I was inspired by yesterday’s post by Rosetta Thurman on her blog: Stop What You Are Doing Right Now and Donate to Idealist.org to write today about why all of us should come together and support Idealist now (for an explanation of why they need help, see Idealist’s Executive Director Ami Dar’s note below). I can at least testify to the difference Idealist has made in my life and to the field of adult literacy in DC (much of the below I originally posted in the comments section of Rosetta’s blog post mentioned above).

After my first four years in college, I majored in English and didn’t really know what my career path was going to look like. After doing 2 years in an AmeriCorps program working for the Notre Dame Education Center, a now defunct DC adult education program, I went to graduate school and got my MA in English, but I still didn’t know exactly what I was going to do.

I used Idealist to search for some jobs and actually got interviews with some of them – this was in 2001. I didn’t get any of those jobs and eventually got a job adult education through an ad in the Washington Post , but knowing Idealist was there for me greatly relieved my job search anxiety. Later, however, when that job lost funding, (funding for adult literacy in DC is particularly unstable) I was able to use Idealist and got a job teaching GED preparation for Catholic Charities Adult Education Program.

Then, when they were going to switch my job to part-time (again due to funding cuts), I used Idealist again and found a job teaching GED preparation at the Latin American Youth Center’s YouthBuild program. Both of these jobs helped me become a better teacher and prepared me to give trainings to adult educators which is part of my job at the MLK library.

Now I use Idealist to help recruit volunteers for adult literacy programs in DC when we host our annual volunteer fair here at the library. So many adult education programs here benefit from Idealist because it is a cheap and easy way to advertise for jobs, but also because it is a good venue for seeking volunteers.

I absolutely love adult education and the jobs I have had and Idealist has directly contributed to my ability to stay in this field. We should all come together and support them now. Please see Executive Director Ami Dar’s note below for an explanation of why they need help and please share it with those who have benefited from this important organization:

Dear Friend,

You know how sometimes in life you go through a bad moment, and when
your friends hear about it later, they say, “Why didn’t you say
something? Why didn’t you ask? We would have helped.”

That’s where Idealist is now, and I am writing to ask for your help.

Very briefly, here’s what happened. Over the past ten years, most of
our funding has come from the small fees we charge organizations for
posting their jobs on Idealist. By September 2008, after years of
steady growth, these little drops were covering 70% of our budget.

Then, in October of that year, the financial crisis exploded, many
organizations understandably froze their hiring, and from one week to
the next our earned income was cut almost in half, leaving us with a
hole of more than $100,000 each month.

That was 16 months ago, and since then we’ve survived on faith and
fumes, by cutting expenses, and by getting a few large gifts from new
and old friends. But now we are about to hit a wall, and this is why I
am reaching out to you.

If over the past 15 years Idealist has helped you or a friend find a
job, an internship or a volunteer opportunity; connect with a person,
an idea or a resource; or just feel inspired for a moment, now we need
your help. I wouldn’t be asking, and not like this, if this were not a
critical time.

There are two ways you can help. First, if you can, please make a
donation at:

http://www.idealist.org/donate

Some people in this community are not in a position to contribute
right now, so if you are, please give as generously as you can. Thank you!

Second, please spread the word about this appeal by sharing this
message with friends and colleagues who may have benefited from
Idealist over the years. Since 1995 Idealist has touched hundreds of
thousands of lives. If in the next week or two we can reach everyone
who’d give us a hand if they knew we are in trouble, I believe we’ll
come out of this crisis even stronger than before.

I believe this because while this has been a tough stretch, I’ve never
been more optimistic about the future. The content on Idealist has
never been richer, our traffic is surging, we are building a whole new
Idealist.org that will be released later this year, and the potential
for connecting people, ideas, and resources around the world has never
been more urgent or more exciting.

Your contribution will allow us to maintain all our services
(summarized below), and it will also give us some time to diversify
our funding. Being able to breathe, recover, and plan ahead for a few
months will be an incredible blessing.

Thanks so much for your support. Idealist has always been a
community-driven site, and we can’t do this work without you.

Thank you!

Ami Dar
Executive Director
http://www.idealist.org/donate

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