#How To Create A Nonprofit Organization

[fplglosangeles]

For Purpose Law Group (FPLG)

For Purpose Law Group (FPLG) 555 W 5th St. 35th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90013 323-364-0026 https://www.fplglaw.com

At FPLG Law, we are dedicated to providing exceptional legal services and support to our clients. Our team of experienced attorneys Focuses in nonprofit law and has a deep understanding of the legal requirements and regulations specific to California, especially when it comes to Starting A Nonprofit in Los Angeles, CA.

[forpurposelawgroup]

[spiritunwilling]

I hope they get to do fh senior year one day and its college applications

[falesten-iw]

To Those Who Still Hold Onto a Shred of Morality and Humanity - Stand with Us and Don’t Forget Us.

Over 40,000 lives have been lost, with 70% of them being children and women. Among these numbers are my own family members—many of whom I’ve already lost.

My family, my cousin, aunt, their children, and grandchildren were all directly targeted by Israeli airstrikes. I’m sharing a video of my aunt and cousin to reveal the harsh reality we are facing in Gaza. In this video, my aunt bravely shares her story about how the Israeli army airstruck them along with their children and grandchildren. Even if you don’t understand Arabic, just watching her speak will help you grasp the immense suffering we are enduring in Gaza. You can see the vedeo in this post.

The few family members who remain are in grave danger, and I’m terrified of losing them too. We have a chance to make a real difference and give my 24 surviving family members a chance to live.

In Gaza, jobs are non-existent, and nonprofit organizations like the UN have drastically reduced their work on the ground. Basic necessities such as milk, food, and medicine are almost as expensive as gold. My family is struggling to afford even the essentials, and my mother urgently needs medication that we simply cannot afford.

I’m also sharing another video that shows the daily struggle people face just to get clean water. The suffering here extends far beyond my family; it’s a genocide affecting every aspect of life in Gaza.

Thanks to the generosity of those who have already donated, we’ve raised $535 toward our goal of $190,363- august 17th. I’m deeply grateful to each of you, but we still have a long way to go, and I need your help more than ever. Imagine if it were your family—how would you feel if they were in this situation?

For those who have created special posts or reblogged to amplify my voice, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your support means everything to me and to my family. If you haven’t yet shared our story, please take just one minute to do so. Your voice could be the lifeline my family desperately needs.

You cannot continue to treat human lives as mere numbers. This is a genocide that demands immediate action. How many more should be killed before you all wake up? Will 40,000 lives be enough to stir us to action? 50,000? 100,000? 150,000?

Asking for donations and charity is something we never imagined having to do in Gaza before the war, and it’s heartbreaking that it has come to this. But if everyone who saw my last post donated just $10 or $20, we could reach our goal in no time. If you’re looking for a way to contribute, consider giving up your coffee, tea, or other “cup” for one day, one week, one month, or anything in between. Then, donate what you would have spent to help me. Please help us and donate now!

This is about more than just donations—it’s about preserving human lives and upholding our shared moral values. Your contribution can make a world of difference in our survival and ensure I don’t lose more of the people I love.

Demanding an end to this suffering is a matter of basic humanity. You cannot remain neutral in the face of such genocide. Please, let’s stand together. Enough is enough.

Every donation, no matter how small, brings us closer to hope and healing. Thank you again for your kindness and support. I will never forget it.

Vetted and shared by @90-ghost: Link.

Verified and shared by @el-shab-hussein: Link

Listed even as number 282 in "The Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser Spreadsheet" compiled by @el-shab-hussein and @nabulsi : Link

Additionally, Al Jazeera News has documented apart of my family's case: Link

Important note: ** 105 Swedish kr is just 10$ ** 1050 Swedish kr is just 100$ ** 10500 Swedish kr is just 1000$

Please share !

@humansofnewyork@intersectional-feminist @intersectional-feminists@intersectional-feminism @intersectional-feminist-killjoy

@thepeoplesrecord@socialjusticekitten-blog @socialgoodmoms @nowthisnews @socialgoofy

@theblogofawesome@fightforhumanity-rpg-blog @fightforhumanity-rp@queerandpresentdanger @progressive-pride

@radicalsocialworker @activistminds @mybelovedworld @hopeandresist @solidarityisimportant-blog

@solidarityissbliss @solidarityisnotaslogan-blog-blog @unified-multiversal-theory @feministacansada

@feministactionsupportnetwork @globalvoices @save-the-world-but-lose-her @save-the-world-one-day-at-a-time

@save-the-world-tonight @wip-wednesday @daily-writing-prompts @allthingswordy @writerscorner-blog

@fictionfood @wordsthat-speak @writerscunts-blog @storyshots-blog @wordsnstories-blog

@writeblr @thewritingcaddy @fictionwriting2 @inkstay @creativepromptsforwriting @interact-if

[mariacallous]

If anyone can rally up a base, it’s Taylor Swift.

When sexually explicit, likely AI-generated, fake images of Swift circulated on social media this week, it galvanized her fans. Swifties found phrases and hashtags related to the images and flooded them with videos and photos of Swift performing. “Protect Taylor Swift” went viral, trending as Swifties spoke out against not just the Swift deepfakes, but all nonconsensual, explicit images made of women.

Swift, arguably the most famous woman in the world right now, has become the high-profile victim of an all-too-frequent form of harassment. She has yet to comment on the photos publicly, but her status gives her power to wield in a situation where so many women have been left with little recourse. Deepfake porn is becoming more common as generative artificial intelligence gets better: 113,000 deepfake videos were uploaded to the most popular porn websites in the first nine months of 2023, a significant increase to the 73,000 videos uploaded throughout 2022. In 2019, research from a startup found that 96 percent of deepfakes on the internet were pornographic.

The content is easy to find on search engines and social media, and has affected other female celebrities and teenagers. Yet, many people don’t understand the full extent of the problem or its impact. Swift, and the media mania around her, has the potential to change that.

“It does feel like this could be one of those trigger events” that could lead to legal and societal changes around nonconsensual deepfakes, says Sam Gregory, executive director of Witness, a nonprofit organization focused on using images and videos for protecting human rights. But Gregory says people still don’t understand how common deepfake porn is, and how harmful and violating it can be to victims.

If anything, this deepfake disaster is reminiscent of the 2014 iCloud leak that led to nude photos of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton spreading online, prompting calls for greater protections on people's digital identities. Apple ultimately ramped up security features.

