Fellow OCFers:

As the end of the tax year approaches, it's time to begin thinking of the causes and the non-profit institutions we believe in and wish to support.

I've found the OCF website to be an invaluable source of information and support this year as my mother and I lived through the diagnosis and treatment of her oral cancer. I plan to make a gift and I hope others of you who are able will do so too.

As a professional fundraiser (not for OCF), I can tell you that the small gifts of many people really do make a difference. (That's not to say that big gifts aren't awfully helpful too!)

I just want to go on record urging all of us to consider doing what we can to help support this wonderful site.

Sandra

P.S. to Brian. I tried to make a gift on-line just now but the on-line form added $6.00 UPS charge to my gift, so I did not complete the transaction. I will send by snail mail. However, this may be something you need to look at. Also, I wasn't sure what the difference is between a membership and a donation.

Sandra, thank you for the vote of confidence in OCF, and your offer to back that confidence up with financial support. While some organizations REQUIRE a membership or other financial expense to participate or gather information, I always believed that the information we provided should be available to all who need it regardless of their ability to financially join an organizations effort or pay for the information. My basic assumption was that if the quality of the service were good, if the support is helpful, then those who had it within their means would contribute and give something back. Perhaps I was overly optimistic in my assessment of the people who would need this type of site, since financial support like yours has not appeared as a matter of routine. Of course the recurring expenses of operating it and building new content etc. do continue. I hope this year as people consider giving their money to Uncle Sam, they think of OCF as an alternative, as each donation is tax deductible, (we are a registered 501c3 public charity) and so many people will be helped by it. With an average of a million hits a month on this web site, the public is definitely coming here for information. If each would only give a small amount, we could move this mountain. If anyone desires to read more about the reasons for contributing please go to this link within the site. http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/membership.htm

I remember years after returning from Vietnam being involved in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial issue. I was one of many who spent part of their life in that bloodbath. The US government, still licking it

Help Brian,

What am I doing wrong??? I am trying to make a dontion, but since I am already a member I went to the make a donation button - put in my amount -hit submit, but it brings up shopping items for my cart. And I couldn't get past that without putting something in my cart. I really don't want to buy anything at this time and couldn't figure out how just to send money through paypal. Can you tell I am computer technology challenged?

By the way - next time place a t-shirt order can you get some smaller ones?

Take care,
Dinah

Dinah, hit proceed to checkout without selecting any items. It will ask you for your email address and password, which if you have already been through this process once will bring up a screen with your name and address on it, and the amount of your donation. Please not that if you selected 250 dollars for your donation, the checkout shows 245 plus five dollars shipping, so the amount stays correct. At this stage it will ask you how you wish to pay, and to use PayPal, select secure credit card processing, which will take you into that part. Your only mistake was thinking that you had to buy something more to proceed further, which you do not, it just offers you things before sending you on. Choose none of them. As to the T's we will make some smaller than medium next time, but there are still 500 of them here that need to be sold or given away in promotions before our next order. If anyone is near one of the major cancer centers and would like to become our ambassador to the center, I'd like to hear from you. You can take some of the T's and give them to their current OC patient population to give them a little spirit boost. OCF will pick up all the costs.

Brian and others:

I just returned to the Donations/Membership section of this website and made a donation to OCF. It is as easy as making a purchase on-line. I heartily recommend it. It makes you feel good. And the cause is a terrific one!

Brian,

My cousin is the educational director at CTRC in San Antonio. I will try and find out from her how we could go about getting some materials to the OC patients. I'm not sure about the confidentiality thing. I'm sure she will help us, she' a breast cancer survivor. I'll see what I ca do?

Dinah