STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Pepper · Kenneth Cole

UNICEF Donation

Mia · Kate Spade

They should have contact info on their website...maybe give 'em a call? Although on that note I am sure they don't have a lot of spare staff to answer/send e-mails/phonecalls right now. UNICEF is completely trustworthy so even if there was a screw-up I am sure it can be sorted out.

nyc_shopgirl · Dooney & Bourke

Not to get political but I would stick with the American or INternational Red Crosses for donations. I do not trust the UN or UNICEF after the whole oil for food debacle

Mia · Kate Spade

Yeah...those thieving bastards at UNICEF are probably spending all the $ on hookers and coke.

Good lord.

Pepper · Kenneth Cole

Oh no what happened? I didn't hear about that. I really hope my money goes to the right place. I'm always skeptical of places to donate to and which ones.

Mia · Kate Spade

Pepper, I was being sarcastic. You can Google "oil for food" and "Iraq" and get a rundown of the program/scandal there. However, UNICEF is a different arm of the UN (the oil for food program was run by the UN secretariat and administered - I think - by members of the security council) and I think it is fairly uncontroversial to say that UNICEF operations in the Indian ocean right now have *nothing* to do with the oil for food program.

Here's a link to a story by the Economist (i.e. fairly well balanced rather than too left or right) about the oil for food deal: http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2618260

I understand that people have mixed feelings about the UN (in general, politically) but it feels a little irresponsible to be discouraging UNICEF donations at a time like this.

-- Edited by Mia at 18:40, 2005-01-02

nyc_shopgirl · Dooney & Bourke

Mia, I just stated that I think people should look into OTHER organizations not to discourage them from donating entirely. People need to trust the organization they are donating to ensure that their money will be used in fact to help people and not for administrative expenses.

Also I would highly encourage everyone to check to see if their company will match their donation. Mine did.

mckenke · BCBG

I am a bit partial since I work for UNICEF, so I am going to refrain from discussing where your money should go, but I wanted to respond to Pepper. We had a little backlog this weekend for our website donations we have received a large amount of donations over the web (larger than anything we have received in the past), so it is taking us a little while to catch up. If you don't receive a confirmation in a couple days let me know and I can follow up for you. But be assured we already transferred 6 million of the funds we received over the web and it is being used to send medical kits, oral rehydration salts, medicines, tents and school-in-a-box kits, etc. so it is being put to good use.

Mia · Kate Spade

Yeah, nyc...I didn't mean to sound so snappy. I just get a little spazzy when I think people are bashing UNICEF because it's part of the UN.

Mckenke - how did you get work with UNICEF, if you are still reading this thread?

mckenke · BCBG

Thanks for defending UNICEF Mia! I started working for UNICEF after I finished my masters in Arab Studies. I did mostly human rights work during graduate school and I started with UNICEF doing mostly fundraising with non-governmental organizations. Now I work on our HIV/AIDS programs. I serve as the laison for U.S. based fundraisers to our field work, but with the large response from the tsunami I have been fielding some calls and emails from interested donors because we are a bit overwhelemed by the donor response (it's great, but more response than we usually get on any sort of emergency).