By Mari Kuraishi | President, Founder of GlobalGiving
This is a personal message from Mari Kuraishi, President and Co-Founder of GlobalGiving.
To the generous donors of GlobalGiving's Japan Relief Fund,
This coming March 11th will mark the two-year anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. A year ago, Britt and I visited our partners' project sites. While we were happy to see that the projects were making remarkable progress, we were also overwhelmed by the sight of the damage that the earthquake and tsunami brought to Tohoku.
Japan still has a long way to recover, and our partners on the ground are working hard to help rebuild the communities affected by the disaster. With your donations, children in Fukushima can go to summer camps and play outside without worrying about radiation. We supported our partner who ran special career sessions for junior high school students in Tohoku, so that they will continue to be motivated about their future. We sent young entrepreneurs like Naoko to Tohoku so that they can start businesses to revitalize local economic growth. I believe that the youth that you have helped through our fund will become the next generation of leaders.
I personally would like to thank you for supporting the recovery effort. I am touched how you continuously contributed to the fund throughout these past two years. Today, I'd like to ask you to consider giving again. To honor the two-year anniversary, GlobalGiving is running a special matching campaign for projects that are working in Tohoku. We are matching your donations 100% from March 1st to the 15th, and on March 11th, we are matching the donations 200%.
I appreciate you standing with us for supporting the Japanese people. On this day, I hope that you will join me reflecting on the loss the people have gone through and the ongoing recovery efforts.
Warmly,
Mari
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When a disaster strikes, recovery efforts led by people who live and work in affected communities are often overlooked and underfunded. GlobalGiving is changing this reality. Since 2004, we've been shifting decision-making power to crises-affected communities through trust-based grantmaking and support.
We make it easy, quick, and safe to support people on the ground who understand needs in their communities better than anyone else.
They were there long before the news cameras arrived, and they’ll be there long after the cameras leave. They know how to make their communities more resilient to future disasters, and they’re already hard at work. GlobalGiving puts donations and grants directly into their hands. Because the status quo—which gives the vast majority of funding to a few large organizations—doesn’t make sense.
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