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You
needn't go broke
or lose your desire to help. |
The primary purpose of the Human Relief Fund is to provide
prompt financial aid for the immediate rescue of men, women,
and children following a major disaster. The secondary purpose is to provide prompt
financial aid toward the stabilization of the victims' living
environment following such a disaster.
The Human Relief Fund is not a bank for long-term recovery
efforts. It's a private aid fund for dealing quickly and
pragmatically with the short-term goals of a crisis --
to
save lives, preserve health, preserve families, stabilize
communities.
The Human Relief Fund is also a reserve fund.
It manages its resources in such a way that, instead
of directing most of its money to only the current or latest disaster, it
maintains a reserve from which it can rush financial aid to
simultaneous disasters, or to disasters that occur closely and
quickly together, one
after another, putting a strain on your desire and capacity to give.
The months following December 26, 2004,
illustrate why a reserve
fund is necessary. On that day a calamitous tsunami struck the people
along and across the Indian Ocean. Throughout 2005 there followed food and refugee crises in Sudan,
Niger, and other parts of Africa; catastrophic hurricanes along
the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and
Florida; and on October 8, 2005, a crushing earthquake devastated
Kashmir. In the spring and summer of 2006, earthquakes and
tsunamis have devastated and displaced thousands in southern
Java, and war in the Middle East has displaced between half a
million and a million victimized civilians in Lebanon.
Cyclone Sidr flattened and inundated much of Bangladesh in
November 2007.
At some point in a rapid series of major disasters,
even the most generous people tire of
giving. Understandably. Many are numb. Others have no more
to
give. Yet the latest victims of disaster, those in Java
and Lebanon, certainly deserve aid as much as those in Darfur
and along the American Gulf Coast. That's why we strive to
make the Human Relief Fund a reserve fund, so something's
available to start helping the latest people to be hammered by
catastrophe.
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Don't
wait for a disaster. Budget your help: give a
little when you can. |
To avoid the weariness of giving (what some call
"disaster fatigue"), the Human Relief Fund requests
that you budget your giving. Instead of giving every time there's a catastrophe, please donate to the fund when there's
not a crisis. Give less money, but give more often.
If we steadily build and maintain a reserve by regularly contributing an amount
we can afford when we can afford it, we eliminate the paralyzing
pressure on ourselves to initiate a huge fundraising
effort each time there's a major disaster. In this way, you can still help, but not feel
the pinch and pain of abruptly encountering each
disaster.
This doesn't mean that, if you want to
help, you should refrain from pitching in
during a crisis. What it means is that, when the next
major earthquake strikes, there will already be funds available to meet
immediate needs of the affected men, women, and children.
It also means that there will also be funds in reserve, so when a hurricane
quickly follows the earthquake, there will be resources to meet immediate
needs of others. And
when a tsunami quickly follows the
hurricane, there will be even more resources already available to meet immediate
needs of the tsunami's victims. And so
on and so forth --
the Human Relief Fund directing money
immediately to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, CARE, Oxfam,
Doctors without Borders, Catholic Relief, and/or whatever established,
reputable, experienced organizations are on location to meet immediate needs,
providing food, water, blood, medicine, healthcare, shelter, evacuation, and
instructions for the
victims of current and subsequent disasters.
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Where
does your donation go? |
Banks and financial institutions (such as
PayPal), as is always the case with banks and financial institutions,
receive
nominal fees for handling the transactions, anywhere from a
fraction of a percent up to seven percent, depending on the
institution and the method of transaction. A credit card,
for example, is convenient, but it's not always the cheapest way
to make a donation. Still, while always striving to avoid
or minimize these fees, we believe presently that they are well spent, that having professional money people handle the
money serves the victims of a disaster most efficiently and effectively.
Aside from the financial-transaction fees,
everything you donate goes into the Human Relief Fund itself and, from
there, directly to the traditional, reputable relief
organizations that are on location rescuing and otherwise
immediately aiding the men, women, and children suffering a
major disaster. The Human Relief
Fund's founder and corporate sponsor, <IME>,
absorbs the administrative expense of operating the fund.
Steady trickles from every direction eventually produce a
sizable river. Please donate a little money often.
That's one way you can help. We suggest the
amount be whatever you can afford painlessly on a regular basis --
weekly, monthly, quarterly, semiannually, annually.
Spreading out your financial assistance takes the sting out of
giving, but insures that the money will be there when
needed. Can you afford $13 every three months? That
would be $52 a year, only a dollar a week. If a large number
of you average only one dollar per week throughout
the year, the sum of your donations can save a lot of lives when
disaster strikes.
Also, spread the word. That's
another important
way you can help. Please tell others about the
Human Relief Fund. Send them to this site.
Word-of-mouth is a cheap but powerful means of promotion.
And the fewer resources we have to put into promoting the fund,
the more resources we can put into saving lives.
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Avoid
scams, swindles, and other fraud. |
The Human Relief Fund does not
solicit donations via phone, mail (the post), or email. We
ask for your offerings only at this website or in reply to
correspondence that you initiate. We do not
initiate correspondence seeking money. Therefore, if you
receive a request for funds by phone, mail, or email from
someone claiming to be us, ignore it.
Also see our policy regarding
<privacy
and security>.
A.) For your
convenience: <Donate online>
using your MasterCard or VISA account. Use our secure <online
form>.
B.) Recommended: Donate by check or money order.
This
method minimizes financial-transaction fees --
the greatest percentage of your donation goes directly into the
Human Relief Fund itself. Make your check or money order payable to the
Human Relief Fund. Mail it to the following address.
Human Relief Fund
Iron Mountain, MI 49801-0014 USA
Include your name, mailing address, and email
address. If your donation is a gift donation for and in
the name of someone else, include that person's name, mailing
address, and email address. Be specific if you want to
remain anonymous on any future publications of donors. If
you say nothing, we'll presume we have your permission to
publish your name (we will not publish addresses or contact
information of any type).
C.) For your
convenience: If you have a <PayPal>
account, donate via <PayPal>.
When asked for "Recipient's Email" at <PayPal>,
please use <paypal@imeplace.com> (the Human Relief Fund
is owned and operated by <IME>
at <www.imeplace.com>;
hence, that email address).
Again, please be sure we know who you are or in whose name
you're giving. Include the appropriate postal and email
addresses. Be specific if you want to remain anonymous on
any future publications of donors. If you say nothing, we
will presume we have your permission to publish your name (we will not publish addresses
or contact information of any type).
Please do not send cash.
Your donation may be tax-deductible if used for business
purposes. PayPal and our bank
receive fees up to seven percent for handling our financial
transactions with you, but they handle them more efficiently
than we can, so it's money well spent. Most people like
the convenience of donating online and therefore don't mind the
financial-transaction fee, but remember that you can avoid these
fees by mailing a check or money order instead of using PayPal
or your credit card.
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Thank you for your attention, care,
and generosity. |
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