#GivingTuesday is a world-wide movement to unleash the transformative power of generosity and positively impact communities around the world. It was started in 2012 as a way of remembering that Thanksgiving isn’t about getting but about giving.

The generosity of Americans has long been recognized around the world. In fact, the World Giving Index reports that the United States has been the most generous country in the world over the past decade.

#GivingTuesday is a special opportunity to express your commitment to bold proclamations of Judeo-Christian truth in the public square. This past year has further revealed what many of us have been saying for years about the bias of the “news” media. Not only have they become overt in their narratives and activism, social media platforms have become emboldened to counter, flag, suspend and censor conservative posts. In the meantime, our unsuspecting neighbors are being fed lies with misleading, deceitful explicit and disturbing content by Leftist agents.

If you appreciate the work of the Illinois Family Institute to counter Leftists narratives in the public square and in the halls of our legislature, we encourage you to take part in this effort of sustaining our Christian values through support of our work and ministry. The IFI team works diligently to advance Biblical Truth. It is a wonderful opportunity to uphold faith, family, life, marriage and religious freedom.

With Thanksgiving weekend now behind us, please prayerfully consider giving #4Values on #GivingTuesday.

With your support, we will strengthen our efforts to uphold marriage, family, life and liberty in the Land of Lincoln.  With your help and generosity, IFI will remain strong.  And the good news is, donations to IFI are tax deductible!

If you’d rather send your donation by mail, our address is:

Illinois Family Institute
P.O. Box 876
Tinley Park, Illinois 60477

IFI is the only full-time organization in Illinois advocating for your family, for your faith and for our collective and individual freedoms at the Capitol in Springfield and in the public square. And without your partnership in this mission, we can’t get the job done.

Thank you for standing with us!

Sincerely,

David E. Smith
Executive Director

P.S. If you are a supporter of Illinois Family Institute and/or our sister organization Illinois Family Action – thank you for your faithful support!  Would you please forward this email to your family and friends or share on social media today? Thank you again!

Today, millions of Americans will make post-Thanksgiving charitable donations on what has become known nationally as #GivingTuesday. We hope you will, too!

#GivingTuesday is a special day for Illinois Family Institute (IFI) because we do not operate by taxpayer funding, grants, or loans. In other words, the work and ministry of IFI is supported solely by the generosity of private donors, like you. This separation from government influence allows us to advance our mission unimpeded.

Therefore, we invite you to take part in this effort of sustaining your Christian values through support of the Illinois Family Institute. The IFI team works diligently to advance Biblical Truth. It is a wonderful opportunity to uphold faith, family, life, marriage and religious freedom.

With Thanksgiving weekend now behind us, please prayerfully consider giving #4Values on #GivingTuesday.

With your support, we will strengthen our efforts to uphold marriage, family, life and liberty in the Land of Lincoln.  With your help and generosity, IFI will remain strong.  And the good news is, donations to IFI are tax deductible!

If you’d rather send your donation by mail, our address is:

Illinois Family Institute
P.O. Box 876
Tinley Park, Illinois 60477

IFI is the only full-time organization in Illinois advocating for your family, for your faith and for our collective and individual freedoms at the Capitol in Springfield and in the public square. And without your partnership in this mission, we can’t get the job done.

Thank you for standing with us!

Sincerely,

David E. Smith
Executive Director

P.S. If you are a supporter of Illinois Family Institute and/or Illinois Family Action – thank you for your faithful support!  Would you please forward this email to your family and friends or share on social media today? Thank you again!

Recently, I posted this article: George Soros Gets It: When Will More Wealthy Conservatives?

My goal was to spur wealthy conservatives to increase their giving to organizations like the Illinois Family Institute (IFI) and Illinois Family Action (IFA). While it’s nice for someone to see their name on a building at their alma mater, to be frank, it’s more important to save our state.

And Illinois is in need of emancipation.

Leftist millionaires and billionaires are increasingly showing up in the headlines after writing enormous checks to Leftist causes. George Soros is one who has shown he’s all in when it comes to fundamentally transforming the West, the United States especially.

Not only are billionaires funding Leftist causes but smaller dollar donors are as well. And those dollars add up.

That is certainly the experience of the Illinois Family Institute. Small dollar donations are what fuel most of the work that is accomplished by IFI and IFA. Over the past five years, the average donation was $97 a year.  Last year that number was down a bit to $87 a year.

Those numbers do not lie.

We just passed “Giving Tuesday,” “a global day to give, fueled by the power of social media and collaboration.” (Thank heavens its over: my inbox was inundated with fundraising emails!)

Americans are a generous people. Google it if you doubt that. Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars are given to charitable causes, including to individuals, foundations, and corporations. There are over a million and a half non-profits registered in the United States.

[Note: After this article was published, Robbie Richards from Rawhide Boys Ranch in Wisconsin, brought this interesting article and “charitable giving map” to my attention.]

The reality is that not all non-profits are equal. Some have endowments and budgets that boggle the mind. Some have lists of active donors to die for. Some, like IFI and IFA, are, in my opinion, greatly underfunded.

IFI and IFA’s real bottom line is winning hearts and minds. We’re in this fight because we see the need for more Illinoisans to realize that the pro-family, pro-life and pro-freedom movement is offering solutions to a morally and fiscally sick state.

The IFI team is working hard to engage the battle and would like to do so more aggressively in 2018. But we need your help to be successful.

We must work harder and smarter and engage on more platforms to disseminate conservative principles and precepts.

That is exactly what the Illinois Family Institute is all about: giving the people of Illinois the information they need to make good decisions and to act on those decisions.

We read this in Matthew 5: 13-16:

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

The Illinois Family Institute has the information necessary to equip every person living in our state and elsewhere to be salt and light.

But none of that life-giving information can do any good without your help.

You might be one of those people who read about George Soros-like donations and think that your donation of $25, or $50, or $100 a month to IFI is not important because it’s just a drop in the bucket by comparison, but that bucket is left half empty without smaller dollar donations. They are crucial!

To IFI and IFA’s current donors, we thank you for your continued support.

If you know others who share our vision of upholding and re-affirming marriage, family, life and liberty in Illinois,  please encourage them to visit our websites (Illinois Family Institute, Illinois Family Action) and support the work.

Click here to support Illinois Family Action (IFA). 
Contributions to IFA are not tax-deductible but give us the most flexibility in engaging critical political and partisan issues.

-OR-

Click here to support Illinois Family Institute (IFI).
Contributions to IFI are tax-deductible and support our lobbying, educational and grass-roots efforts.

You can also send a gift to P.O. Box 876, Tinley Park, IL  60477 or call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328.

Recent articles of interest:

Philanthropy Booms In the Trump Era—But It Also Gets Political: Such advocacy fails to provide direct and tangible benefits to individuals in need.

The Billionaire Socialists: Soros, Steyer, Bezos and Bloomberg are the big four antagonists of Liberty. But we’re here to counterpunch.

You’ve likely heard of “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday,” but do you know about “Giving Tuesday”?

It was started in 2012 as a way of remembering that Thanksgiving isn’t about getting but about giving. You might say this five-year-old campaign is an anti-#gettingstufffriday or #materialismmonday movement.

Today,  I invite you to take part in this effort by supporting our Christian values through your support of the Illinois Family Institute, which works  diligently to advance politically-incorrect truth. It is a wonderful opportunity to help us uphold faith, family, life, marriage and religious freedom.

With Thanksgiving weekend now behind us, would you prayerfully consider giving#4Values on #GivingTuesday.