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Greetings,
I want to ask your help with a "crowdfunding campaign" that is being launched by The Interfaith Center of New York. The idea is for lots of people to work together in small ways to achieve a big goal in less than a month. What I'm going to be asking you to do is to help lead this campaign by spreading the word to everyone you know who might want to help and give donations of $10, $25, $50 or up.
The campaign is to raise money for the Interfaith Center's Domestic Violence Training Program for Religious Leaders. Even if you are not religious or don't usually support religious causes, here are two reasons why this program is important:
- Victims of domestic violence often turn to religious leaders for help. Families in immigrant communities especially turn to their faith leaders, as they fear that an official report of domestic violence might jeopardize immigration status for the entire family.
- Few faith leaders are equipped to counsel their congregations about domestic violence. Almost no religious leaders receive any kind of domestic violence training before they are ordained. They sometimes even contribute to the culture of silence about the issue by not addressing it in worship services.
ICNY's program addresses a very real need. It gives religious leaders 8 weeks of training on DV and gives them concrete resources they can provide to domestic violence victims and their families. The faith leaders who complete this training often set up support services for their communities, and so end up helping many different victims and their families.
Unfortunately, ICNY can't afford to continue this program without help. So we are launching this crowdfunding campaign, to ask people to spread the word about the program and donate small amounts to help achieve the goal of $5,000. That's all we need to keep the program going - The Interfaith Center has a 16-year history of doing a lot of work with small amounts of money!
The campaign was just activated. To build up activity and get the ball rolling we ask for your help in three ways:
1. SPREAD THE WORD to everyone you know who might like to support this program: forward this email to your friends; write something on your website; post on Facebook; send a Tweet or two; make some phone calls!
2. Go to our campaign website, click on the COMMENT section and share why you believe people should give to this program.
3. CONTRIBUTE even a small amount of $10, $25 or $50. Simply by being one of the first to donate, you can encourage others to give. To donate, go to the website & click on "Contribute Now" - or send a check to The Interfaith Center of New York, 475 Riverside Dr., Suite 540, New York NY 10115.
ICNY’s total campaign goal of just $5,000 would enable them to continue this mission, and through the work of faith leaders around New York City, extend a hand of trust, safety and guidance to victims of domestic violence. All donations are fully tax deductible, and all money raised (even should we exceed the target amount) will be used to conduct training classes for religious leaders, and counsel them as they launch DV support projects in their respective communities.
Please forward this message to anyone who might like to help. Thank you so much!
Best wishes -
The Rev. Chloe Breyer
Executive Director | 