A handful of states have laws around nonconsensual deepfakes, and there are moves to ban it on the federal level, too. Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-New York) has introduced a bill in Congress that would make it illegal to create and share deepfake porn without a person’s consent. Another House bill from Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-New York) seeks to give legal recourse to victims of deepfake porn. Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-New Jersey), who in November introduced a bill that would require the labeling of AI content, used the viral Swift moment to draw attention to his efforts: “Whether the victim is Taylor Swift or any young person across our country—we need to establish safeguards to combat this alarming trend,” Kean said in a statement.

This isn’t the first time that Swift or Swifties have tried to hold platforms and people accountable. In 2017, Swift won a lawsuit she brought against a radio DJ who she claimed groped her during a meet-and-greet. She was awarded $1—the amount she sued for, and what her attorney Douglas Baldridge called a symbolic sum “the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation.”

Last fall, tens of thousands of people registered to vote after the superstar posted a link to Vote.org on Instagram. And in 2022, her fan base, so enraged after waiting hours to buy tickets to the Eras Tour only to be beaten out by bots, reignited conversation around antitrust issues with Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s mega-merger. A cringy Senate hearing followed, and an investigation into Live Nation’s agreements with venues and artists is ongoing.

Swift and her fans could advocate for legal changes at the federal level to pass. But their outrage could do something else: lead platforms to take notice. “When you have a really massive group of users saying this content is unacceptable in this very high-profile way, the power there is about what it says to the platform about what users will and won’t tolerate,” says Cailin O’Connor, a professor of philosophy at University of California, Irvine and coauthor of The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread. X did not respond to a request for comment on the images and its moderation efforts regarding deepfake porn. Elon Musk bought the site in 2022 and quickly gutted its moderation teams. Advertisers have also dropped off recently after Musk’s apparent endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

It’s not clear whether Swift will take on this issue. A representative for Swift did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Harassment of female celebrities is frequent and often brushed aside, but deepfakes are harming them and others without the same power. This could be a moment for Swift to use her powerful platform—or at least for her fans to push the issue before the public.

[nanowrimo]

4 Ways To Cure Writer’s Block

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. NovelPad, a 2023 NaNoWriMo sponsor, is a novel drafting software designed to make it easy for writers to write. Today, they're sharing a few tips to help you beat writer's block:

NovelPad loves NaNoWriMo because we have the same goal: Helping authors get the thing done!

Starting a book is usually fun and easy—your fingers dance across the keyboard as you explore an exciting world, meet your characters, and stir up intrigue for the coming plot. But once you get into the weeds of how that all works, and how you and your characters get from Point A to Point B, you might find yourself losing momentum. You might find yourself so encumbered with obstacles that you might get a case of the dreaded writer’s block.

The very good news is that writer’s block isn’t terminal, and I certainly don’t think writer’s block is as enigmatic as some people seem to think. I believe it’s actually quite a simple problem, and usually due to one of a few common factors. Let’s look at four ways you can push yourself through your case of ye olde block.

1. Check in with yourself.

Step one is always to check in with yourself. 

Start by reviewing your basic self-care needs:

Are you staying hydrated?

Do you feel hungry?

Would a shower or a nap be beneficial?

Is it time for a walk or some stretching exercises?

Consider your environment as well. Maybe you need:

Noise-canceling headphones

A change of scenery

A babysitter or someone to help around the house

To open or close some windows

Next, evaluate your level of focus. Is your mind wandering elsewhere? It can be useful to create a "dump list" to jot down anything that's causing you stress, such as work-related issues, pending tasks, or upcoming events. Setting that list aside can give you the tangible feeling of pushing those things off your desk to worry about later.

Once your body, mind, and environment are sorted out, you'll likely discover that writing becomes a bit easier!

2. Look back at where you’ve been.

Even if the first tip did or did not do the trick, let’s take a look at the project itself.

Sometimes writer’s block is a blessing in disguise! Your creative gut might be telling you that something went awry. Try reading your project back and pinpointing where it became difficult to keep going. Consider alternate plots or paths to get your writing flowing again.

If you're managing multiple plots and subplots, identifying the moment you deviated from the main path can be quite challenging. To pinpoint which plot line is causing issues, you can take advantage of NovelPad's handy feature: Plot tracking.

On the Plot Board, you can review every scene of a particular plot in order, making spotting those errors in your plotlines much easier.

3. Rewrite a problem scene.

Once you've identified the scene causing issues, it's time to make improvements! This can be challenging because there are countless ways to approach a scene.

However, don't hesitate to embrace revisions. Often, a scene benefits from a thorough rewrite. With NovelPad Revisions, you can save limitless scene revisions, compare them side by side, and effortlessly switch to the one they want in the live manuscript. This keeps your different versions safe, well-organized, and readily accessible.

4. Freewrite to free yourself.

Freewriting is a great way to get your creativity flowing again. Write some poetry, compose a letter to a friend, or simply let your thoughts flow without judgment. Freewriting without judgment can help turn on your writer mode and even help you solve some problems! It's especially beneficial when you're stuck on something specific, because we often find brilliant solutions when we stop being so critical of our ideas.

Kick writer’s block off your desk with NovelPad! It's free to use throughout NaNoWriMo, and we offer discounts to participants and winners afterward. If you find that NovelPad isn't your cup of tea by the end of November, don't worry—you can still access and download your project at any time. Just write!

Our team at NovelPad believes in making it easy for writers to complete their books. That’s why we built an uncomplicated, intuitive system that stays out of the way until you need it! We want writers like you to #JustWrite without burdening you with excessive features. Speaking of features, software updates at NovelPad are based entirely on user feedback from authors to keep our features sharp, relevant, and minimalist.

All NaNoWriMo participants have access to a 15% discount on NovelPad with code WRIMO2023 — use the code during checkout to redeem your discount. Offer expires April 1, 2024.

Top photo by Richard Dykes on Unsplash.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Curt Devine, Casey Tolan, Audrey Ash, and Kyung Lah at CNN:

Last month, Russell Vought sat in a five-star Washington, DC, hotel suite, bowing his head in prayer with two men he thought were relatives of a wealthy conservative donor.

Vought, one of the key authors of Project 2025, a right-wing blueprint for a second Trump term, expected the meeting would help his think tank secure a substantial contribution. For nearly two hours, he talked candidly about his behind-the-scenes work to prepare policy for former President Donald Trump, his expansive views on presidential power, his plans to restrict pornography and immigration, and his complaints that the GOP was too focused on “religious liberty” instead of “Christian nation-ism.” But the men Vought was talking to actually worked for a British journalism nonprofit and were secretly recording him the entire time. The nonprofit, the Centre for Climate Reporting, published a video of the meeting on Thursday – offering a window into the thinking of one of the top policy minds of the MAGA movement, who’s been floated as a possible White House chief of staff. Trump has publicly rejected Project 2025 as Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has sought to tie him to some of the plan’s most extreme proposals. But in private, Vought said that those disavowals were merely “graduate-level politics.”

