Hello Coffees for Gaza community,

It's been 8 months since we announced our new fundraising model, which we hope will increase your connection with a particular family and lessen the workload on our volunteers. We're reaching out today to you for two reasons:

When you look at your bank or credit card statement, if you see a transaction each month to Coffees For G.za, then you are still making your monthly gift through Open Collective. We will be closing down this platform soon, and your action is needed. We cannot switch you over to our new Family Sponsor Program ourselves, so please fill out this form so that we can match you with a family.

If you see a monthly donation on your bank statement that starts with Chuffed or GoFundMe, then you have already made the switch to the Family Sponsor Program. Thank you so much!!

Fill out this form, and a volunteer will be in touch with you within the week. You'll be matched with a particular family, with instructions on how to make a monthly gift to that family's Chuffed or GoFundMe campaign. We'll also give you instructions on how to cancel your Open Collective monthly donation. 

We know that some of you are very familiar with our work, and others may have heard about us from a friend a year ago or more. So here's a quick refresher:

Coffees for Gaza is a grassroots collective of volunteers who use artivism (art + activism) to encourage donations for 25 families in Gaza. For as little as a the cost of a cup of coffee, you can support families resisting genocide.

The families we support were all carefully verified as genuine by members of our team, so you can be sure your money is going to the right people. We have been in close relationship with them since May 2024.

While we engage in fundraising all year round with families, you may have heard about us through our signature event Peacetober, which offers a daily artivism challenge through the month of October, and ends in an auction that raises thousands of dollars for our families. 

The Family Sponsor model will make a big difference both to our families and to 3 of our key volunteers who currently do a massive amount of work allocating monthly donations to families each month.

Because you'll be matched with a specific family, we hope this will give you a chance to develop a greater connection with them.

We have struggled greatly to recruit new volunteers, and three of our key leaders are struggling with exhaustion. By switching off of Open Collective to the Family Sponsor program, you'll lighten their workload.  

We are so thankful to the 80+ people so far who have signed up to donate a total of approximately 1300 Great British Pounds per month through the Family Sponsor Program. These family sponsors have been assigned to 11 of our highest need families who frequently run out of funds for food, medicine, and other essentials. 

Family Sponsors have also been lifesavers for families who have emergency medical needs. When Nourhan's little boy needed two emergency surgeries, the monthly gifts she received were a big help. As Abdullah's and Fadi's family have both struggled to support seriously ill family members with complex medical conditions, donations from family sponsors have provided critical support.

Still, the needs of the 11 families who have Family Sponsors assigned to them are far greater than what they're receiving right now. We also have several more families who we'd like to assign sponsors to, but we just don't have enough donors signed up for the program yet. 

Though a ceasefire is technically in effect, very little has changed for our families. Bombings and missile attacks still happen. Almost all of Gaza's infrastructure has been destroyed, so there are no sanitation and water services. Jobs are almost non-existent. Most of our families are living in battered tents or damaged apartments or houses, and the summertime heat is unbearable. Almost every family living in tents in Gaza is dealing with rat infestations.

Most aid from organizations is still being blocked by Israel, so mutual aid groups like ours are still essential. The Family Sponsor Program can offer stability to our families who are in the most urgent need, if enough people show up.

If you have another question about Coffees for Gaza, please email [email protected]. (You'll get a faster response by using that email address rather than replying to this message.)

With love and solidarity,
Rebekah, Billy, and the Coffees for Gaza team

P.S. Even if you're not able to become a Family Sponsor right now, we hope you'll stay up to date with our work by signing up for our email newsletter.