My Nonprofit Reviews
ExorcisingEmily
Review for Random Acts, Inc. , Dover, DE, USA
I had the pleasure of participating once again in the Annual Melee of Kindness on March 5-6, and it was everything I love about Random Acts. Thousands of people across the globe spent their weekend doing small acts of kindness in their local community, with the organization offering suggestions, tips, and support for the months leading up to the event.
Random Acts endeavors to show that charity doesn't have to be stodgy, and kindness isn't something only those with the financial means to spare can spread. In my community we collected coloring books and crayons, easy paper crafts, word searches, and books for the local children's hospital. Friends in our group hand-made small toys for the children, and everyone in my family (even my own young children) wrote get well cards for all of the children. After, we got the wishlist for the local no-kill animal shelters and brought them a cart full of food, toys, treats and cleaning supplies. We dropped a load of donated books off for our local 'Little Free Library,' and we gave a load of donated toys to the battered women and children shelter.
It was a fun weekend, and a productive one: it brought friends together in a way to give back to the community, and brought the online Random Acts supporters together online swapping stories on everyday ways to give back.
Every month Random Acts has a #GetKind focus, encouraging their followers to help out in specific areas of need (this month it's single mothers), encouraging them to find someone in their local community to help, and swap ideas for how to do so.
While I love the larger projects that Random Acts facilitates (the orphanage in Haiti, the high school in Nicaragua, the crisis hotline), I appreciate that more than any other charity I've every supported, they encourage people to get INVOLVED. You know your money is going to a good place with those large scale projects, and small groups of volunteers are part of making each of those happen. Even more than that, though, you know that you can make an impact on a local and personal level, and that Random Acts is there to help you do so.
More Feedback
Would you volunteer for this group again?
Definitely
For the time you spent, how much of an impact did you feel your work or activity had?
Life-changing
Did the organization use your time wisely?
Very Well
Would you recommend this group to a friend?
Definitely
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2016
Review for Random Acts, Inc. , Dover, DE, USA
I believe in charity and fandom: it's a concept that I have supported for years in other fandoms, and have put at the center of every fan group I've ever been involved in. The idea of fans, like the people reviewing on this page, taking something that they love and using it to do real good in the world is something that I wholeheartedly support.
Fandom has a great deal of power, because fans are dedicated, passionate, and involved, and there is so much more that we can do with that passion than just yell at each other on the Internet. There are one-star reviewers on here sneering at Random Acts as if it should be ashamed that it is supported by a fanbase. It's a kind of internalized contempt for fans--a sense of shame at being an active, invested fan voiced by other fans who hold different views on the source material. It's the obsessive, destructive side of fandom: and I think we have had enough of that in the world.
I don't support Random Acts because I'm some "underaged starry-eyed twittering fangirl convinced Misha Collins is a god." I support Random Acts because it encourages fans to get out into the community and give back to it. Even fans that can't contribute monetarily are encouraged to do acts of kindness in fun, engaging ways. Charity doesn't have to just be done just through the pocketbook or in grueling work that feels like penance for not having it as bad as some others.
By taking kindness and making it something fun, Random Acts built a community of its own, people who banded together to do good and have fun in it. I made it a family affair, myself, and brought my children in to run AMOK with me, to do E4K, GISHWHES, RA4M, and other events--and I also encouraged them to find ways to give back even without an event, and even if they were unrecognized for the act.
As someone who HAS also donated monetarily, though, I have to say that the attacks on here are unfounded as well. The financial reporting period for Random Acts is December. It stands to reason that you won't see their financial statements updated on their website until after that. And yet, when fans "concerned" about Random Acts requested the financials prior, they were given them. They continued "concern trolling" (that is, trying to cast aspersions by "raising the question" loudly and repeatedly regardless of the veracity of their concerns/complaints) on Twitter, and Random Acts reached out on Twitter asking if there was any additional information they could provide.
If the argument is that what you wanted wasn't on the website when you wanted it, Random Acts went above and beyond in making sure that was no more than a mild inconvenience. Meanwhile, all of their other records were available on charity sites, like this, and on their website.
They go on to sneer at individual projects, demanding explanations for them. When they receive the updates from fans linking them, and when the charity updates to give it all in one place, they sneer at the fact that RA compiled the information and restated: as if in providing answers directly, it's somehow proving that Random Acts was doing something shady prior.
So yes. I encouraged people to come give their own positive reviews of Random Acts based upon their own experiences. That's what this site encourages when there are trolling negative reviews left (I should know: I checked their guidelines, FAQ, Terms of Use, etc). And yes, this site received a great deal of positive reviews all at once. That's not because of "a dozen or so people who are perpetually giving five-star reviews." That's because Random Acts has a lot of supporters, and my followers and THEIR followers circulated the information among them that there were a one or two petty individuals leaving one-star reviews that were attacking their fellow fans and the organization they support.
They attack the individual appearance of Random Acts staff members and volunteers. They attack the character of the fans supporting it, and they post over and over again, weekly, the same baseless attacks. Attacks that, if you follow them back, originated on the Twitters of people who genuinely hate Misha Collins, and on the "Anti-Misha" and "Destiew" tags on Tumblr.
I can provide evidence for that, as well.
But I'm fairly certain you don't care about evidence, by now.
More Feedback
Would you volunteer for this group again?
Definitely
For the time you spent, how much of an impact did you feel your work or activity had?
Life-changing
Did the organization use your time wisely?
Very Well
Would you recommend this group to a friend?
Definitely
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2015
