2016 Postmortem

BlueStreak

(8,377 posts) Fri Sep 16, 2016, 03:46 PM Sep 2016

Those $#%^@ emails: Which organizations are effective, which are scams?

Sorry, I will not assume just because somebody has an email account and an official-sounding name that they are actually legitimate advocates for progressive causes.

If you are like me, you are probably getting 30 emails a day from a dozen different organizations that talk like they are going to make a difference. My guess is that 90% of these are scammers or Party empty suits that are just raising money to pay for their inflated salaries. Heck, some of them could be right-wingers in disguise.

But how do we know? Can I get some input about the groups you think are worthy of our support. I am not interested in electing just another group of corporatists. I am interested in putting my money where it will have some impact in electing truly progressive representatives and advancing progressive causes.

Little help, please?

5 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Those $#%^@ emails: Which organizations are effective, which are scams? (Original Post) BlueStreak Sep 2016 OP

Skinner has said positive things about EFF, which provided pro-bono assistance to DU bananas Sep 2016 #1

ACLU, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch are good ones. nt bananas Sep 2016 #2

prwatch and sourcewatch are good bananas Sep 2016 #3

Right Livelihood Award Laureates bananas Sep 2016 #4

Thank you for those references BlueStreak Sep 2016 #5

bananas

(27,509 posts)

1. Skinner has said positive things about EFF, which provided pro-bono assistance to DU

Reply to BlueStreak (Original post)

Fri Sep 16, 2016, 06:58 PM

Sep 2016

A quick search finds these:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=437x2804
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x824280

bananas

(27,509 posts)

2. ACLU, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch are good ones. nt

Reply to BlueStreak (Original post)

Fri Sep 16, 2016, 07:00 PM

Sep 2016

bananas

(27,509 posts)

3. prwatch and sourcewatch are good

Reply to BlueStreak (Original post)

Fri Sep 16, 2016, 07:13 PM

Sep 2016

Last edited Fri Sep 16, 2016, 07:53 PM - Edit history (1)

http://prwatch.org/cmd
http://www.sourcewatch.org

edit to add: both are projects of CMD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Media_and_Democracy

bananas

(27,509 posts)

4. Right Livelihood Award Laureates

Reply to BlueStreak (Original post)

Fri Sep 16, 2016, 07:22 PM

Sep 2016

Many of them have organizations you can donate to.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Livelihood_Award
http://www.rightlivelihood.org/

BlueStreak

(8,377 posts)

5. Thank you for those references

Reply to bananas (Reply #4)

Fri Sep 16, 2016, 09:34 PM

Sep 2016

I will look into them.

Many of the mails come from what appear to be individual campaigns. If they are legit, I may send some money -- but I guess it is safer to try to find the candidates' official website and donate there.

Some of the others are ostensibly from

LCV.org
dscc.org

Those two (above) look really scammy to me

Actblue (I'm familiar with them, but how effective are they?

I'm getting about 5 a day from dscc.org, and then others supposedly from Al Franken. All they seem to be doing is whipping up emotions based on the daily headlines, but they never say what they are ACTUALLY DOING to help.

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