Friday Faves 11-23-12: Charity Edition

This week’s quick Friday Faves highlight a few homegrown nontraditional charitable groups. Because they are grassroots startups and/or dedicated to providing a charitable service that is outside of the box your contribution will probably not be tax-deductible. However, donating the cost of a latte and a scone will do a lot of good:

 

Our GymShare

From their site:

Operation Our Gym Share provides starter gym memberships, workout DVDs or related fitness materials for people who want to start a fitness regime but for whatever reason have run into financial obstacles which are holding them back. Gyms aren’t cheap. It’s meant to be that little helping hand that some people need to get started.

There are a number of ways you can participate:

1) If you want to donate money — you can paypal to our.gym.share@gmail.com

2) If you want to post a healthy recipe or workout tips, we have a tumblr http://ourgymshare.tumblr.com/ (we also have a twitter: https://twitter.com/OurGymShare). You can also email your recipe, workout tip, or motivational story and we’ll post it. (our.gym.share@gmail.com)

3) If you need a gym membership, workout DVD, or something related, email our.gym.share@gmail.com with a paragraph or two describing your fitness goal and what you need to get started. Let us know the name of your gym, its web page and if there’s a special program you want to try. Also, if it’s something else you need, a pedometer, a pair of shoes, if there’s not a gym near you and you’d like to get a stationary bike let us know and we’ll try and accommodate. We’ll want you to keep a daily fitness journal and email/post weekly updates on your progress, which serves two things, one as a motivator to you to keep at it, and two, so that people donating can follow along on your progress and get that happy feeling. You’ll be committing to visiting the gym three days a week for the duration of your membership. Throughout this you’ll remain anonymous unless you’d like to name yourself because it seems a bit creepy otherwise, this isn’t a reality show, we just want to help you get fit — we’ll post your stories to the tumblr page without identifying information.

[Thanks to @armyoftoys for the info!]

Rolling Jubilee

From their site:

Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Debt resistance is just the beginning.

What is a jubilee?
Jubilee comes from many faith traditions including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. A jubilee is an event in which all debts are cancelled and all those in bondage are set free. It worked in Biblical times and it can still work today.
How Does Rolling Jubilee Work?
Banks sell debt for pennies on the dollar on a shadowy speculative market of debt buyers who then turn around and try to collect the full amount from debtors. The Rolling Jubilee intervenes by buying debt, keeping it out of the hands of collectors, and then abolishing it. We’re going into this market not to make a profit but to help each other out and highlight how the predatory debt system affects our families and communities. Think of it as a bailout of the 99% by the 99%.

Learn more or contribute.

[Thanks to Sharon Knight for the info!]

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