Women Rock Volunteerism

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Somehow, I got hooked on following the voting on CNN’s top picks for heroes. My guy didn’t win, but I was struck by something: Most of these unbelievably unselfish philanthropists are women. Ordinary, not rich, not well-connected women.

If you want to be humbled by your own paltry efforts, check these visionaries out.

Hopefully, in Obama-world, there’ll be more and more such citizen activists, responding to everyday, ordinary needs with deceptively commonsensical solutions (like the runner who convinced the homeless “bums” she jogged past everyday to join her. The ripple effects of such a simple, albeit brave, notion are incalculable). None of them stopped a war or cured cancer, but they have made vast improvements in the lives of other simple souls like themselves.
High-tech, initially high-cost innovations like this one, however, are not the kind that the average person can participate in right now, but it’s where we need to go.

Maybe now that we’ve seen where the pursuit of the almighty dollar leads us, regardless of what it does to our nation and our world, maybe now that we’ve elected someone who’s reaching toward the best in us…maybe a new America is just around the corner.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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