Ideas for fundraising for Ebola victims -- complication, new in town.

October 3, 2014 3:45 PM

I was moved to tears by recent news reportage of the Ebola virus. (The story about the child dying on the floor and being dumped with chlorine just haunts me.) I've given money, but want to do more. The problem is I've just moved to a new place, and the only people I know are also young mothers.

I would like to raise money for Ebola victims (or do something else to help.) I've given money to Doctors Without Borders, and I'd love to try to help raise more money in some casual way. Back at home, I might have hosted a brunch and asked for donations. Here I don't know many people, and the ones I do know are young mothers I've met through playgroups.

Any ideas of how to do this? I thought of doing something kid-related, but that seems weird -- a playgroup for Ebola? No.

Would love any ideas that I'm not thinking of -- and any ideas for a charity that we should support.

posted by caoimhe to Society & Culture (6 answers total)

Charity Navigator recently made a blog post about charities responding to the outbreak. They provide statistics on the funding and expenditures of charities so that you can pick the most effective use of your money.

As suggested by Charity Navigator, I suggest Direct Relief as the most practical charity choice. They are amazingly efficient with fundraising and provide aid in massive scales that allow your small dollar donations to be as useful as possible.
posted by saeculorum at 3:54 PM on October 3, 2014 [2 favorites]

Check out the Planet Money Podcast episode 571: Why raising money for Ebola is hard
posted by Captain_Science at 3:54 PM on October 3, 2014

Could you pick a few of your young mom friends and co-host it with them, effectively fundraising from their friends? If you're up front about it, I don't see a problem. ("I know how to put on one of these events, so I can do a lot of the planning and can buy the food, but the invite list and personal outreach to get people to attend is going to have to come from you ladies, because I'm new in town!") If they're excited about helping to address this problem, they might appreciate your ability to help them do something about it.
posted by slidell at 6:59 PM on October 3, 2014 [2 favorites]

I would like to raise money for Ebola victims (or do something else to help.)

Under "something else to help" would be starting a letter/email writing and phone campaign to your elected officials to support international action to handle the outbreak. This kind of thing could be organized online fairly easily.
posted by jingzuo at 7:44 PM on October 3, 2014

A recent reddit AMA Linked to several active charities and described their activities.
posted by Svejk at 12:09 PM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: Hello - I'm going to askme out myself in that I actually work for GlobalGiving. We're the organization that ran the reddit AMA that Svejk mentioned above. GlobalGiving isn't on the frontlines of the crisis but we are supporting several local grassroots organizations who *are* to support their relief and education efforts. This answer is a particularly good description of what we do and how we do it.

Of our partners, I think you'll be especially interested in More Than Me. The project leader, Katie Meyler, is a rockstar - her original mission was to open a girls academy in the West Point slum in Liberia. Since the school was closed because of Ebola, she has redirected her efforts and resources to promote Ebola awareness in the community and the support children who are orphaned and abandoned as a result of the crisis. Katie did her own AMA a few weeks ago and updates regularly from the field on her Instagram account. More Than Me is an organization that was in Liberia long before Ebola struck and they will be there long after this crisis as well.

If you're interested in more information or would like more details about how GlobalGiving works and what our Ebola partners are doing, please send me a PM and I'll be happy to chat further and put you in touch with the right people to learn more!
posted by kitkatcathy at 11:52 AM on October 5, 2014