No excuses

Yes, it's been more than a month since I've last posted. Indeed, it's an entirely new year now. I could, of course, blame the end-of-year crunch at work, the holidays, vacation, whatever...but the fact of the matter is I didn't get it done. And I really do regret that.

So let's call this a 2009 resolution. I'm going to get back on top of this blog and do my best to update it at LEAST weekly. Apologies to all those who have followed this blog...I'll do better. After all, the coming year promises to be a difficult one for many both here and abroad, and charities are going to need our help more than ever.

As always, of course, if you have any suggestions for this blog, or worthy charities that you feel should be featured, please drop me a line at fivedollarheroes@gmail.com. Or if I slip up again and don't post, call me out on it!

Thanks for your patience with me and this blog. Happy New Year, all.

More visitors...and props from a fellow blogger

Hello, everyone! Naturally, I join millions of bloggers across the globe when I say...I never get to blog as much as I'd like. But I'm still pretty good about getting that weekly charity up there, and I hope everyone is putting up their five bucks!

In the meantime, FDH (my new acronym for the blog!) had its 200th unique visitor over the weekend. That's over 200 in just three months which, given the number of offerings out there in the blogosphere, is pretty darn good. Thanks, of course, to the Blogger's Choice Awards and BlogCatalog for driving some traffic over here.

Also, the Five Dollar Heroes blog got an award! The owner of the Baby Bundles International blog has given FDH her "Gracious Givers Award." Normally, I wouldn't necessarily post about one blogger giving another blogger props, but in this case, I'm taking the opportunity to point out the good work that the Baby Bundles blog does.

Baby Bundles International is collecting diapers, bottles, formula, wipes, etc. to bundle up and donate to new parents who need a helping hand. Overall, a really noble effort. So head on over there and check out that blog, too. And if the spirit moves you, be a Gracious Giver and bundle up some baby stuff!

Giving is more important than ever

So here we are in the midst of an honest-to-God global financial crisis. Stocks have lost 20 percent in the past seven days, and are down roughly 40 percent for the year. This is bad, no question.

But it's only going to mean that there's going to be even more demand for charitable giving, and this is where Five Dollar Heroes comes in. Sure, people are going to cut back on the big gifts and efforts as they tighten their belts. But I think people can still come up with five bucks a week. How, you ask?

• Bring your lunch to work.
• Skip the latte one day a week, or switch to drip coffee for the week.
• Store brands are your friends when food shopping.
• Save on your electric bill (and the planet) by shutting off all unnecessary electronics at home.

There are plenty of other ideas, of course, and if you have one, e-mail me and I'll post it on the blog. But hey, the whole idea is that we can all find a way to scrape up five extra bucks and give it to folks who really need it. So find that extra fiver, and give it up!

Five Dollar Heroes is a month old!

It's been a little more than a month since I started Five Dollar Heroes, and it's already doing better than I thought it would at this point. The blog has had over 100 unique visitors, logging in from 16 different states (and D.C.) and five foreign countries on three continents. Thanks to everyone who e-mailed their friends and colleagues about this blog!

As you can see from the badges on the right of the page, I've registered Five Dollar Heroes at BlogCatalog.com, a blog directory, and with Bloggers Unite, a group of bloggers concerned about social issues. (Bloggers Unite will be blogging about refugee issues on Nov. 10, and I've begun researching an appropriate charity to receive the Five Dollar Hero treatment.) I've also nominated the blog for the Bloggers' Choice Awards for Best Charity Blog, in hopes of getting more people to surf over and join us.

I don't really have a tally of how much the blog's readers have given over the past month, but we've received e-mail thank-yous from Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross and the U.N. World Food Programme. So I'll extend those thank yous, and add my own, to everyone who's been reading and contributing!

And if you have any ideas on how to make this site better, or have a good charity you'd like to see promoted here, drop me a line at fivedollarheroes@gmail.com.

Obama and McCain are both Five Dollar Heroes

So the Obama campaign took a day off from filling inboxes with pleas for campaign contributions, instead filling inboxes with pleas for contributions to the National Disaster Relief Fund. Putting small-dollar contributions to work en masse...that's the Five Dollar Hero spirit! (Which I borrowed from the Obama campaign in the first place.)

