As I mentioned on Friday, this week I’ll be doing something a little different: the Third Annual Pseudostoops Giving My Money Away Extravaganza! (Year 1; Year 2) Instead of tales of my clumsiness and house woes, each day this week I will feature a different charitable organization to which I had already planned to give money at the holidays.  I invite everyone to read about the charity and, for every comment that I receive on the post, I’ll add 50 cents to my donation.  You get to give money to charity, without having to spend any! Brilliant!

Your comment need not say anything in particular (I have had many people just say “comment!” every year, and that’s fine!) but if you want, you can tell me a little about one of YOUR favorite charities.  On Friday, I’ll select five charities that other people have mentioned and set up a poll.  The charity that gets the most votes will get a $50 donation from me.

Come on, people.  Wow me.  Tell your friends, tell your blog and your Twitter stream, tell the random person you see on the street.  Strain my wallet.  Lets do some good things for people who really need it at this time of year.

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Those of you who have followed GMMA for a few years know that I like to feature smaller, local organizations that do essential work that people might not know about.  I’m still going to do that.  But I’m starting this year off differently because the need is so tremendous.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository is hardly a small organization- it is the largest food bank in the Chicago area, working through a network of 650 food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters.

They serve 678,000 people a year.  Roll that number around in your head a minute.  Almost seven hundred thousand people in the Chicago area alone who need help with the most basic of human needs: food.  The Depository estimates that it serves one in eight residents of Cook County every year, many of them children and the elderly.  That’s astonishing.

But the Greater Chicago Food Depository doesn’t just hand out food.  They also run a pretty amazing jobs training program and staff their centers with people who need training and work.  Through these programs, they aim to address the root causes of hunger.  Pretty great, right?  They run specially-targeted programs, too.  For example, in the summer, when kids are out of school, they deliver lunches five days a week to several poor neighborhoods to ensure that children, many of whom rely on free lunch during the school year, don’t go hungry just because school’s not in session.

When the economy is bad, as we all know it still is, the demand for the services the Depository offers skyrockets.  That’s why this year, I’m selecting the Greater Chicago Food Depository as the first organization to feature on GMMA.  So go to it! Get commenting!  Comments will stay open until I post tomorrow’s post.

Hey y’all-

Just a quick heads up that next week I’ll be doing my annual holiday feature, Giving My Money Away, in which I feature charitible organizations and give them donations based on your comments.

Read more about it here: Year 1, Year 2.

Basically, how it works is this: I write a post each day featuring a charitable organization that I like to support, to which I plan to make a donation at the holidays.  I guarantee a minimum donation, then I add 50 cents for each comment I receive on that post that day, up to a predetermined limit.

If you want, in your comments, you can leave me some info about one of your favorite charities.  On Friday, I’ll choose five organizations that were mentioned in the comments and we’ll have a good old-fashioned vote to determine which one of them will receive a $50 donation.

I really like doing this: some small and dear-to-me charities receive a little spotlight, you make me feel all warm and fuzzy with your comments that lead to donations, and one of you will see one of your favorite organizations get a bonus $50 at the holidays.  Everybody wins.

So! Watch this space, tell your friends, forward widely.  Let’s all get in a holiday mood.

Somehow, impossibly, it is already almost Christmas. Holy cow. This week, I’m delighted to institute the second annual Giving My Money Away (GMMA) extravaganza here at pseudostoops. I started this last year, and if this year goes even half as well as last year did, I’ll be delighted.

Here’s how this works: I’m inviting audience participation in my end-of-year charitible giving. This year, I am going to feature three organizations that do amazing and important work in the community. These are organizations I know either personally or professionally, that are perhaps not as well-known as some of the bigger charitable causes.

Some of the organizations I’m featuring this week will be repeats from last year, because a year later, the economy isn’t any better and these organizations need help more than ever. In times like these, organizations that provide much-needed services are hit particularly hard, since the need increases dramatically at the same time donations taper off to a trickle. I’ll also be featuring one new organization that wasn’t part of last year’s group.

I’m hoping that I can spread the word on some places that are quietly doing very cool work. I’ll tell you a little about the organization and its mission, give you a link to more info, and then YOU will determine the amount of the donation I make.

Here’s how it’s going to work:

1. I’ll put up a post featuring the organization.

2. I’ll guarantee a minimum $25 donation to that organization.

3. For every comment I receive on that post, I’ll donate an additional $0.50. I have an absolute maximum in mind, but I’m hoping people amaze me with their participation and I have to really stretch my budget! (Hats off to RudeCactus, whose brilliant idea I totally stole last year, and again now.)

4. I will feature a different organization Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. When you leave your comments, I’m hoping that you will also tell me a little bit about one of your favorite charitible organizations, perhaps on that is on the smaller side and deserves a little support this holiday season. Name it in the comments, and provide a link if you have one.  (If you’re participating every day, you can name several different organizations, or just name the same one four times to show the depth of your love for them.) I’ll research each organization suggested in the comments, and will chose five finalists.

On Thursday (Christmas Eve) ‘ll select five organizations from the comments and set up a poll. The poll will be open for a week, and the organization that receives the most votes will receive a $50 donation. I’m excited to learn about the great organizations in your communities that are doing important work!

This was really fun last year, and I hope it is this year, too!

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Today’s totally deserving organization is one I also featured last year: The Women’s Treatment Center. I’m going to borrow liberally from what I wrote last year about this extraordinary place:

Located in Chicago, the Women’s Treatment Center is a residential drug treatment center for women that has childcare capacity, so women do not have to be separated from their children (who often have no other place to go) as they go through treatment. It’s one of the only drug treatment centers around that has a crisis nursery, which can provide round the clock infant care while a woman is in detox, so a woman does not have to make the impossible choice between entering rehab and making sure her infant is cared for. From their website:

Women with children often are denied residential drug abuse treatment services, because facilities lack childcare services. At TWTC, we provide mothers in treatment comprehensive, compassionate and high quality treatment services, as well as a safe environment in which to detox, without separating them from their children. Mothers at TWTC interact daily with their children, mending the bond broken by addiction. Pregnant women at TWTC have an opportunity to give birth to drug-free babies, providing these infants with a healthier start.

The Illinois state budget is a mess, and funding for the health and drug treatment programs like those provided at the Women’s Treatment Center has been cut dramatically. They need our help.

SO! Get to it! Comment below, then tell your friends, your family, your twitter stream your blog readers, etc etc. Last year we got 27 comments when I featured TWTC. Let’s blow that out of the water this year.

Thank you.