It’s that time of year to say no to the Salvation Army.
Never forget they let a Trans woman die instead of helping her.
Never forget they have tossed entire families on the street for having an LGBT child.
Never forget they tell non Christian families that unless they convert they will not help them.
Never forget that the Salvation Army is bigoted and hateful, many of the bell ringers routinely heckle and harass LGBT couples.
Annual reblog.
It’s time for my annual My Mom story.
My mom and grandma used to volunteer a lot for the local Salvation Army, mostly helping with their fabric sale. Mom mostly did it for something to do with grandma.
I held my tongue for awhile, but finally I said “Mom, the SA has some really problematic policies. I’m not telling you what to do, but you might want to look into it.”
She did.
Keep in mind my mom is a boomer white lady living in a modest Midwestern city.
She didn’t like the things she found out. She went directly to the leaders of their chapter and asked, “If a gay or trans person came to you for help, what would you do?”
They said: “We’d direct them to someone who could help them.”
Her: “But that’s supposed to be YOU.”
Them: “We’re not equipped to help them” (or some other vagueing bullshit)
My mom (aka not stupid): Fuck this shit, I’m out.
She resigned from the SA. A lot of her friends asked why. She told them why.
Over the next year, over sixty people left the local SA, citing their views on lgbtq people as the reason.
Time for one of my periodic tips from a nonprofit fundraiser who cares about grassroots community work:
“Bell ringing” knee-jerk style, “just empty your pockets,” reactive, “just add this $2 gift on to your order” fundraising is designed to illicit tons of money in tiny amounts from people en masse.
It depends on you not thinking critically about what you really want to philanthropically support or doing research. It depends on your ignorance. It’s usually mega nonprofit industrial complex orgs who do this and they skate by on vague brand recognition to fleece us all. They often provide sub par services or do active damage to communities they purport to care about.
Don’t give your money away like that.
Give it to a friend who has a legit go fund me up or an org in your neighborhood that you can SEE is living up to the values they espouse.
Don’t give to any random org asking you in the street or at the point of sale who asks you to make a snap decision. If their mission sounds good, look them up later and make a donation online or whatever.
Salvation Army included and most relevant this time of year but this applies to a lotttttt more situations too.
Do you know that old saying charity starts at home? It really does help the people in your community on your block if you have extra and you wanna help, there are so many people who need help it’s better to help a few individuals then give it to a random charity that ends up, taking most of the money for paying everybody’s salaries, and then they all have views, and some of them aren’t too good like the Salvation Army. I am all for helping, but just make sure you’re looking in to The places you are donating