Vought said his group, the Center for Renewing America, was secretly drafting hundreds of executive orders, regulations, and memos that would lay the groundwork for rapid action on Trump’s plans if he wins, describing his work as creating “shadow” agencies. He claimed that Trump has “blessed” his organization and “he’s very supportive of what we do.” “Eighty percent of my time is working on the plans of what’s necessary to take control of these bureaucracies,” Vought said. “And we are working doggedly on that, whether it’s destroying their agencies’ notion of independence … whether that is thinking through how the deportation would work.” In discussing Trump’s plan to carry out the largest deportation in US history – which the former president has called for publicly – Vought said the expulsion of millions of undocumented immigrants could help “save the country.” Once deportations begin, “you’re really going to be winning a debate along the way about what that looks like,” Vought said. “And so that’s going to cause us to get us off of multiculturalism, just to be able to sustain and defend the deportation, right?”

The video is the latest example of secret recordings exposing political figures’ private comments. The tactics used by the Centre – which created fake websites and a fake LinkedIn profile to deceive Vought – are typically rejected by mainstream American news outlets. But using hidden cameras and deceptive practices in reporting is more common in the UK, where the Centre is based, and it’s been on the rise on the fringe of the US media as well. The conservative group Project Veritas has long conducted sting operations and published selectively edited videos, and earlier this year, a liberal activist released audio recordings of conversations she had with Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and his wife, as well as Chief Justice John Roberts.

[...]

An elaborate ruse

Vought served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump, where he made a name for himself as a policy wonk committed to the MAGA movement. In public, Trump repeatedly praised Vought for doing an “incredible” and “fantastic” job at OMB. After Trump left office, Vought started the Center for Renewing America, a nonprofit that describes itself as the “tip of the America First spear.” CRA was one of many right-leaning groups that partnered on Project 2025, a more than 900-page blueprint for Trump’s second term that was led by the Heritage Foundation. Vought personally authored the project’s chapter on the executive office of the president, and his group contributed to several other chapters of the plan as well. Vought also served as the policy director of the Republican National Convention committee that rewrote the GOP’s official platform this year – a sign of how central he is to Republicans’ policy goals. 

Last month, Vought’s team was approached by employees with the Centre for Climate Reporting, which has previously published investigations into climate negotiations and Saudi Arabia’s energy policy. The Centre spun an elaborate fiction, with a journalist and a paid actor posing as the brother and son-in-law of a reclusive New Mexico investor. The nonexistent patriarch had watched Vought’s appearances on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” show while recuperating from an illness – and wanted to make a seven-figure contribution to CRA after previously focusing his philanthropy on classical music, they claimed. The meeting took place on July 24, the week after the Republican convention, at the presidential suite of the Rosewood hotel in DC, where the Centre had placed several hidden cameras and microphones, Carter said. After the Centre’s employees suggested starting the meeting with a prayer, they peppered Vought with questions about his work and views, the video shows.

CNN reports a secretly recorded video by Centre For Climate Reporting featuring Project 2025 co-author Russ Vought discussing his secret work preparing for a second Trump term that includes drafts for executive orders numbering in the hundreds.

See Also:

MMFA: In undercover interview, Project 2025 architect gets candid on the initiative’s radical goals and connections to Trump

[marveltrumpshate]

Talking about Marvel Trumps Hate on AO3

We love it when folks spread the word about Marvel Trumps Hate—the more people take part, the more money we raise, all of which goes to amazing charities!

We encourage all creators to shout from the rooftops (and their social media platforms) that they're participating in the auction, so people can check out what's on offer. We also really appreciate when creators acknowledge that their work was made for MTH to create awareness after the auction ends.

However, if you want to talk about MTH on AO3 specifically, there are a few things to keep in mind about how you're talking about the auction and your involvement so that you don't break any rules. We don't want you to get into trouble!

You can:

Say that your work was created for Marvel Trumps Hate

Provide a link to the MTH Tumblr, Twitter, or website to explain why a fanwork was created (we also encourage you to post to the appropriate annual MTH collection and use the gifting function to gift a work to the person who won your fanwork)

Refer to your fanwork as a gift (NOT commission or charity/gift commission) for your winner

You can't:

Say that you're participating in a current or upcoming charity auction and link to your auction listing (or anyone else's) in your author's notes, footnotes, or elsewhere on AO3

Call an MTH work a commission anywhere on AO3—instead, say that it's a gift for your winner for the Marvel Trumps Hate event

Solicit money by asking people to bid on you, encouraging donations to a charity and/or including a link to the charity or your auction listing, or mentioning that you take commissions (including charity commissions) on AO3

On platforms other than AO3, you're welcome to talk up your offerings, link to the specific charities that you're supporting through your auction offers, and share your (or others') auctions by reblogging your mthofferings.tumblr.com auction post or linking to your auction listings on the MTH website.

Why shouldn't you advertise charity auctions or use the word "commission" on AO3?

Using the right words matters.

MTH is proud to be inspired by other fandom charity auctions and positions itself within the long tradition of fans gifting fanworks and fan labor to each other. The auction event team members gift their time and talents to organize MTH, and fandom creators agree to gift their creative efforts in recognition of the donation that bidders make to the nonprofit organizations that are listed on our Supported Organizations page.

We want to make sure that people thinking about participating as creators and/or as bidders are 100% clear about what the auction involves and are confident about the integrity of the auction. One way of doing this is making sure that everyone knows how the money travels—directly from bidders to the nonprofit they're supporting, without ever being touched by MTH creators or the event team.

That being said, AO3 is not an advertising space and has Terms of Service around commercialization of fanworks (Section I. D5) that forbids any form of commercial promotion on AO3, even if it's for charity. This is not because exchanging money for fanworks is explicitly illegal but because the OTW legal team believes that one of the ways the archive can be protected legally, as both a collection of transformative works and as a nonprofit organization, is to have a firm "no commercial promotion" policy.

On charity events specifically, the TOS FAQ clarifies:

"The Archive will host fanworks of any origin, including fanworks created in response to charity drives or other challenges. A link to a charity drive to explain the origin of a fanwork is appropriate. Solicitation itself, however, should take place outside the Archive. We concluded that this policy was the easiest to apply fairly to everyone, given the wide range of possible solicitation activities." (AO3 TOS Content FAQ).

