Dear Friends,
To add meaning to the holiday season, every Christmas I help raise funds for Bread for the World through my traveling friends and network at Rick Steves' Europe. In this tumultuous year, the needs and the opportunity are particularly great. And that means the rewards are too!
I'd love to send you a special Christmas package as thanks for making a $100 gift to Bread for the World. Last year, more than 2,400 travelers joined us. And this year I'm hoping we'll do even better. That's why I'm inspired to offer you this personal challenge: I'll match all gifts up to $250,000. Imagine, as an extended family of caring (and traveling) people, together we can empower Bread for the World's work with $500,000.
Please share this challenge with your loved ones and make your donation today.
I believe hungry people need a strong and compassionate advocate like Bread for the World. 2017 has been an especially challenging year as President Trump and our current Congress have been pushing for unprecedented cuts in nearly all the programs that help poor people in our country and around the world. But Bread for the World has worked with many other concerned groups to maintain a "circle of protection" around anti-poverty programs. Remarkably, Congress has not actually cut funding for any anti-poverty programs so far!
While the challenges are great, we have more reason for hope than ever. Rates of extreme poverty and hunger have been decreasing around the world. And the United Nations' goal of ending extreme hunger and poverty by 2030 is within reach.
I see Bread for the World not as a charity, but as a service. If we care about hunger, in my estimate, there is no more effective way to put our dollars to work to fight it. Bread transforms our concern about hunger into effective action by smartly — and doggedly — going into the halls of our government and speaking up (or "lobbying") for hungry people in our country and around the world.
So here's my challenge to you this Christmas: Help Bread for the World with your gift of $100 or more. As a thank you, I'll match your gift and send you these three gifts from my Rick Steves' European Christmas collection: - Rick Steves' European Christmas DVD (our public-TV special celebrating a traditional, non-commercial, and sacred Christmas in seven different countries)
- Rick Steves' European Christmas coffee-table book (the fun insights and best photos I gathered while producing the special)
- Rick Steves' European Christmas music CD (produced while filming, featuring our 20 favorite European carols — this CD is my personal favorite for fresh new Christmas-season music)
I'll happily pay for the cost of the gifts, as well as the shipping, so Bread for the World can put 100 percent of your donation to work giving a voice to hungry people.
Make your gift by Dec. 10 to receive this offer — and you'll get everything (along with our latest travel newsletter) in time for Christmas.
By the way, for every dollar Bread for the World raises, it leverages $100 in terms of assistance and funding that is vital to hungry and poor people in our country and abroad. (That's the great thing about advocacy — our government wants to do the right thing, when properly encouraged.) Assuming that ratio holds, if we hit our $500,000 target, it will mean that, together, we'll generate 50 million dollars of life-giving, hope-instilling funding.
Thanks and Merry Christmas,
Rick Steves
P.S. As an alternative thank-you gift, you're welcome to select my Complete Collection DVD Box Set + 10 New Shows which includes the entire library of more than 100 Rick Steves' Europe TV shows, specials, and extras.
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