Charity Bragging Page
Do you donate to charities? I do. And in this post I decided to explain, why it's worth bragging about it.
Charities are non-profit, and the only money they have, come from donations. They often straggle to encurage people to donate, not a lot of people are willing to do this. Some of them like Wikipedia, Internet Archive, or Free Software Foundation do marketing campaigns to encourage people to donate. Others do other things to encourage donors. Some Open Source Software encourage donations as part of their interface, like GIMP or Inkscape.
Imagine what would happen if more people brag about donations to charities, and encourage others to donate too. Imagine an influencer that have 1 million of followers. What would happen if he or she shared that he or she donated to a cause he cares about and influence only 1% of those followers to do the same. Imagine if that 1% of followers actually donate, and it could be at least 1 dollar It will be 10,000 dollars for the charity. This is not a small amount of money. And this it's just worse case scenario of 1% and $1, it can be much more.
That's why I decided to write this article, and encourage people to write their charity bragging page, where they list charities they donate to, and explanation whey they donate, with a link to donate page.
This article is my Charity bragging page, and here are charities I donate. The list may grow in the future, I will try to keep the list up to date. Note that on the lists are Open Source projects, they are not exactly charities, but Open Source projects also are living on donations.
Internet Archive
I'm Wikipedia editor an I can't image editing Wikipedia without Internet Archive. I mostly use Wayback Machine to check how a website look like in the past. I sometimes lent a book from its digital library, also as a source for Wikipedia. If you want to read about how they operate you can check this Twitter/X Thread.
Inkscape
I use Inkscape all the time. It's a graphic program which allows you to create vector images as SVG files. SVG is the standard vector format on the Web. I use this tool since I started creating artworks for Open Clipart. I also use for my graphic and web design projects. I'm not professional designer but can't imagine the world without Inkscape.
Let's Encrypt
This charity singlehandlly make it possible for the most of the internet to move to HTTPS. Making the world more secure place by issue free SSL certificates. I donated multiple times, the last time I was given a gift in exchange for donation:
All my website are secured thanks to Let's Encrypt. Even that I don't need to manage the certificate myself anymore.
Polish Wikipedia
I mostly donate via 1.5% of tax. In Poland, we can donate 1.5% of our tax to charity organizations. I always donate to Wikipedia. I'm Polish Wikipedia editor and I take part in their conference "WZLOT".
Web Mode
Web Mode is my goto extension when editing files in GNU Emacs.
Free Software Foundation
Without FSF and GNU project there would be no Linux and no Open Source. If you want to read about the story of a person that started it all you can read a book: Free as in Freedom. I donated few times, but now mostly donate annually as a Member, you have a few perks if you join. I especially like access to Jitsi instance.
4ocean
I also support 4ocean that clean the ocean from plastic. It's not exactly donation, but you can buy stuff from their shop and support their cause.
If you use any of those Open Source projects and care about their cause, I encourage you to donate. And also create your own Charity bragging page.
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