A Message from Keren Taylor, Executive Director of WriteGirl!

Happy New Year!

This is going to be a good year – that’s the feeling we get in the WriteGirl office. We are getting all kinds of good news these days. Just to highlight a few things:

- One of our mentees, Alexandria Rakes, has won a Posse Scholarship to Tulane University. Congrats to her and kudos also to her mentor Rachel Fain.

- Three of our In-Schools mentees were awarded ALACOSA (Association of Los Angeles County Office School Administrators Awards) scholarships.

- Silhouette, which is being released this month, has been awarded First Place in the anthology category in the London Book Awards. That’s the second book award for Silhouette!

- WriteGirl is looking for mentors and volunteers for our 9th season of creative writing workshops and mentoring for teen girls.  WriteGirl welcomes all women of diverse professional backgrounds to join our energetic community.  Apply your professional skills, enrich a young woman’s life – and let her enrich yours! Help with events, college support, book marketing, mentoring, public relations and more. Our final orientation/training for new volunteers this season will be held on Saturday, January 16. For more information, visit www.writegirl.org or call 213-253-2655.

- Also, we would like to welcome Ali Prosch to our staff – she is joining us as Membership Coordinator. Though this is only her second week in the role, we’re confident she’ll make a terrific addition to the team.
We hope the New Year is treating everyone generously so far, and look forward to seeing some of you at the Poetry Workshop on January 30th!

Easy Ways to Help WriteGirl

Easy Steps to Signing Up with Ralph’s and Using iGive and GoodSearch to Benefit WriteGirl

Signing Up with Ralph’s Community Contribution Program:
Go to http://www.ralphs.com/myralphs/703/Pages/community_contribution.aspx.
Click “Enroll.” You’ll need to register with Ralph’s by providing your email address and a password. If you’ve registered in the past, simply sign in to your account. Next, you’ll need to enter your Ralph’s Rewards number (on the lower left corner of the back of your card). Click “Save Changes” and on the next page, enter your address and phone number. Click “Save Changes.” On the next page, you can search for your organization. Enter WriteGirl. WriteGirl will come up, complete with our address and organization number. It will also say that WriteGirl is a project of Community Partners. Select WriteGirl as your organization by clicking in the circle next to it so that the circle is now green. Save your selection by clicking “Save Changes.” WriteGirl will now receive a portion of your purchases at Ralph’s! You’ll even see some small print at the bottom of your receipt saying as much – it feels good!

Signing Up with iGive:
Go to http://www.igive.com/welcome/ On the left of the page will be two drop down menus asking for your state and cause. You can either choose California and Youth/Children and find WriteGirl (on page 51) or simply type WriteGirl into the keyword search. WriteGirl will come up on the right; click on its name. A description will pop up, and to its right, you can click on “Select this cause!” You’ll then need to fill in some required information (email, name, zip code, password, tax preference) and can fill in optional info if you wish. You can then install the iGive toolbar if you wish and your computer is compatible, since you’ll need to shop through iGive’s portal for donations to follow. Otherwise, simply start off at the iGive Mall and choose your store from there. If you make a purchase within 45 days, an extra $5 will go to WriteGirl. Over 700 stores participate with iGive, including Amazon.com, 1-800-PETMEDS, Barnes & Noble, the Gap, Apple, eLuxury, Drugstore.com, Enterprise Rental Car, FAO Schwartz, J. Jill, Kiehl’s, Kmart, L.L. Bean, Overstock.com, REI, Saks, Sur la Table, Victoria’s Secret, Williams Sonoma, … etc., etc. (donations vary per store, but some give as much as 6% of your purchase back to WriteGirl).

You can also start searching through iSearchiGive, a Yahoo!-powered search engine, which will donate a penny or more every time you search.

Using GoodSearch:
Go to http://www.goodsearch.com/ and where it asks you to “Choose your cause,” type in WriteGirl. WriteGirl, Los Angeles, CA will come up, and you’ll just complete your search, with a donation going to WriteGirl. Consider installing the GoodSearch toolbar or making it your homepage so you’ll search on it more often and thus raise more money for WriteGirl.

Thank you for donating to WriteGirl in all these ways and for passing along these instructions to your friends & family!