Do it!

Excerpted from a March post by this writer on The American Street:

Your donations alone do not and can not change the direction of the country. It is not the average supporter of $10, $25, or even $50 that enables movements for social change, environmental justice, civil liberties and civil rights to succeed. If you really feel that we have fundamental rights that should not be infringed upon, that preserving a healthy environment for our children is the moral course, that everyone should have a chance to succeed and no one should starve in the richest country in history, that people should come before profit, or that real change is needed for our society to be just, then you have to do more. We have to join the movement for change, not just send a few dollars each year and then ignore the problems. We have to give a bit more, yes, but not just of our money.

Vital organizations and movements are built through the efforts of volunteer activists who give money, but who also organize, who learn about and vote conscientiously, who spend their money and their time responsibility, who talk to their friends, neighbors, family members, contacts, and political leaders about how best to create the society that we want to live in and want our children to live in.

Otherwise, our efforts are weak and easily coopted. More on the cooptation in the full article: http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2005/03/09/your-money-is-not-enough/.