A
Message
from
DRCNet
to
You
11/6/98
The exciting events of the past week have filled reformers with energy and hope. Over the next few weeks, we at DRCNet, and our colleagues at other drug reform groups, will be charting plans for how to best apply our efforts at this historic juncture, how to most powerfully move forward from the Victory of '98 -- how to bring sanity to this important social issue that touches so many different aspects of our lives. We hope soon to announce an "action plan" -- hopefully a plan involving many reform groups acting in coalition -- so keep reading The Week Online and DRCNet action alerts, to make sure you are informed and can be part of this historic movement for change. Our time is here, now, and you are a part of the answer. Your enthusiasm during DRCNet's lifetime is what has made the organization thrive. But though we wish it weren't the case, your support through financial contributions is an important part of what has made the organization actually exist. You might not have realized just how important member support is to this organization, but the following explanation will explain very specifically how your support is irreplaceable and necessary to the effort. DRCNet, in the legal sense, is made up of two different parts -- the DRCNet Foundation, a 501(c)(3) educational organization, and the Drug Reform Coordination Network, a 501(c)(4) organization that is free to do educational work, but which exists to allow us to do more grassroots lobbying than the DRCNet Foundation as a 501(c)(3) can do. Most of our funding comes in the form of grants and major tax-deductible gifts to the Foundation, 95% of the expenditures of which must go to strictly educational activities or work that supports those activities. And indeed most of our work, including the writing of most of the articles in The Week Online and on our web site, is educational. But what this means that our crucial legislative action alerts -- and the larger grassroots political projects that we are contemplating for the near future -- must be financed and carried out by the Network instead. And the Network's principal source of income is the many small and mid-size contributions made by members of DRCNet. In a real way, then, we are dependent on hundreds or thousands of you sending in small or large contributions -- be they as low as $5 or $10 or as high as $100 or more -- to make our legislative work possible. Without your continuing support, that important part of our work could not continue. And without the support of many of you who have not yet contributed membership dues, that work will not be able to expand to meet the phenomenal opportunities created by the victories of Election '98. DRCNet readers are busy people,
perhaps never more so than when reading their e-mail! But if you
want to see this movement grow to meet the challenge of the times, please
take a moment to visit our member registration/donation form at https://www.drcnet.org/cgi-shl/drcreg.cgi
(encryption protected, recommended for credit card donations), or
Another way to support the organization financially, without actually having to part with any money yourself, is to enroll in the eyegive online fundraising program. Just go to http://www.eyegive.com/html/ssi.cfm?CID=1060 to enroll with DRCNet as your recipient non-profit (or to read more about eyegive). DRCNet will immediately earn $2 just for you signing up, and you can earn us $50, $100 or more, just by visiting the eyegive home page at http://www.eyegive.com on a regular basis for just a few seconds each time. We hope you'll do both, however, for the following three reasons. One is that when a member sends us a check or a credit card donation, we can then count that person as a member, and the number of paying members we have supporting us is an important measure that we present to our funders on a monthly basis. The more of you join, the more confidence they will have to invest in DRCNet, providing the backing needed to do outreach in the form of mailings, promotion of stopthedrugwar.org, and more, building the movement to something much larger than that which we know the today. The second reason is that if we know who you are and where you are, we will be able to alert you if there is a special way that you can advance the effort in your community, Congressional District or state. The third reason is that the eyegive earnings come to after three months (which they need for their auditing purposes), but we have opportunities at DRCNet that need a little bit more money right now. Two students who have interned for us already and done great work are waiting to know if we can hire them part-time for certain important projects that will contribute greatly to the movement's objectives. They'll do a little bit as volunteers anyway, but having to take classes and work other jobs means their time for DRCNet is limited. Your support with a donation today will help us bring these bright young people on board and will be a very efficient use of funds to achieve results. Thank you for being a part of DRCNet. Whether you are able to contribute at this time or not, we are glad to have you on our list. And stay tuned -- there's been good news this week, but the best is yet to come! David
Borden
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