Image from the Scarleteen website.
Excellent news! Scarleteen, by far the largest and best sex-education site for young people, finally has 501©3 non-profit status… which means that donations to Scarleteen are now, finally, deductible for those who pay federal taxes in the United States.
Technically tax-deductibility shouldn’t matter, right? It’s either a good cause or it isn’t (in this case it’s a very good cause) and so why fret about giving? Well, maybe it doesn’t for you personally, especially if you can’t give more than $100, or $25, or $10, or $5 anyway, and especially if like gazillions of other people you file 1040-EZ tax forms and therefore don’t itemize your deductions anyway.
But here’s the thing: it does matter for businesses that already do the equivalent of itemizing. It matters to other non-profit organizations that are themselves limited to granting funds to other non-profits. And, probably most relevant to you if you work for someone else: it matters to employers who have agreed to match employee contributions.
And it matters particularly this month because an institutional donor that’s willing to match up to $3,000 worth of contributions made to Scarleteen in February. That means if you donate this month your contribution will be doubled. And if you donate through your employer your contribution will be quadrupled!
You can always just go to the Help Sustain Scarleteen page and make a donation. (I just did that and it worked great.)
But see also
So anyway, Scarleteen — a great cause and now tax deductable. What’s not to like?
P.S. If you’ve got a blog or otherwise use social media you can also help support Scarleteen by spreading the word.
P.P.S I didn’t notice this earlier but with donations over $75 you can receive a signed copy of the highly-recommended young adult sexuality guide, S.E.X.: The All-You-Need-To-Know Progressive Sexuality Guide to Get You Through High School and College, by Scarleteen founder Heather Corinna.
