, wildlife rehabilitation centers, and mobile veterinary clinics.
We celebrate pets, as well as wildlife and habitat protection. We are the nation’s most important advocate for local humane societies, providing shelter standards and evaluations, training programs, direct support, and national conferences. We are building a Humane Wildlife Services program to provide homeowners and businesses with humane and effective solutions to conflicts with our wild neighbors. The HSUS publishes All Animals, a membership magazine, and Animal Sheltering, a bi-monthly magazine for animal sheltering professionals.
We confront national and global cruelties through major campaigns targeting the barbaric practices of dogfighting and cockfighting; abusive puppy mills where dogs are treated not like family but like production machines; the worst cruelties of factory farming in modern agribusiness such as confinement of animals in crates and cages; inhumane and unsporting hunting practices such as “canned hunts” of captive exotic animals; the slaughter of American horses for export to foreign countries where horsemeat is considered a delicacy; and the clubbing of baby seals and other animals for the commercial fur trade. Our track record of effectiveness has led to meaningful victories for animals in Congress, state legislatures, courtrooms and corporate boardrooms.
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation’s largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
National Wildlife Federation’s mission is to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future.
National Wildlife Federation (NWF) works with over 4 million members, partners, and supporters to actively educate, inspire, and promote achievable solutions to everyday Americans in communities from coast-to-coast.
Our conservation work focuses on three major areas that will have the biggest impact on the future of America’s wildlife:
1. Confront Global Warming
Global warming is the single most urgent threat to wildlife.
Through education and advocacy NWF is putting the reality of global warming and its consequences at the forefront of the American agenda. We are advancing bold yet practical global warming solutions that will end our national addiction to oil and open the door to new technologies for cheaper, cleaner and safer energy supplies. The collective voice of our constituency is forcing our nation’s political leaders to step up and develop legislation that will address the impacts of global warming, giving wildlife a fighting chance.
2. Protect and Restore Wildlife Habitat
NWF strategies help protect, connect and restore habitat to ensure a wildlife legacy for our children. We are focused on protecting all of America’s great waters from the Great Lakes and coastal Louisiana to biologically-rich wetlands around the country that provide critical wildlife habitat and safeguard the nation’s water supply. We promote habitat restoration projects in priority regions and work to keep public lands in public hands–accessible to all Americans.
Our commitment to saving endangered and threatened species has prevented our nation’s most treasured wildlife icons from going extinct including the bald eagle, the American alligator and Florida panther–and our collaboration with Native American tribes is helping restore habitat for wide roaming wildlife such as wolves, bison and lynx.
3. Connect with Nature
Today’s children spend as many as six hours a day wired to electronic screens instead of playing outside. NWF is reversing this trend by fostering profound and personal connections between people and nature.
Our Green Hour and Wildlife Habitat programs, along with the rest of NWF’s reversing nature deficit campaign brings people closer to the natural world–giving them experiences that last a lifetime, touch their hearts and build a sense of conservation stewardship.
For centuries people have exploited the oceans with little thought to the future. Clearly, we can’t afford to neglect them any longer. They provide much of the food we eat and the oxygen we breathe — our very existence depends upon healthy oceans.
Our Mission
Ocean Conservancy promotes healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems and opposes practices that threaten ocean life and human life. Through research, education, and science-based advocacy, Ocean Conservancy informs, inspires, and empowers people to speak and act on behalf of the oceans. In all its work, Ocean Conservancy strives to be the world’s foremost advocate for the oceans.
We believe we can end poverty and injustice, as part of a global movement for change. Oxfam International is a confederation of 13 like-minded organizations working together and with partners and allies around the world to bring about lasting change.
We work directly with communities and we seek to influence the powerful to ensure that poor people can improve their lives and livelihoods and have a say in decisions that affect them.
1. Explore, enjoy and protect the wild places of the earth.
2. Practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources.
3. Educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment.
4. Use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.
Welcome to The Nature Conservancy — the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.
We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished since our founding in 1951:
- We’ve protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide — and we operate more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.
- We have more than 1 million members.
- We work in all 50 states and more than 30 countries — protecting habitats from grasslands to coral reefs, from Australia to Alaska to Zambia.
- We address threats to conservation involving climate change, fire, fresh water, forests, invasive species, and marine ecosystems.
Why We’re Successful
It’s how we work that has made the Conservancy so successful — and makes us optimistic that we can expand that great conservation work to meet the challenges ahead:
- We use a science-based approach — aided by our more than 700 staff scientists.
