It’s that time of the year

Christmas shopping and Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations, yes.

But we’re also drawing near the end of the year, when many people consider whether and where to make tax-exempt charitable donations.

There are lots and lots of worthy causes.

My wife and I have a few favorites, including the Liahona Children’s Foundation and Operation Underground Railroad.

But I hope that a few out there will also remember the Interpreter Foundation.

The Interpreter Foundation continues to grow, and, accordingly, so do its expenses.

Apart from a few contracted functions, we’re a volunteer organization, still functioning very efficiently on minimal expenditures.  But we’re publishing books, planning conferences, and so forth.  And those take money.

Incidentally, a word on my own finances with respect to the Interpreter Foundation:  I’ve seen it said (as usual, by anonymous and unaccountable people) that I’m making a tidy sum from my involvement with Interpreter.  One anonymous person — admittedly, it’s one who has a history of demonstrably flagrant and defamatory lying about me — was even “personally informed” by an anonymous source that I was recently paid $11,000.00 for my services as a chairman and president of Interpreter.

The truth is that Interpreter Foundation bylaws restrict my compensation for services rendered to $500 per year — and that I’ve never taken even one cent of that.  On the contrary, my wife and I are financial donors to the Foundation.

Just for the public record.

Anyway, if you feel so inclined, any donation from you — big or small — would be appreciated.

My yacht needs to have its gold bathroom fixtures covered with platinum.

Posted from Istanbul, Turkey

(on a trip for which not one penny comes from the Interpreter Foundation)