Liberal Blogosphere's Relief donations are only at 18% of goal

[Bucky]

Please. Pretty please. Let's be less pathetic than this. People are going to die from a lack of support. If you haven't given yet, give. If you've already given, give more.

Thanks.

[CascadeTide]

1. Is this really the best way to donate?

Paypal fees will eat a good bit of money and then it goes to the Red Cross. Why not just donate directly to the Red Cross? We always moan about how politics isn't a team sport so I don't see how throwing away some processing fees just so we can lump funds together and say "see how much we donated freepers?!" is a good use of resources.

I hate to be such a party-pooper but I would rather see people who need it get the money, not middlemen like Paypal.

[Bucky]

3. It's an efficient way to donate and it helps the profile of Web liberals

Is PayPal virginal? Nah. But the boat's in the water and this looks bad.

It's a convenient way to donate, which means more money will be donated this way, in the aggregate. If people choose to donate thru other means, they may or may not find another means for donating before becoming discouraged or distracted and not making the payment after all.

The Paypal account set up here goes straight to the Red Cross, which is also not a virgin--some money goes to administrative costs there--certainly more than what Paypal takes in (which is, as I understand it, less than 2% of the total for 501-c-3s like Red Cross). Plus any money put down thru this account goes to publicizing the compa$$ion of liberal bloggers and their readers. Certainly there's some value in that.

[Kahuna]

2. I donated. But not through the "blogosphere."

I donated directly to the State of Florida's Katrina Relief fund.

[SheilaT]

4. We have donated through

hubby's company which is matching employee donations.