Pledge Launch!

Dear Friends,

We are writing to ask you to lend a hand to our efforts this holiday season. You can make your simple commitment here www.pledgebank.com/catcomm and read on for more details.

As Thanksgiving approaches, most of us reading this message have a lot to be thankful for. We have a cosy bed awaiting us at night, more than enough nutritious food on our tables, friends and family we can count on. We also know that in places, some far away and some not so far, there are people who go without these necessary treasures.

But what we often overlook is that in those same places where people are in need of basic necessities, there are others with solutions. In Rio de Janeiro alone, Catalytic Communities has documented over 80 community initiatives, from the manufacturing of ecological bricks and couches made of plastic bottles, to community sewerage and housing programs. We've found communities that peacefully rid themselves of drug traffickers, and communities that avoid them from the get go. Community soup kitchens, daycare centers, and cultural preservation initiatives. After school sports, theatre groups, and fieldtrip programs...

We are now writing to ask you to sign a pledge this Thanksgiving, a pledge to sustain an organization that has for five years been undertaking a significant task: networking and bringing visibility to community efforts around the world, efforts that work, efforts that are normally ignored and undervalued, at the grassroots level. We are asking people for a simple pledge of $10 a month. By reaching out to 400 friends and supporters, we'll ensure CatComm's core 2006 budget! Join the 23 others that have already signed the pledge!

For the price of a few gallons of gas each month, you will be ensuring that Catalytic Communities can expand these efforts in 2006. Today CatComm supports over 500 community leaders from 72 neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro at its Casa and, through its website, some 11,000 unique visitors monthly from 65 countries, that learn from the 110 community programs now listed in the organization's unique Community Solutions Database. Look where we've come in 5 years! Imagine where we'll be in 5 more!

Rather than tell communities how to organize, Catalytic Communities was founded to create the basic infrastructure so that communities could share -- across borders within a region, and across the planet. But sustaining this work takes effort: it will take your commitment.

This is the place: www.pledgebank.com/catcomm.

Read the latest article about the CatComm Pledge on NextBillion.net.

We can't wait to see your beautiful names at www.pledgebank.com/catcomm! After December 31st the Pledge will be deemed inactive. We hope to be greeting you with a fabulous New Year's message on January 1st, that the pledge has been met! We need 400 signers until then, so help us get the word out! We will contact you in the New Year with various options to facilitate your donation process, including options of donating monthly and also up front.

Sincerely,

Theresa Williamson, Mike Crum, Patrick Donohue, Jean Russell, and Shirley Salmeron

Please note:

• If you already support CatComm, please consider confirming your 2006 commitment by signing the pledge.
• Committed supporters interested in leveraging their networks in support of this campaign, click here for a page we've created with support materials. You can view our complete 3-Year Plan here, also.
• This Pledge is valid through December 31st, 2005. If we do not get the full 400 signatures by then, the pledge will be deemed inactive.
  

If you would like to UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, please do not click on unsubscribe below. Instead, email unsubscribe@catcomm.org with the message "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Thank you!

Catalytic Communities is a 501[c][3] tax exempt not-for-profit organization.

email: theresa@catcomm.org

phone: 202-318-3223

web: www.catcomm.org