I've received an email, as I often seem to do, having a blog out there with an email address attached. Pledges for money, adverts and mutual links normally go straight in the bin but this one particular person was rather pushy, sending me no less than 3 emails using my name and in the end I checked it out. It turned out to be the American Express Members Project 2008. There are now 25 humanitarian projects left which compete for a place among the top 5 - then these last 5 will be subject to another voting round, deciding the winner of a huge sum of money funding its aims.Going through the list one by one I decided on a completely different project than the email had suggested I'd put my efforts into. This projects is called Project Brain Child and aims to research the genetic composition of tumors to be able to find the best suitable treatments. It touched me because last Christmas just two weeks after my dad passed away I lost my childhood friend to a brain tumor. I didn't even know she had taken ill, having been abroad for so long, and it was quite a shock. Torill was just a year younger than me!
Unfortunately the voting process is a rather complicated unless you have an American Express card. I logged in as guest member, having been assured I could then vote, only to be told I needed their card. So if you already have an american express card you can make a real difference, if not you can post something on your blog that might make other people make a difference, like me!
While I support these types of actions which hopefully will see 2.5 million dollars used to help people in one way or another, it is also a huge get-new-members campaign for American Express. The fact that you can't vote without a card from them seem rather to take advantage of this humanitarian deed. I think they would get just as many new customers letting more people vote (more people will know about it)- than restricting it and 'forcing' people to sign up (which they will not do!).
While I support these types of actions which hopefully will see 2.5 million dollars used to help people in one way or another, it is also a huge get-new-members campaign for American Express. The fact that you can't vote without a card from them seem rather to take advantage of this humanitarian deed. I think they would get just as many new customers letting more people vote (more people will know about it)- than restricting it and 'forcing' people to sign up (which they will not do!).