If you're reported by someone for soliciting on AO3 and found to be in breach of the TOS, you'll be emailed by their team, asking you to remove all the "commercial promotion" material (i.e., all the money-related words like "bid," "donation," or "commission") from the work, comment, bookmark, or profile in question. This includes tags, descriptions in author's notes, and comments on works. The Policy and Abuse committee doesn't screen fanworks; instead, all reports are made by users of the archive. That means that even though there may be places you violated these rules, the committee may not be immediately aware of it; however, as a violation can be found by a user and reported at any time, even from long, long ago, we encourage people to review the wording they used in reference to MTH—or any fandom charity events, for that matter—and make edits if necessary to be on the safe side.

Note: if this does happen to you, you can always appeal or ask for more time to rectify the issue so don't be alarmed. All Policy and Abuse reports are handled by real people who are volunteers for the organization.

We ask that you follow these guidelines so that if you spread the word about Marvel Trumps Hate on AO3, you do so in a way that won't cause you stress or trouble in the future.

If you ever lose track of this explanation and need to refer to it, we also have this information up on our website.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

The two tracts of land at the edge of the ancient forest in Borneo were relatively small: One was just 74 acres, the other 195. They had also been heavily degraded by human activity. One site consisted of abandoned rice paddies, leaving barren spaces largely devoid of wildlife. The other was deforested grassland that caught fire every year.

But starting in 2009, people from neighboring communities were hired by a local environmental group to help restore the land. They planted native seedlings, yanked out weeds, dug firebreaks and watered the area during droughts. Aided by the region’s heat and abundant rain, the young plants, which included native hardwoods and fruit trees, grew swiftly, and soon created a canopy.

Late in 2020, cameras were set up on the replanted tracts. The land bordered Gunung Palung National Park, home to endangered orangutans, pangolins, white-bearded gibbons and macaques, and researchers wanted to see if wildlife was coming back.

Their findings were heartening. The cameras documented 47 species of mammals, birds and reptiles, 18 of them at risk for extinction, including an endangered Sunda pangolin and two endangered Bornean orangutans.

The study, recently published in the journal Tropical Natural History, shows that community involvement can play a vital role in restoring wildlife habitat and forest ecosystems, according to researchers.

“When we do community-run reforestation, things really grow back faster,” said Nina Finley, the research manager at Health in Harmony, an American nonprofit organization that conducted the study along with an affiliated organization in Indonesia, Alam Sehat Lestari, and staffers from the national park.

Earlier reforestation efforts with less community involvement resulted in young plants that were vulnerable to weeds and wildfires, Ms. Finley said. But after villagers were hired to regularly weed and water the land, the survival rate of saplings rose substantially, and is now above 70 percent.

Ms. Finley said that addressing the needs of the people living nearby first was key to the project’s success.

[forpurposelawgroup]

For Purpose Law Group (FPLG) - San Diego

For Purpose Law Group (FPLG)

408 Nutmeg St. San Diego, CA. 92103

(619) 780-3839

At FPLG Law, we are dedicated to providing exceptional legal services and support to our clients. Our team of experienced attorneys Focuses on nonprofit law and has a deep understanding of the legal requirements and regulations specific to California, especially when it comes to Starting A Nonprofit in San Diego, CA. We understand that starting a nonprofit can be a challenging and time-consuming process, but we will guide you through every step of the process, from registering with the state to obtaining tax-exempt status to comply with ongoing legal requirements.

[fandomtrumpshate]

FTH 2024: Supported Nonprofit Organizations

Here are the nonprofit organizations that will be supported by this year's FTH auction. Many of these orgs will be familiar from last year's list, but we've cycled in some new groups as well. In particular, because it's a major election year in the US, we've brought in (or brought back) organations focusing on voter enfranchisement.

If you are a FTH creator and you want to ask your bidders to support an organization that’s not on the list, please read our policy on outside organizations here.

Bellingcat *

Bellingcat is an independent investigative collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists brought together by a passion for open source research in the public interest.

Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center *

The Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC) is a nonprofit legal organization that fights for liberation and equity through the lens of intersectional disability justice.

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda *

A national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals, NBWRJA delivers proactive advocacy and policy solutions to address issues at the intersections of race, gender, class, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Life After Hate

LAH provides support to people leaving hate groups, and providing pluralism education and training to vulnerable young people.

Middle East Children's Alliance *

MECA is a nonprofit organization working for the rights and the well-being of children in the Middle East. They collect funds in order to provide direct aid, financial support for community projects, water purification systems, and university scholarships, and also create educational and cultural programs in the US and internationally to increase cultural understanding.

National Network to End Domestic Violence *

NNEDV offers a range of programs and initiatives to address the complex causes and far-reaching consequences of domestic violence.

Never Again Action *

A Jewish-led mobilization against the persecution, detention, and deportation of immigrants in the United States, NAA takes on campaigns against detention centers and ICE training programs, and organizes mutual aid and deportation defense.

Razom *

Razom initiates short and long-term projects, or collaborates on existing projects with partner organizations, which help Ukraine stay on the path of fostering democracy and prosperity

Sherlock’s Homes Foundation *

SHF provides housing, employment opportunities, and a loving support system for homeless LGBTQ+ young adults so that they can live fearlessly as their authentic selves. Within these homes, young adults learn about responsibility, accountability, financial independence, life skills, and how to love themselves

Spread the Vote

STV helps eligible voters make their voices heard through voter education, supporting voters through the process of getting necessary ID, and advocating against voter suppression laws.

Violence Policy Center *

VPC works to stop gun death and injury through research, education, advocacy, and collaboration; exposes the profit-driven marketing and lobbying activities of the firearms industry and gun lobby, and offers unique technical expertise to policymakers, organizations, and advocates.

VoteRiders

VR works to help all citizens exercise their right to vote. It informs and helps citizens to secure their voter ID as well as inspires and supports organizations, local volunteers, and communities to sustain voter ID education and assistance efforts.

Umbrella: Environmental orgs

For the past four years, FTH has supported one “umbrella” cause: we invite participants to donate to their own local grassroots organization, while also suggesting a handful of exemplary organizations working in communities where the need is especially acute. This year our umbrella category is environmental organizations.

Pollinator Partnership *

Deploy/Us *

Together Bay Area

Wildlands Restoration Volunteers

Coral Restoration Foundation *

++

Organizations marked with an asterisk (*) allow for international donations directly through their websites. The orgs without asterisks may take international donations through a paypal or venmo account. If you are a non-US-based bidder/donor and you are having trouble finding an organization to which you can donate, please email us directly at fandomtrumpshate @ gmail . com.

