We had a plan to go to the beach on Sunday, but it looks like it’ll be rained out. I’ll come up with something else for Labor Day weekend! What are you guys up to? Anyone traveling? Enjoy!
Some weekend reading…
This is one dedicated midwife. Love it. And this furniture store owner! Also, a really, really great compilation of where to donate in the wake of Harvey by Bethany! (Preemptive Love is almost always my go-to; also just read Red Cross gives 17 cents to every dollar to the actual cause…) ETA: This is one of the pieces I read on Red Cross. I should’ve linked to something in the first place before making that claim. It doesn’t specifically mention the 17 cents however. Can’t imagine all the working parts of responding to a disaster at a second’s notice, so perhaps they are doing the best they can! (I think it’s always interesting to look at what the charity president’s take home pay is; I remember the Salvation Army president’s take-home being so small, while some have six-figure incomes!)
This is a perfect dress going into fall. I love the neck!
Type in your address and see what the Harvey deluge would look like where you live.
Butternut squash + apple soup. With bacon! Must make.
Highly recommend this lotion going into fall. I’ll use it for my face or body, and on the boys too. Works so well.
Ten spectacular kitchens. I think #5 and 6 are my favorite.
Totally going to shine my fiddle leaf fig leaves with some coconut oil. Also, just bought this fertilizer recommended to me by a friend and a blog post on the FLF. Stay tuned.
Love these Do Good shirts (and this whole brand; seriously, click around. Read their story.).
The best pumpkin bread. You will not need another recipe!
Someone, quick, book a trip to the Green Mountains!
Have a good long weekend!!
What was your source for that Red Cross info? We just donated they them ?
here’s one less than stellar article.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/30/547435136/red-cross-exec-doesn-t-know-what-portion-of-donations-will-go-directly-to-harvey
(i’ve totally donated to them too, the way they make it so easy. but i do not at all appreciate their lack of transparency!!!)
and another. neither mention the 17 cents and now i cannot remember which article it was; i’ve read a bunch this week regarding charities and harvey and i should have cited it!)
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2017/08/don_t_give_money_to_the_red_cross_we_need_a_new_way.html
Thanks, I had found the NPR article after a quick search. I also appreciate Katie’s comment too. Still, like you, I wish there was a little more transparency.
Butternut squash and apple? AND with the addition of bacon? Couldn’t ask for a better fall recipe!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Curious as to the source of the 17 cents on the dollar Red Cross stat?
Full disclosure: I worked for the Red Cross many moons (ok, 10 years!) ago. So I’m biased, but I also have a Preemptive Love t-shirt in my closet, and I’m super thankful for the many, many agencies out there doing great work and our ability to have a choice in who and how we give. 🙂 But having worked for a large organization that regularly comes under fire, while some of it’s deserved, I still see a lot of misinformation out there. I worked for a Red Cross chapter in a medium-sized city doing a variety of local work for 2 years. The one national disaster I was deployed to was one of the most humbling, impactful (and freakin’ HARD) experiences of my life. It also leads me to the larger issue of the very real staffing, fundraising/marketing, IT, and logistical costs it takes for an organization in disaster response to maintain a level of readiness to be able to operationalize in a matter of hours.
I’ll step off my soap box now, but here are a few links for further reading:
http://www.latimes.com/sns-why-hurricane-harvey-donors-shouldnt-boycott-the-red-cross-83289-20170901-story.html
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong/discussion
I hope people find a way to give–there are so many ways and room at the table for all. 🙂
katie, such good points and of course 100% of donations cannot go directly to the disaster/ humanitarian effort that the donator is intending. so many other costs to consider! i am out at the moment but will absolutely do further reading when i return. and put a little asterisk in my post too–irresponsible of me to mention 17 cents unless i can properly cite it! thank you for your comment.
No worries, thanks for responding! I read the other articles you linked above. The Slate article brings up great points. The Red Cross’s mission is to provide emergency/immediate assistance, not long-term, so it gets complicated pretty quickly once those emergency needs are met yet dollars and donations are coming in that donors expect to go to that specific disaster. I wish I knew what the answer was.
The soup IS fabulous! I make it for Thanksgiving and use turkey bacon. I also use an immersion blender rather than a blender.
Just now seeing this but some thoughts on the Red Cross with all of the new Hurricane Irma issues…I’m studying poverty + development at UGA right now and in learning about the operation of NGOs such as the Red Cross I’ve discovered that (of course) there is so much more going on with the finances of these organizations than the public realizes. “Inside Disaster Haiti” is a really interesting documentary that gives a lot of insight as to where the Red Cross spent their money when responding to the earthquake in Haiti (http://insidedisaster.com/haiti/).
A classic example is that if you have two non-profits, one giving 90% of donations straight to the people and one giving much less, say 50%, the automatic choice would probably be to donate to organization A, giving 90%. However, it usually is much more impactful to give to organization B. Typically NGOs (at the level of legitimacy and respect as the Red Cross) that funnel less donations directly to the population in need are spending the remainder on things such as hiring qualified staff or ensuring that they weigh the checks and balances of how they are responding to a situation in the most effective way possible. A simplified example would be to ask yourself if you would rather have a relatively untrained volunteer give you a shot, or an educated medical professional? The more qualified professional might cost the organization more, but will also be much more beneficial to the population being served. I am all for transparency and would love to know more about the distribution of funds at the Red Cross, but I do think there are a lot of costs to running such a large and efficient immediate response organization that the public isn’t typically aware of. Just some thoughts!
this makes SO MUCH SENSE. thanks for sharing, mary.