You’ve seen the commercials.
We all have.
They go something like this:
“For as little as the cost of a cup of coffee a day, your recurring monthly donation means that Billy and 10 of his classmates can get get a hot breakfast and lunch at school every day.”
These commercials touch your heart, move you to care about Billy and his classmates while realizing that you can make a HUGE difference and all you have to do is give up your daily cup of coffee at Starbucks.
And that’s amazing! It truly is. And the ability to tie a dollar amount to a direct result…to KNOW the exact impact that your donation will make in such a tangible way, it’s a gift.
This gift, one of the greatest gifts that you can offer donors, is a gift that eludes us in our work. Why? Because our work is so varied and the benefits that our clients receive vary as widely as the types of crises that we address.
Let me give you a few examples:
Within 2 hours of being contacted, persuaded a local company, which had sold a defective lift chair to a disabled woman, to provide a better and non-defective replacement unit. The woman had been trying to get the company to replace her chair for nearly two months prior to contacting Help Now!
Teo had been approached by a company who then installed a water filtration system in his home. After installation, the payments had increased from a $5,000 bill to an $8,000 bill. Not knowing how he would make the payments, he came to Help Now! Our team discovered that not only did his house not need a water filtration system, but that the company didn’t have the proper licenses to operate in the state AND installed unnecessary systems in 30 homes in the Latino community. We were able to get the company to stop operations and get the families’ monies returned.
D.H. had recently divorced and made an honest mistake on her her taxes. The mistake caused the IRS to threaten to place a lien on her home and garnish her bank account in the amount of $500 a month leaving her with less than $1000 a month to pay all of her bills (electricity, insurance, food, gas, etc.). She had tried to negotiate with the IRS, but had no success. She felt scared, alone, helpless and desperate. Our team at Help Now! was able to negotiate on her behalf which allowed her to keep her home and make a payment that was within reason based on her current circumstances.
In each of the above instances, the clients that contacted us were feeling hopeless with nowhere to turn for assistance. At Help Now!, we’re able to use our knowledge and negotiation experience to advocate on behalf of our clients. In some cases, it can be a simple as getting a company to do the right thing and replace a defective piece of equipment, and in other cases, we may find that an entire group of people is being targeted and needs help combatting a wrong being thrust upon them.
Your donation helps to ensure that our advocates can keep helping. In some cases, it may be a simple phone call to help get a prescription filled, clothes for a poor family or getting a car running and the financial impact is a couple of hundred dollars of assistance that our advocates can find. In others, it may turn into advocating over a period of time resulting in thousands of dollars saved by righting a wrong.
At Help Now!, the most important thing for us is being a light of hope for those with nowhere else to turn. We turn wrongs to rights, a crisis into a memory and hopelessness into gratefulness.
With you by our side, we will continue to be that light for those that need our assistance the most.
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