[thatsmzbitchtoyou]

Sugar Mama Chapter 4

Summary: Bucky is overworked and struggling to get by.  The bills are piling up and he’s consistently in the red with no end in sight.  Y/N is a billionaire’s daughter, entrepreneur and philanthropist having a hard time finding true friends or love.  She has a proposition for him. 

bucky barnes x curvy!reader Warnings: eventual smut, sexual assault (not from Bucky)

Previous chapter Next chapter

Bucky found himself getting into the swing of things pretty easily.  He could feel himself relaxing as he only worked one job, having more energy and time to put towards the designs and layouts he helped create for his boss.  It also gave him better sleep and more time to work out again, something that he always enjoyed but had never had time for for the last few years.  He could feel himself getting healthier.  Y/N had taken his list of debts and paid them all off within the first two weeks of him living at her apartment.  His credit score skyrocketed.  His mental health was better than it ever had been.

She was also employing his friends and giving them opportunities as well.  Steve had painted something new for her, and she had paid him far above what he had initially asked for, making it so he could get ahead on his bills as well.  She had also invited him to art galleries with her and Bucky and introduced him to all the right people.  He was currently working on a whole collection to show in a local art gallery show by the end of the year.  Peggy and Y/N had become fast friends and Y/N had made sure to be there for Peggy’s events at her nonprofit job, even donating handsomely to it to help keep them running smoothly for the next five years.  

Bucky still found it hard to accept gifts, especially the expensive ones, but Y/N loved giving him things or taking him on experiences.  He was eternally grateful for all that she had done for him.  He found himself falling for her fast.  She would flirt and call him pet names, sometimes go as far as holding hands and cuddling, but she never pushed further, and he started wishing she would.  He was sure that she didn’t want to push anything since he had had initial hesitancy about a sexual relationship, but she herself had said if it eventually, organically, happened within the relationship she wouldn’t be opposed to it.  He just didn’t know how to start that conversation.  Or just use body language?

The photographers had eaten up the fact that she had a new “boyfriend” as well, following him when he was out or going to and from work.  They also followed Peggy and Steve and anybody else that he was in contact with, screaming questions and being all around nuisances.  He learned to just ignore them, walking with purpose to wherever he was headed and not acknowledging any questions, flashing them a smile every now and then.

It was seven months into his new life when Y/N came home late one day.  He had taken to making dinner for the two of them once he got home from work, and she was usually not far behind him.  She said she had a meeting with a possible business investment.  But now it was 7:00 p.m., and she still hadn’t shown up.  He tried texting her but got no response.  At 7:37 he heard the elevator ding.

“Hey, where have you been?” he called from the kitchen as he had been packing up the food.  “I made dinner, I was putting it away but I can heat it up for you if you’d like.”

“Bucky…” Y/N trudged into the kitchen, looking lost.  

“Y/N?” He put the tupperware down and walked up to her, holding her arms as he looked at her.  “What’s wrong?  Are you okay?”

Y/N didn’t meet his eyes, it seemed like she couldn’t focus on anything and the only thing keeping her up were his hands on her arms.  Bucky tried to meet her gaze but her eyes were glossy, unfocused, her skin pale and clammy to the touch.  Her balance wavered and he caught her and held her against him.

“Woah, hey, Y/N,” he patted her cheek firmly to try and get her attention.  “Y/N?  What happened?  Where were you?”

“The office…meeting with John,” she slurred, dropping her purse.  Her eyes were suddenly razor focused as she seemed to come back to herself.  “John…Walker!” she suddenly screamed, pushing away from Bucky.  He caught himself against the counter behind him, staring at her wide eyed.  “Had a meeting.  He…kept telling me to drink,” she paused, her hands flying to her temples and massaging them.  “Gave me a drink?”

“John Walker?  From Walker Star Construction?  Wait, he gave you a drink?” Bucky came back to her, taking her wrists away from her face and making her face him.  

“…started feeling funny..” she slurred again, then stiffened as her eyes looked beyond Bucky.  “He…he touched me. Wanted me to…sign something.”

Bucky could feel the fury bubbling deep within his gut as he realized what had happened.  “Y/N, he drugged you.”

Y/N found his face again, her eyes starting to well up with tears.  “He…drugged me.  Touched me–” she inhaled a sharp breath.  “Touched me everywhere!”  Her memories were coming back in flashes, making her sob as she almost toppled to the floor.  Bucky followed her down, holding her to his chest as she cried.  

“We gotta call the police,” he said as he reached for his phone and dialed.  “Hello?  Yeah, my uh…” he paused and looked at Y/N.  She was shaking as she sobbed.  “My girlfriend was just drugged while in a meeting.  She’s home now but still really out of it.  The address is…”

Twenty minutes later two detectives and paramedics arrived and were escorted to her apartment.  The detectives took her statement, as best as she could give it, and then went to her work building to get security camera footage, saying they’d call when an arrest was made.  The paramedics checked her over for any immediate injuries, and upon only finding some bruising and possible saliva on her neck suggested bringing her to the hospital for blood tests for the drugs in her system and a forensic exam.  He hadn’t raped her, thankfully, but fingerprints would need to be taken, swabs done and the bruises photographed.  Y/N went along with it all, wanting Bucky by her side the entire time.  He didn’t feel like he was much help, but never left her side and kept holding her hand and giving her comforting words when they were left alone out of the earshot of nurses and doctors.  

When it was all over it was late, and by the time she got home and was beginning to sober up all she wanted to do was shower.  “I just, I feel dirty,” she whispered as she held herself.  “I need to…be clean.”

“Okay, let’s get you to your room,” Bucky said as he led her there.  Once she was standing in the middle of her room he went to her closet and picked out some pajamas and underwear for her, set them on her bed, then went to her bathroom and turned on the shower, getting it to a warm temperature.  He turned back to her and saw she hadn’t moved.  “Alright, everything’s ready for you.  I’ll just be next door if you need me,” he promised her before heading towards the door.

“Bucky wait, please,” she called for him, her voice cracking.  “I…I don’t want to be alone.”

Bucky stood in her doorway staring at her.  “Okay, um, do you want me to wait here for you?” he said, gesturing towards her bed.

“I–” she stopped herself, hanging her head and sniffling.  “I know it’s asking a lot, but could you help me?  Get clean?”

Bucky gaped at her for a moment.  Help get her clean?  So naked, in the shower?  Together?  Though all his questions and hesitations flew out the window when she looked at him, her sad eyes pleading, looking pitiful as she continued to hold herself.

“Yeah, yeah sure, um…let me go get some clothes and I’ll be right there,” he said, giving her a reassuring smile before turning towards his room and getting some underwear and pajamas for himself.  He psyched himself up as he walked back towards her room, setting his clothes down on her bed.  She had already entered the bathroom, her clothes a heap on the floor by the sink, and he saw her naked outline standing under the water.  He quickly undressed, deciding at the last second to keep his boxers on, and slowly opened the shower door.  He didn’t look at her yet, keeping his eyes glued to the floor.  “Are you sure about this, Y/N?” he asked.