- We pursue non-confrontational, pragmatic solutions to conservation challenges.
- We partner — with indigenous communities, businesses, governments, multilateral institutions, other non-profits…and people such as yourself.
Established by concerned American citizens, USA for UNHCR, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, builds support in the United States for the humanitarian work of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Our mission is to inform Americans about the plight of refugees and advocate for their protection. We want to give individual Americans, frustrated by the growing refugee crisis and their own inability to do something to help, a way to put action behind their words.
UNHCR provides protection, shelter, emergency food, water, medical care and other life-saving assistance to over 33 million people worldwide, who have been forced to flee their homes due to war and persecution. When possible, UNHCR helps refugees and other displaced people return to their homes voluntarily, safely, and with dignity. When return is not possible, the agency assists with local integration, or resettlement to a third country.
Since its formation by the United Nations General Assembly on December 14, 1950, UNHCR has helped an estimated 50 million refugees restart their lives. Today, with a staff of more than 6,300 people, the agency is the lead humanitarian organization on the scene in 110 countries around the world.
We Can Help America Make the Switch
Climate change is occurring now, and is already affecting our natural environment, our national security and our quality of life. But, there are effective, achievable solutions for addressing the crisis. An important step is to repower America by producing 100 percent of our country’s electricity from energy sources with zero carbon emissions — within 10 years. Making this switch will generate millions of good American jobs, cut energy costs, safeguard national security, and protect the climate. We need business and government leaders at all levels to help adopt policies and practices now that will enable America to switch to energy sources with zero carbon emissions. We need policies that encourage energy efficiency, renewable energy, and a unified national electricity grid.
We can repower America in a short time frame. We put a man on the moon in just eight years. We quickly retooled our factories to produce tanks, trucks and airplanes for World War II. We mobilized for civil rights and women’s suffrage. We’ve done this before, and we can do it again.
The We Campaign is a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection — a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. The goal of the Alliance is to build a movement that creates the political will to solve the climate crisis — in part through repowering America with 100 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources within 10 years. Our economy, national security, and climate can’t afford to wait.
The We Campaign is a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection — a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. The goal of the Alliance is to build a movement that creates the political will to solve the climate crisis — in part through repowering America with 100 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources within 10 years. Our economy, national security, and climate can’t afford to wait.
Finally, it’s a long way to Hong Kong, and those jets you’re flying on emit a tremendous amount of carbon into the atmosphere! Please consider offsetting some of those (and other!) carbon emissions via the organizations below.
Ever wished you could do something about global warming?
It might seem there’s nothing you can do about global warming. The problem is just too big.
Of course, we all contribute to global warming. We all have a “carbon footprint,” the total carbon dioxide emissions we create when we drive or fly or use electricity.
Balance your carbon footprint with TerraPass
The first step you can take to fight global warming is to reduce your carbon footprint through conservation. Drive less. Turn down the thermostat. Buy locally produced goods. A recent survey of TerraPass customers shows that they’re already taking all kinds of steps to reduce their impact.
Then use TerraPass to balance the emissions you can’t reduce.
When you buy a TerraPass, your money funds clean energy and efficiency projects such as wind farms. These projects result in verified reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
A new kind of environmental movement
Of course, global warming is too big a problem for a handful of people to solve on their own. It’s a global problem that requires action on a global scale.
But entrepreneurial groups are leading the way. City and state governments, forward-looking businesses, and enthusiastic citizens are banding together to show that a sustainable future is possible today.
Every TerraPass member has taken a simple positive step to fight global warming. Every TerraPass purchase is a vote for innovation, efficiency, and clean energy. Together, we have eliminated over 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.
Be part of a group that is driving change today.
Calculate your carbon footprint.
Our Mission: toward a ZeroCarbon™ world
Carbonfund.org is leading the fight against global climate change, making it easy and affordable for any individual, business or organization to eliminate their climate impact and hastening the transformation to a clean energy future. Carbonfund.org achieves its goals through:
- Climate change education
- Carbon offsets and reductions
- Public outreach
Reduce What You Can, Offset What You Can’t™
We encourage everyone to continually strive to reduce their carbon footprint through sensible energy reductions combined with cost-effective carbon offsets to eliminate their overall carbon footprint.
Carbonfund.org supports renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects globally that reduce carbon dioxide emissions and the threat of climate change. Carbonfund.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
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