I started out each phone call by saying that I wrote for a somewhat popular website and that I was interested in using my website to raise money for their charity. Everyone I spoke to seemed pretty enthused about my idea and assured me they were going to help me raise the money any way they could. Each of them asked me to email them a list of things I needed from them and told me we’d go from there.

This is really niave:

So I told them that I needed them to set up a private paypal …Not a goddamn one of these charities wrote me back.

Of course she didn’t hear from them again, it would be a classic scammers approach. And once they read her posts, what charity would want to be affiliated with Violent Acres?

Personally I would not give her a plug nickel. Why would I? Why not just give to a charity of my choice? Is she trying to be the Rude Crude United Way?

BTW: our favorite place to give money now is Kiva.org. Nancy found them and has made several small loans, and just a couple months later the repayments are coming in. We don’t earn interest on our money (unlike similar direct loan programs) but it seems to us to be an amazing way to make a direct impact with no admin costs.

UPDATE: Apparently a lot of people are worried about the tax break!

So if you would rather leave me out of your altruistic endeavors altogether, please, be my fucking guest. I could use the favor.