“Yes, please,” Y/N said, her voice strained as she tried not to cry.

Bucky finally looked up at her.  She stood under the water, her arms still hugging herself and covering her chest, her hair now wet and sticking to her face and neck as she sniffled.  He stepped into the shower and closed the door behind him, still keeping some space between himself and her, waiting to see what it was she wanted to do.  After a beat Y/N turned towards him and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tight as she cried again, her fingers digging into his back.  Bucky held her, his hands rubbing her back, kissing the top of her head and trying desperately to not think about her naked breasts pressed against his skin.  He kept holding her as he grabbed her hair products, slowly massaging the shampoo into her hair and rinsing it out, then the same with the conditioner.  When it came time to wash her body he got her washcloth ready but held it out for her to take.  She gingerly took it from him and turned away to wash her body.  She started crying harder when she reached her neck.  She started scrubbing at the skin of her neck furiously.

“Y/N, you’re going to hurt yourself,” Bucky reached out for her hands to try and pull them away.

“No, I have to get it off…get him off,” she cried, her breathing getting more frantic as her skin started to redden.

“Y/N…Y/N stop,” he grabbed the washcloth and held it firmly so she had to stop rubbing her skin.  She looked at him wide eyed.  “You’re clean.  You’re safe.”  He smoothed his fingers over her neck and pulled her towards him again, dipping his head down to her eye level.  “You are not dirty.  Just because some asshole tried to hurt you does not make you dirty or less.  You fought him off and got yourself home and safe.  And I’m so proud of you,” he felt a lump in his throat form as he spoke the words, his eye’s starting to well with tears.  “You came home to me.  I’m here, I’ll help you, however you need me to.”

Her eyes searched his face, her lips quivering as she inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled out of her mouth.  Bucky could tell she wanted to ask him something but was too afraid.  He felt like he had gotten to know her tells and signs pretty well over the last few months, and so he took the initiative and tried something.  He leaned forward slowly, watching for her reaction, until his face was next to hers, and rubbed his nose along her cheek.  She let out a sharp breath and closed her eyes.  He continued to rub his nose down to her jaw then skimmed his lips against her neck.  Y/N’s hands gripped his shoulders.  He placed a soft kiss near her jugular, his hand on the other side of her neck caressing the skin where she had been scrubbing.  He softly pressed kisses over and over again along her throat, from one side to the other, going as low as her collar bone then back up to her jaw and the spot beneath her earlobes.

Y/N sighed as her grip on his shoulders loosened, her head rolling to whatever side he wasn’t kissing at to give him more room.  “He won’t ever hurt you again,” Bucky whispered near her ear, making her shiver.  “He won’t ever touch you again.”  He gave a more firm kiss to her cheek as he pulled away finally.  “No one will hurt my Mama again.”

Bucky wasn’t sure where that statement came from, his heart plummeting to his gut as he said it, but Y/N’s hooded eyes and parted mouth gave him hope that it was the right thing to say.  She was calmer now, more steady on her feet, and her smile returned as she looked at him.

“Mama, huh?” She teased him, the light coming back to her eyes.  

Bucky chuckled at her wry smile.  “Well you keep calling me baby.  Unless you don’t like it?” he asked in worry.

“No, I do kinda like it,” she reassured him.  “Don’t know what that says about me,” she giggled.

Bucky laughed.  “I like it when you call me baby.  I don’t know what that says about me, either,” joked.

Y/N hugged him again, keeping her face turned up towards him.  “Thank you, Bucky.  For taking care of me.  I’m sorry for making it awkward like this,” she gestured toward the shower.  

“I don’t mind the view,” he said, cocking an eyebrow at her.  She scoffed and smacked his chest lightly.  “Let’s get out of here,” he said as he turned away and opened the shower door.  He handed her a towel behind his back to give her privacy as she shut off the water.  They both dried themselves off and changed into their pajamas before going back to her bed.

“Will you stay?” Y/N asked hopefully as she stood by the side of her bed.

“Yes,” he answered a little too fast, making her smile.  They both got into bed and as he pulled the covers up she wiggled her body close to his, resting her head on his chest and slinging her free arm around his waist.  

“Goodnight, baby,” Y/N sighed, pressing a soft kiss to his chest as she nuzzled him.

“Goodnight, Mama,” Bucky replied, a smile stretching across his face.

@vicmc624 @mega-kittyglitter-1 @jtink27 @jenniferpendragon @redbloodedgurl

[contemplatingoutlander]

A Trump judge sends Southwest Airlines to right-wing reeducation camp

Ruth Marcus does an excellent job of pointing out how another Trump appointed judge (from Texas) is stomping on the Constitution when it comes to the separation of church and state. The judge in this case doesn't seem to understand the difference between people being allowed to hold religious beliefs and religious people harassing others who don't share their religious beliefs. The article is well worth reading. Here are some excerpts:

Another day, another extremist ruling by another extremist Trump judge, and this decision — from Texas, no surprise — is straight out of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The judge held lawyers for Southwest Airlines in contempt of court for their actions in a religious-discrimination case brought by a former flight attendant and ordered them to undergo “religious liberty training.” And not just any instruction, but training conducted by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative group that litigates against same-sex marriage, transgender rights and abortion rights. [emphasis added] The issue arises from a lawsuit filed by Charlene Carter, a flight attendant for more than 20 years and a longtime antagonist of the Southwest flight attendants union. In 2017, after union members attended the Women’s March under a “Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants” banner, Carter sent Facebook messages to the union president containing graphic antiabortion messages.

[See more under the cut.]

