December 11, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
AmeriCares is using a provocative message to encourage people to make charitable donations instead of buying holiday presents: Send your mother-in-law to Darfur.
Supporters received an e-mail message with a photograph of a disagreeable-looking older woman standing in a wooden packing crate strewn with Christmas lights and labeled, “Darfur.”
The text begins, “Okay, now that I’ve got your attention, I don’t really think sending your mother-in-law to Darfur is a good holiday gift idea.”
The appeal explains that charitable donations allow the Stamford, Conn., charity to deliver lifesaving medical supplies to places like Darfur, Myanmar, and Ethiopia. The Web site that the e-mail message directs donors to suggests gift amounts: $100 charitable donation instead of a sweater, $250 instead of a GPS, etc.
Donors who make a contribution in honor of a loved one this holiday season can create a personalized shipping label featuring the name of the person they are honoring. The donor can then send the honoree an e-card that includes an online video of the shipping label being placed on a box at the AmeriCares warehouse.
What do you think? Is the campaign a clever way to encourge people to donate instead of buying holiday presents? Do the shipping labels help make humanitarian work in far-off places more tangible? Does the tone of the campaign minimize the suffering of people living in desperte conditions?
