The idea behind #GivingTuesday is a great one: leverage the buzz of Black Friday and Cyber Monday to spark interest on social media and encourage people to donate. It makes a lot of sense to complement the traditional end-of-the-year fundraising with a timely event when people are in the holiday spirit but haven’t yet blown their budget on Christmas gifts.

So here’s a short list of seven organizations that I’ll be supporting this year. Your mileage may vary, of course; there are many many other non-profit organizations doing outstanding work. But as you’re thinking about your giving, on #GivingTuesday and throughout the rest of the year, please keep these groups in mind!

The Center for Media Justice is a nationally recognized organizing hub representing the media policy interests and building the cultural leadership of hundreds of social justice groups across the United States — and one of the most important civil liberties organizations in the country. During this time of rising hate, online and off, it’s especially important to fuel the fight for the digital rights of those most vulnerable across the country. Donate here. Or, if you prefer to donate via Facebook, my friend Shahid Buttar (who’s on their board) has a Facebook fundraiser here.

The Gender Justice League fights gender and sexuality oppression in Washingon State and  creates community where trans people live lives safely, true to themselves, and free from discrimination.  As well as Trans Pride Seattle, they engage in 1-1 and community advocacy, building, growing, training, and mobilizing the Trans* and Gender Non-Conforming communities to address the systemic oppression the communities face.  Gender Justice League founder Danni Askini is currently seeking asylum in Sweden after threats from white supremacists and persecution from the US State Department, so it’s a critical time to support them.  Donate here.

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project keeps families together, protects people from violence, and takes injustice to court.  As well as high-impact litigation, including fighting racial profiling by border patrol officials in the Olympic Peninsula and securing the right to an attorney for mentally ill immigrants facing deportation, provide free legal services work, they support survivors of domestic violence, and do a huge amount of community education.  Donate here.

Four Directions had a huge impact this fall with their work helping provide IDs to Native Americans in North Dakota this fall — leading to turnout increase of over 100% in some areas, and an upset victory over the state legislator who had authored the voter suppression law. They also did key work in several other states, focusing on full enfranchisement as a crucial way to navigate a stronger future for Native communities .Donate here.

Hollaback is a global movement to end harassment, and builds safe, inclusive public spaces by transforming the culture that perpetuates discrimination and violence. Projects include the Heartmob platform for dealing with online harassment, bystander intervention trainings, a leadership program, that trains young people to launch their own Hollaback! chapters locally,and The People’s Supper.  Donate here.

SWOP Seattle is the local chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP-USA), a national social justice network of organizations dedicated to the fundamental human rights of sex workers and their communities, focusing on ending violence and stigma through education and advocacy.   This has been a brutal year for sex workers; as expected, the passage of the FOSTA/SESTA bill earlier this year has devastated many sex workers’ income and forced them into much more hazardous situations.   Donate here.

Black Mamas Matter Alliance is a Black women-led cross-sectoral alliance that centers Black mamas to advocate, drive research, build power, and shift culture for Black maternal health, rights, and justice. Grounded in the human rights, reproductive justice, and birth justice frameworks, BMMA provides technical assistance, trainings, and capacity building for grassroots organizations, maternity care service providers, academia, and the public health industry.  The first ever Black Maternal Awareness week they sponsored in April highlighted the shameful tragedy of preventable maternal deaths of women during childbirth – a burden disproportionally experienced by Black women.     Donate here.

With only ten days before Election Day, it’s clear that a lot of races will come down to whose votes get counted.   New ID requirements for Native Americans, moving the only polling place in Dodge City to the outskirts of town (a mile away from any public transportation) and then sending new voters the wrong address, voting machines changing votes in Texas, voter purges, “pending” lists … hey wait a second, I’m noticing a pattern here.

Voter suppression – largely directed against Black, Native American, Latinx, and student voters – has long been one of the major tools the right wing uses to stay in power in the US.  2018 is no exception.  The Texas, Florida, North Dakota, Nevada, and Tennessee Senate races may well be decided by voter suppression; ditto for the Georgia, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Florida Governor races, and hundreds of other federal, state and local elections.

Fortuantely, all across the country, people are fighting back – with legal challenges, new IDs issued by Native American tribes, phone and text hotlines backed by pro bono lawyers, educating people about their rights, and dozens of other ways.  A lot of the people and organizations on the front lines have been doing this for years and know what tactics work.

Here’s three things you can do to help.

Volunteer

The non-partisan Election Protection Coalition makes it easy to sign up as a poll monitor – and if you ‘re a lawyer, paralegal, law student or other legal professional, you can help with their voter assistance call site and field programs.

Many local groups also offer volunteering opportunities; try doing a web search for the name of your city or state and “voting rights organizations”.

Help get the word out

Many voter suppression techniques rely on intentionally confusing voters.  One way that everybody can help counter this is to increase the chances that voters being targeted for suppression know their rights and have access to accurate information.  For example:

• Share the ACLU’s Know Your Rights information widely.
• Let people know that there are hotlines in multiple langauges: 866-OUR-VOTE, 888-Ve-Y-Vota (from the NALEO Educational Fund), 844-Yalla-US, in Arabic and English (the Arab American Institute,),  and 888-API-VOTE (APIAVote & Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC).
• If you know people in Georgia, remind them to check their registration information and that they can still vote if they’re on the pending list.
• If you know people in Texas, let them know how important it is to double-check that their votes have been recorded correctly.
• If you have trans and non-binary friends who are concerned about voting, let them know about NCTE’s #VotingWhileTrans page.

More generally, if you hang out on Facebook or Twitter, you can also help by liking and commenting on posts and tweets with useful information about voting rights.  The engagement a post or tweet gets, the more visibility the platforms give it.  While the effect of just a single like or comment is relatively small, a few dozen people working together can really have an impact.

And if you’ve got friends and acquiantances who care about the November election, try to get them involved as well.   Share some of the links here (or even this whole article) with them and ask them to help.

Donate

Most of the groups involved here are grassroots organizations on a tiny budget; I’ve got a short list below.  If you’re looking to contribute to a potential “Blue Wave” in the election, this is one of the most leveraged places to put your money.

There are a lot of excellent organizations working on this issue around the country … so many that it can be overwhelming.  So here’s a short list of three well-respected organizations to use as a starting point.

Four Directions works with Tribes in Nevada, Arizona, Montana, North Carolina, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota and focuses on full enfranchisement as a crucial way to navigate a stronger future for Native communities.  Donate here.

The Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has long been one of the leaders in the fight for voting rights.  As well as running the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline, they also get involved in legal issues before and after the election – for example, challenging Gwinnett County’s rejection of mailed-in ballots.  Donate here.

The NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund has lawyers and volunteers on the ground in Texas, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Missouri, and Florida.  One high-profile case they’re involved in is working with students at Prairie View A&M who are suing Waller County in Texas.  Donate here.

Spread the vote helps eligible voters get government-issued photo IDs, responding to one of the most severe forms of voter suppression, and has chapters in Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Virginia and Texas.   Donate here.

This isn’t by any means an exhaustive list.  There are plenty of other organizations that do great work here and are also well worth supporting – look for ones in your local area or involved in races you especially care about.  If there’s an organization you recommend (or are part of!), please share information and a link in the replies!