“This is what you supported during your Paid Leave with others at the Women’s MARCH in DC …. You truly are Despicable in so many ways,” Carter wrote in one message accompanying a video of an aborted fetus. After the union president complained, Southwest fired Carter, saying her conduct “crossed the boundaries of acceptable behavior,” was “inappropriate, harassing, and offensive,” and “did not adhere to Southwest policies and guidelines.” An arbitrator found that Southwest had just cause for the firing. Carter, represented by the National Right to Work Committee, sued, claiming Southwest and the union violated her rights under federal labor laws and Title VII. The federal job-bias law bars employers from discriminating on the basis of religion, and Carter claimed she was dismissed because of her sincerely held religious beliefs against abortion. [...] The scary part is what came next. [U.S. District Judge Brantley] Starr instructed the airline to “inform Southwest Flight Attendants that, under Title VII, [Southwest] may not discriminate against Southwest flight attendants for their religious practices and beliefs.” Instead, Southwest said in a message to staff that the court “ordered us to inform you that Southwest does not discriminate against our Employees for their religious practices and beliefs.” This sent Starr into orbit.... “In the universe we live in — the one where words mean something — Southwest’s notice didn’t come close to complying with the Court’s order,” Starr said. “To make matters worse,” he said, Southwest had circulated a memo about the decision to its employees repeating its view that Carter’s conduct was unacceptable and emphasizing the need for civility. “Southwest’s speech and actions toward employees demonstrate a chronic failure to understand the role of federal protections for religious freedom,” Starr decreed. He proceeded to order three Southwest lawyers to undergo eight hours of religious-liberty training — a move he described as “the least restrictive means of achieving compliance with the Court’s order.” Luckily, Starr observed, “there are esteemed nonprofit organizations that are dedicated to preserving free speech and religious freedom.” [...] Adjectives fail me here. This is not even close to normal.... the notion of subjecting lawyers to a reeducation campaign by the likes of the ADF is tantamount to creating a government-endorsed thought police. Imagine the uproar — and I’m not suggesting these groups are in any way comparable — if a liberal-leaning federal judge ordered instruction on women’s rights (those are constitutionally protected, too) by Planned Parenthood. [...] This is the alarming legacy that former president Donald Trump has left us — a skewed bench that he would augment if reelected. The Trump judges seem to be competing among themselves for who can engage in the greatest overreach. [...] Conservatives are quick to balk at anything resembling the order that Starr issued when they disagree with the underlying principle. [...] I need no excuses for calling this what it is: a reeducation program — outrageous, unconstitutional and an abuse of judicial authority. [emphasis added]

[mariacallous]

“Now, how long will this take? The Ukrainians behave like charlatans and we continue to pay,” reads a quote in French next to a picture of Taylor Swift on what looks like a promotional poster for an upcoming tour. “That is not right.”

“Every time the Ukrainians get money, everything goes wrong,” reads another quote in German next to a picture of Selena Gomez on what appears to be a page taken from a fashion magazine.

"It's just disappointing how the Ukrainians use our help,” a quote, also in German, reads next to a picture of Kim Kardashian speaking on stage. “Someone needs to stop this, seriously."

Though the images make it look like these quotes were said by Swift, Gomez, and Kardashian, they weren’t. They were the product of a pro-Russian network of fake Facebook and X accounts that created and disseminated an ad campaign suggesting that some of the most famous people in the world back Russia and detest Ukraine. Among the celebrities included are Beyoncé, Oprah, Gigi Hadid, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Cristiano Ronaldo. “Supporting Ukrainians is unacceptable,” reads a quote next to a photo of Oprah. “Their actions destroy lives and societies.”

The disinformation campaign, which was launched in November, reached at least 7.6 million people on Facebook alone, according to a database of the ads reviewed by WIRED and collected by Reset, a nonprofit that provides grants to those tackling disinformation. It’s still in progress, and two separate groups of disinformation researchers believe the campaign is run by a notorious Russian influence operation dubbed Doppelganger that has in the past been linked to the Kremlin. New information shared exclusively with WIRED suggests the campaign has links to Russia’s GRU military spy agency.

At the beginning of November, researchers at Reset discovered what they described as a “blitz campaign” by two networks of fake Facebook pages. Over the course of a week, the researchers saw at least 560 Facebook ads that feature images of celebrities alongside pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian quotes. While some of the ads reached only thousands of users, others spread far more widely. One featuring Cristiano Ronaldo reached over 115,000 people before it was deactivated. Alongside the image of Ronaldo was the quote “It's frustrating to see how the Ukrainians use our aid. Someone needs to stop this, seriously.”

Researchers at Reset believe that the campaign “exploits loopholes in Facebook’s ad verification and content moderation systems to foster hostility against Ukrainians and undermine EU support for Kyiv.” Including fake quotes from celebrities within images makes it harder for Facebook to spot a coordinated campaign, they added. The campaign, which specifically targeted people in France and Germany, also removed any links or additional text in the ads, making it harder for Meta to track it.

Doppelganger has been actively spreading disinformation on both Facebook and X for some time. The organization was unmasked in September 2022 by EU DisinfoLab, a nonprofit working to combat disinformation against the EU, but it had been operating since at least May 2022. The group used clones of media websites, including The Guardian and Bild, to spread disinformation, filling the fake sites with articles, videos, and polls designed to push pro-Kremlin talking points about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Facebook first announced action against Doppelganger in September 2022, and said it was removing pages and accounts associated with the campaign.

In June 2023, another campaign targeting major French websites including Le Parisien, 20 Minutes, Le Monde, and Le Figaro was exposed by the French government. “French Minister supports the murder of Russian soldiers in Ukraine,” read one fake headline on a page that looked like Le Monde during that campaign.

Despite being repeatedly found out, the operators of Doppelganger have managed to continue their work: They also created fake versions of Fox News and other news websites to seed chaos and confusion during the Israel-Hamas war.

While Doppelganger campaigns in the past have been linked to the Kremlin in some media reports, new information from researchers tracking the disinformation campaign shows a link to Russia’s GRU.

A network of bot accounts on X, which in the past have been used to push Doppelganger’s fake websites, has also been used to push people to websites with direct links to Russia’s military spy agency. “Doppelganger bots promoted two sites recently, which both have strong connections to GRU,” researchers at Antibot4Navalny, a Russian anti-disinformation research group that has been closely tracking Doppelganger activity on X, tell WIRED. The researchers did not want to be identified due to security concerns.

The first site promoted by the Doppelganger bots was ObservateurContinental.fr. The Whois data, a public record of information related to the registration of a website, for this site shows that it is connected to InfoRos, a news agency previously linked to the GRU that operates hundreds of websites to push Kremlin propaganda. InfoRos was first reported to be a front organization for GRU Unit 54777 by The Washington Post in 2018. At the time, the group was said to have been active as far back as 2014 to spread disinformation about Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

The second site pushed by Doppelganger bots targeted Germans. In October 2022, an investigation by the German newspaper Die Welt found that the author of content on the EuroBRICS site was being paid directly by InfoRos, which is registered as the operator of the EuroBRICs website by the German domain registrar.

Many of the same images from Doppelganger’s campaign, along with others targeting an English-speaking audience, were also shared on X by the same network of bots that have previously shared links to the Doppelganger campaigns.

“We collected a whopping 75-plus fake quotes by celebrities from the US and EU, all massively posted recently by bots of Doppelganger, the pro-Kremlin influence campaign,” one of the researchers at Antibot4Navalny tells WIRED.

