Thank you for helping NikeTalk provide $8,956 to Room to Read and the Human Rights Campaign!

After a hectic end to 2011, I'm pleased to announce our first donations of the new year.  
As many of you already know, we at NikeTalk donate our ad revenue to charity.  In this way, you're able to contribute to important social and environmental causes simply by visiting NikeTalk and supporting our advertising.  

We've opted to divide last quarter's revenue among two very worthy recipients, Room to Read and the Human Rights Campaign.  



Veteran users may recall that we sponsored the construction of a library in Vhingri, Nepal, which was completed in 2010.  (We actually have a similar project in the pipeline, but that's an announcement for another day.)  This time, we've opted to support their Girls' Education Program.  

While most of us take education for granted, over 93 million children around the world aren't able to attend school.  The overwhelming majority of these children are girls.  In developing nations, 42% of girls aren't enrolled in school.  

No family should be forced to choose which children will attend school and which will remain behind.  Thanks to Room to Read and the Girls' Education Program, just $250 can provide a full year of education and support services designed to help students prosper.  It is a remarkably efficient, successful, and cost-effective program and one that we're thrilled to support.

The Human Rights Campaign is one of the premier LGBT support and advocacy organizations in the United States.  Programs developed by the HRC include family, workplace, and campus projects, including an HBCU outreach program.  

Given the recent, well-publicized use of heterosexist slurs by Kobe Bryant and Joakim Noah, we felt it was important to lend our support as a community to the HRC and its efforts to promote and protect LGBT rights.  As hard as we've worked and will continue to work to ensure that NikeTalk remains a safe, welcoming environment to all users, one need look no further than our own community to recognize just how necessary the HRC's work is - and just how much work remains to be done.  We all need to work together to model the change we wish to see in society at large, and that starts right here in our own forums.  

On behalf of the entire team, thank you for making these donations possible through your continued support of the NikeTalk community.  

We hope this will serve as the first of many donation announcements to come in 2012.  Stay tuned!