An important note for December

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I want to let it be known that I’ve finally set up a year-end Facebook fundraiser for the Interpreter Foundation on my main Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/daniel.peterson.3701).  I’m late doing it this year because I was in Egypt and effectively without internet access for much of the time that I was there.  And also because, well, I’m jet-lagged and behind on multiple fronts and a little bit under the weather.  (Definitely not COVID, though.)

This is an important time of the year for non-profit organizations like the Interpreter Foundation.  Nearly a third of all charitable donations — 31 percent — are given in December of each year.  So I’ll be totally straightforward:  Interpreter lives or dies by the kindness of generous donors, and December donations are crucial to us.

Let me be clear:  Interpreter is, overwhelmingly, an organization of volunteers.  We have a few people who work with us on contract, but we have no full-time salaried employees.  We have no brick-and-mortar office, no physical headquarters.  No member of the Interpreter board, no Interpreter officer, draws so much as a cent of financial compensation for the time and effort that he or she contributes.  (My wife and I are donors, for instance, and we’ve been donors every year since Interpreter was launched in August of 2012.)  Authors receive no payment for the articles they publish with us.  Our operation is just about as lean as we know how to make it.

That said, there are unavoidable expenses that must be paid.  (You can see a transparent accounting of our expenditures here; these do not include the Witnesses film project, which is distinct from the other functions of the Interpreter Foundation and which has its own separate bank account, etc.)  Accordingly, we’re obliged to raise money.

Donations in all sizes are welcomed and are useful.  Our regular expenses are not so large that we disdain small contributions.  And this Facebook fundraiser is not the only way to contribute to Interpreter.  (See here for various methods of giving.)

There are literally thousands of excellent causes that deserve December donations.  My hope is, simply, that some folks out there will include the Interpreter Foundation among the causes to which they contribute.