And on the other side of the aisle, First Lady Laura Bush and would-be first lady Cindy McCain opened the Republican convention by encouraging delegates to each contribute five dollars (sound familiar?) to relief efforts.

So Barack Obama and John McCain, you are hereby declared Five Dollar Heroes. Now, both of you, don't make me regret it. Play nice.

And if you, dear reader, haven't contributed yet, the link in this post will take you there. Next week's charity pick will also focus on Hurricane Gustav relief, so stay tuned.

New e-mail and mailing list

OK, so I don't really have a mailing list; this is a pretty shoestring project. However, I've established a new e-mail address for use with this blog, and anybody who sends me e-mail there will be included on a weekly e-mail announcing the next $5 charity. So drop me a line at the new address, fivedollarheroes@gmail.com.

And hey, if you have ideas for nonprofits that deserve the Hero treatment, or thoughts on how this little project could be better, send 'em along!

So many charities...which one to pick?

The whole premise of this blog begs the question: Exactly how am I going to choose which charities to post? Short answer: I want to find genuine charities that can really use the money to make positive changes in the world. I do not want to throw money at something because it's, well, shiny. A Five Dollar Hero is smarter than that.

So for starters, each charity featured here will be a real 501(c)(3)-registered charity, as recognized by the IRS. (Save your receipts!) Furthermore, I'm going to check each charity against sources like the American Institute of Philanthropy, Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance to make sure they're on the up-and-up.

Next, I'm going to choose organizations that I feel serve a broad population in life-changing ways, the ones tackling the big issues like poverty, health, homelessness, the environment and human rights, for example. Ideally, this is stuff that every Five Dollar Hero can get behind.

And I'll have a few caveats, too. I'm not going to post items on faith-based charities or religious groups. Religious organizations do immense good around the world, no doubt. But I'm trying to build something that people of all backgrounds can contribute to, and I don't want to alienate anybody. The same goes for political groups, whether they're tied to a party or just particularly slanted one way or the other.

There are certainly some issues which are critically important and need support, but also involve intense differences in how to help. Teen pregnancy and the whole abortion vs. adoption argument springs to mind. In cases like those, I'll likely provide two or more donation options, so that folks feel they can put their money to work in good conscience.

Despite all that, I'll might choose an organization you don't agree with. If that's the case, I hope you'll take your five bucks and give it to someone else, then come back the following week and see if I've come to my senses. And if you have ideas on organizations that could use the Five Dollar Heroes treatment, drop me an e-mail and tell me all about it.

Oh, the guy in blue? He's The Tick. It might have been a stretch, but I'm happy I got him in here.

"We are the change that we seek."

This quote is from one of Barack Obama's speeches, and I liked it so much that I gave the Obama campaign $15 a few weeks ago. That's not a lot, but it was the first presidential campaign contribution I ever made.

Obama's campaign has thrived on so-called "small dollar" donations, to the tune of $340 million from two million people. A little bit of money, coming from a lot of people, can make a huge difference.

That got me thinking. Could someone do the same thing to more broadly help charities and other worthy causes on a regular basis? I pondered the idea for a few weeks, and you're now reading the result.

Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to pick a charity that operates locally, throughout the nation, or around the world. I'm going to give that charity $5, and post the link on this blog every Monday in the hopes that you'll match my Mr. Lincoln with a fiver of your own. I'll also post some ideas on charitable giving, upcoming events and opportunities to give of your time, and also some links to buy stuff that goes to support good works.

I'm hoping you, my friend, will do two things. One, match that five bucks each week. Skip the vente latte at Starbucks, for example, or pack a lunch. An "extra" five dollars shouldn't be that hard to find. Two, if you're going to take up this challenge, tell others about it. Drop this URL in an e-mail and send it to as many folks as you're comfortable with. The more people we get to join us, the more good we can do for the world.

So there you have it. Be the change you've always hoped for, and do it with the spare change in your pocket. Take five minutes each week, spend five bucks, and be a Five Dollar Hero. Hokey? Yeah, maybe...but with enough people behind us, we all might wear the title with pride some day.