The campaign on X, which coincided with the Facebook campaign, used over 10,000 bot accounts, according to the researchers. In the space of one eight-hour period, the bots posted over 27,000 messages. At one point, the bot accounts were posting 120 messages every minute.

The posts on X are identical to those posted as ads on Facebook identified by Reset, except that some of these posts were in English. The X campaign also featured mocked-up versions of celebrities’ verified Instagram accounts, making it seem as if screenshots of celebrity Instagram accounts, using similar anti-Ukraine quotes, were being shared.

X did not respond to a request for comment from WIRED about the Doppelganger campaign. Since Elon Musk took control of the platform in October 2022, he has eliminated most of the company’s trust and safety team, and disinformation has flourished on the site, especially around breaking news events like the recent Israel-Hamas war.

One of Reset’s researchers, who did not want to be identified to protect their privacy, tells WIRED that, in recent days, researchers have seen Doppelganger’s celebrity-based campaign evolve. Some ads on Facebook now, like the ones on X, feature screenshots that appear to show verified Instagram accounts of the same celebrities, adding a further layer of authenticity to the campaign. In one case, a screenshot of a fake Instagram post from the entrepreneur Richard Branson suggests that he believes America was behind the Nord Stream explosion.

The researcher also found video ads that feature real footage of celebrities with fake audio dubbed over the top, which they say have been created with text-to-speech apps. The researchers at Reset were unable to identify which app was being used to automate the creation of the videos. One example reviewed by WIRED showed footage of German filmmaker Wim Wenders speaking in English about his own films, dubbed to make it appear as if he was speaking in French about how “the Ukrainians are ruined.” The ad was posted to Facebook on November 25 and was seen by up to 3,000 people before it was removed for failing to have the “required disclaimer,” according to Facebook’s ad library.

While Facebook has taken down the majority of the pages, some of them remain active, and the campaign shows glaring gaps in Meta’s ability to deal with disinformation on this scale.

Meta declined to respond on the record to WIRED’s request for comment about the campaign and the network of fake accounts created to disseminate the false ads. In a report from August, however, Meta acknowledged that Doppelganger was the “largest and most aggressively persistent covert influence operation from Russia that we’ve seen since 2017.”

The automated creation of accounts on Facebook is a well-known problem, and Meta has deployed a variety of artificial intelligence systems to combat efforts to mass-create fake pages and accounts. By its own admission, Facebook deletes millions, and sometimes billions, of fake pages every quarter, sometimes within minutes of their creation. Meta claims that around 5 percent of its monthly average users are fake, but outside experts say that figure is substantially higher.

While the Doppelganger group ran the campaign, the fake Facebook pages it used were purchased from an agency that specializes in creating massive networks of inauthentic pages on Facebook, according to Reset. They are still investigating who created these initial networks, but the researchers say this campaign was pushed out by two separate networks they identified containing 52,000 and 25,000 pages respectively. In October, Reset published a report identifying even larger networks of inauthentic Facebook pages, including one that had over 340,000 inauthentic pages. Despite having been identified publicly, these networks are still operating today.

With a number of major elections taking place in 2024, experts are again concerned about Meta’s ability to reign in disinformation.

“Meta’s sloppy product safety is a security liability for both Europe and the US as we approach next year’s elections,” Felix Kartte, EU director at Reset claims to WIRED. “Threat actors will continue exploiting loopholes in Facebook’s advertising systems to target deceptive and inflammatory content at millions of voters in the world’s biggest democracies.”

[nanowrimo]

5 Ways Journaling Can Help You Write Your Novel

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Day One, a 2023 NaNoWriMo sponsor, is an award-winning journaling app. Today, author and journaling expert Kristen Webb Wright shares a few tips on how journaling can help your creative writing:

Aspiring novelists often find themselves on a challenging journey to bring their stories to life. The blank page can be intimidating, and writer's block can strike at any moment. However, there's a powerful tool that can help you overcome these hurdles and fuel your novel-writing dreams: journaling. 

Journaling is more than just recording daily events or jotting down your thoughts—it's a practice that can supercharge your creative process and sharpen your storytelling skills. In fact, numerous famous writers kept journals or diaries throughout their lives, using their personal chronicles to cultivate their literary masterpieces

 Here are five ways journaling can help you write your novel:

1. Draw Inspiration from Everyday Life

Novel writing often draws inspiration from the events and experiences of everyday life. Use your journal to document intriguing encounters, interesting conversations, or even mundane moments that can be woven into your story. Everyday life is a treasure trove of material for creating relatable and authentic narratives. Your journal can serve as a repository of these real-life gems.

2. A Private Space to Explore Ideas

Journaling offers a unique and private sanctuary where you can explore your wildest ideas without judgment or fear of criticism. It's a space where you can experiment with unconventional plot twists, quirky characters, or daring themes. Since your journal is for your eyes only, you can be completely honest and uninhibited in your exploration, allowing your creativity to soar to new heights.

3. Overcome Writer’s Block

Writer's block is a formidable adversary for novelists, but journaling can be your secret weapon to defeat it. When you're stuck, turn to your journal and simply write. Pour out your frustrations, write about your day, or describe your surroundings. The act of writing, even if it's unrelated to your novel, can kickstart your creativity and get the words flowing. Journaling serves as a safe space where you can experiment, break through creative barriers, and rediscover your writing flow.

4. Develop and Organize Plots and Character Details 

A well-organized plot is crucial for a successful novel. Journaling can help you outline and structure your story effectively. Use your journal to jot down plot ideas, timelines, and chapter summaries. Create mind maps or visual diagrams to visualize your story's progression. The act of putting your novel's elements on paper will help you maintain a clear and organized narrative as you write.

5. Track Progress and Set Goals

Writing a novel is a significant undertaking, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Journaling provides a space for tracking your progress and setting achievable goals. Record your daily or weekly word counts, celebrate milestones, and reflect on your writing journey. You can even use your journal to set writing goals and deadlines. It's a motivational tool that keeps you accountable and focused on completing your novel.

Journaling is a versatile and invaluable tool for aspiring novelists. So, why not pick up your journal and start harnessing its power to write the novel you've always dreamed of? Every word you write in your journal is a step closer to bringing your story to life.

Start your journaling journey today, and watch your novel flourish like never before. Happy writing!

All NaNoWriMo participants get 25% off a Day One Premium subscription throughout November. Use the discount code NANOWRIMO at https://dayone.me/subscribe to claim it. Offer expires November 30, 2023.

Kristen Webb Wright is the author of three books on journaling. With a passion for writing and self-reflection, Kristen uses her experience with journaling to help others discover the benefits of documenting their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. In her role at Day One Journal, she helps to promote the power of journaling so people from all walks of life can experience the transformative power of journaling.