February 7, 2017; Gizmodo
How many times already this morning did the news make you want to do something— anything—to ensure that justice gets a leg up? Nathan Pryor, a programmer, felt just that way, so he took a hackable version of Amazon’s Dash button and created a quick and easy way to donate to the ACLU whenever that enraged feeling rises.
Pryor wrote a custom script that automatically fills out the ACLU donation page with his name, address, and credit card info.
Sign up for our free newsletters
Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.
By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.
To ensure his bank account wasn’t accidentally drained were there a problem with his coding or the Dash button, Pryor had each $5 donation deducted from a pre-paid debit card. But once everything was working with the button, giving the ACLU a helping hand every time another terrible tweet appeared on his Twitter timeline became as easy as restocking his pantry.
In the spirit of open source, Pryor has shared his custom programming and made it available for download on GitHub. However, as Gizmodo warns, “you’ll want to be very careful with it, as he’s included no failsafes or error checking. So if something changes on the ACLU’s donation page, you could find yourself with a massive tax write-off.”
We appreciate the creativity with which people are encouraging one another to donate to the ACLU. (You can read yesterday’s NPQ newswire on the “Bowling Green Massacre” memorial website for more on this subject.) But we hope that people will also remember that thousands of small nonprofits without such high profiles are mobilizing in every small corner of this country. You could walk right in the front door there—and maybe hand them a check and sign up for a vigil, too.—Ruth McCambridge
