Creating Storefronts Offering Merchandise With Proceeds Donated Directly to the Red Cross.

Here is a way to help.

CafePress.com announcement:
--------------
Product Not Found

If you are looking for the merchandise related to the recent terrorist events, it is no longer available at CafePress.com. CafePress.com allows users to
design and sell their own merchandise. As soon as we learned of the
offensive merchandise being sold through our service, we immediately closed
the store and removed the member from our service.
CafePress.com would like to extend its prayers and thoughts to the victims
of the recent events in NY and Washington D.C. and their families. Many
members of the CafePress.com community have been directly affected by the
tragedy, and we strongly encourage our members to promote the various ways
individuals can help.
Red Cross: (http://www.redcross.org) - Blood and monetary donations.
Blood Donations: 1-800-448-3543.
Monetary Donations: 1-800-HELP-NOW
New York Blood Center (http://www.nybloodcenter.org) - 1-800-933-2566;
site has donation information and locations.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (http://www.fema.gov) - news and
alerts. Includes suggested donation avenues to help the victims of the
terrorist attacks.
In addition, a large number of CafePress.com storeowners have contacted us
to request ways to sell merchandise that would benefit rescue efforts,
victims and their family members. In response, we will be creating a public
directory of storefronts offering merchandise where proceeds will be donated
directly to the Red Cross (including a portion of CafePress.com's base
price). If you would like to submit your store to this directory, please
email us at [email protected].
With Best Wishes,
CafePress.com
Powered by CafePress.com
We accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, checks, and money orders.
-----------------------
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store/tragedy.aspx

I can see why CafePress shut down the sites. We've recently had a number of news reports about a wave of marketers who are promising "just buy something at MY site and I'll donate x% of the profits to charity/Red Cross/etc." Some of the sites are just cheap frauds set up to skim funds off the tenderhearted.

I'd like to recommend something that I think is a better option for people who want to show thier concern -- post on their front page a list of URLS where every cent the person donates goes directly to the relief aid as well as to the direct information sites. No promises of 10% -- just reassuring links where people know that 100% of their money goes where they want it to.

Here's the list:

www.redcross.org
www.unitedway.org (there's a link that goes directly to the New York September 11 fund)
www.paypal.com
www.amazon.com
www.helping.org

Thanks Mel for that list of good sites to donate to....

I also just read an article about scammers going door-to-door and also using the phone to falsely solicit donations.... I've linked to an article about this below....

It's better to use the channels we know we can trust, like the ones Mel listed....

> Here's the list:

> www.redcross.org
> www.unitedway.org (there's a link that goes directly to the New York September 11 fund)
> www.paypal.com
> www.amazon.com
> www.helping.org

- Dien


Scammers asking for donations door-to-door and by phone too....