Edit: Closed this on Feb 11th, only got a total of 10 emails. Ended up donating $500 to Planned Parenthood.
Recently, I wrote about the merits of donating at the end of the tax year. Now I am contradicting myself by donating $25,000 to the ACLU one month into the year. If I fail to have a profitable year gambling, (not that unlikely as someone who plays poker tournaments for a living)I will be unable to write it off. Here’s why I am donating anyway:
I am pretty shocked at what is happening right now. I didn’t expect Trump to get his shit together so quickly. I didn’t expect him to face so little resistance. I didn’t expect him to be so blatantly xenophobic. I was shocked to see Giuliani publicly say Trump askedhim how to make the Muslim ban legal.
The future scares me. Facebook, Google, Amazon, know a lot about their customers. If down the road the government were to subpoena them, some scary Science Fiction-esque possibilities come to mind… I don’t consider myself a conspiracy theorist. But I keep having thoughts in the back of my mind that those who are publicly anti-Trump in the future could end up on some shit-list where they have even less rights than everyone else. If that’s even a thought I am having one week into his presidency… this is a scary time.
I want to do something. There are already a lot of matching drives out there.
Here are some of them:
- Andrew Barber on twitter matching donations up to $25,000 for the ACLU.
- Boztank on twitter did a $25,000 drive that filled up in about 1 hour. He tweeted that he will be posting more drives shortly.
If you’re aware of other matching drives, please tweet me @ DanSmithHolla and I will add them to this post.
I don’t want to take away from them, they are doing great work, but I am going to try a different approach. This is a very expensive and arduous fight, and coming at it from many angles will be effective.
I read on twitter and LifeHacker that one of the most effective things someone can do is call their representatives in Congress. I want to combine this proactive approach with a charity drive to encourage people to make those calls.
I am donating $25,000 to be released up to $5 at a time. Rather than matching charitable donations, I am matching calls to your representatives. You make 5 phone calls to your senators and/or congressperson where you express your thoughts about what is currently happening with immigration or other major issues. Email a screenshot of your phone logs and the state you are calling for to ACLUcharitydrive2017 at gmail dot com and I will donate $5 to the ACLU. I will be matching $1 per call, up to $5 per person.
Here are my logs for the morning. If you didn’t feel like being extra chatty, I think each call would take about 1 minute. 
Based on the honor system, if you are someone who already calls your representatives, I would appreciate if you would make an extra 5 phone calls.
5calls makes this very easy. You enter your zip code, click from the list of issues you want to discuss, they give you the number and a sample script as to what to say. This is another blog post hyping 5calls.
Here is one sample script.
Hi, my name is [Name] and I’m a constituent from [City, State, Zip].
I’m calling to tell [Senator/Rep’s Name] that our community does not support Trump’s Muslim ban, and we expect [him/her] to take an immediate stand against this unjust executive order.
[Optional: add anything else you’d like here]
Thank you for your time.
[IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your entire home address to ensure your call is tallied]
__
I believe that doing *anything* will make you feel better about the situation. I’ve received a lot of thanks for the most recent drive. And while it is very much appreciated, I would appreciate participating in these 5 calls even more.
This drive will be go on until February 28, limit $5 per person.
Thanks your for consideration,
Dan
Edited to add: I am giving myself the right to make modifications to this as I see fit, everything will be in good faith.