If you’re like me, you are probably getting many requests for end-of-year gifts. How do you begin to sort through all the requests for support? Especially when there are so many worthwhile organizations doing important work! It’s always a challenge, one I take very seriously as I prayerfully decide where I send checks and how much I can give.
Here’s how I decide. I begin with a series of questions: What is this organization doing? What is their mission? What are they doing that no one else is doing? How are they accomplishing their mission? What is their strategy? Are they doing it well, effectively, and with creative imagination?
Then I write and mail my checks knowing that I’m supporting good, effective, difference-making organizations. I try to give as generously as I am able, knowing how much organizations depend on generous and faithful support.
To that end, I hope you are encouraged by the important work of the CBC in the niche space in which we work—bioethics, third-party reproduction, and biotechnology—committed always to human dignity. Our strategy is to reach the grassroots as well as the gatekeepers of culture, and we have been effective on university campuses, in the national media, and in legislative halls. Our award-winning films have sold around the world, educating many and having a life-affirming impact!
Here’s a glimpse of what your gifts made possible in 2013:
- Updated, expanded, and released a new version of Eggsploitation.
- Began and have almost finished our newest documentary, Breeders: A Subclass of Women?
- Traveled all over the U.S. doing multiple screenings of Eggsploitation and Anonymous Father’s Day on major university campuses.
- Educated and briefed legislators in seven states, and laws that are pro-women and pro-children were passed.
- Continued to sell our films all over the world—Eggsploitation has been translated into four other languages!
- Made Anonymous Father’s Day available online via on demand pay-per-view.
- Spoke to college students, legislators, seminarians, pastors, and lawyers at multiple conferences—often to standing-room-only crowds.
- Developed free, downloadable curriculum to go with all of our films on assisted reproduction.
In 2014, our work will not slow down. The needs are greater with the release of our newest film, due out in January. Demand for our educational testimonies at the state level continues to grow. Media requests are coming faster and more frequently as we are seen as a go-to organization especially on issues like egg donation and surrogacy.
We have accomplished so much this past year because of your generous gifts—we simply could not have done this without your support. Consider partnering with us as a monthly supporter. Purchase bulk copies of our films to share with your friends! Whatever you do, please give generously toward the ongoing work of the CBC.
We are counting on your end-of-year gift to help us start 2014 with the confidence that we have the resources on hand for what this next year has in store.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year from all of us at the CBC!
Jennifer C. Lahl
President, The Center for Bioethics and Culture
Author Profile
- Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.
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