Dear John, It’s #GivingTuesday. That day when every non-profit and charity from across the nation asks you for your support. It also happens to be International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Are you overwhelmed by it all? Maybe even a little annoyed? We get it. We are too. That’s why we made the ‘Not So Giving Tuesday’ video. 
Follow this link for an audio description version of the 'Not So Giving Tuesday' video For real, though. We understand you get a lot of requests at this time of year. So let us tell you what sets the National Disability Rights Network apart from the rest. Over the past year, our network has undertaken a massive nationwide effort to monitor and investigate misuse, abuse, and exploitation by those administering Social Security funds for people with disabilities. In the course of our monitoring, we have uncovered cases in which people with disabilities have had their money stolen and mismanaged. Worse, we have found people with disabilities living in squalor and abused by the very people who were supposed to be caring for them. If it were not for our unique access authority, it is likely this abuse would never have been uncovered. This authority, which no other disability rights group in the nation has, also allows us entry to the immigration detention facilities where children separated from their parents are being held. Because of this, we felt it was our responsibility to go behind the fences to ensure that children with disabilities, no matter where they came from, were being cared for and their needs addressed. Our only concern is for their safety and we fought – successfully - to gain access to them. This past year we have dramatically expanded our efforts to reimagine emergency preparedness, response and recovery. Too often people with disabilities are forgotten or ignored during disasters and very few organizations are working to correct that fact. But we are. NDRN now has partnership agreements with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the American Red Cross, the National Association of State Fire Marshals and the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies. We are connecting emergency responders and planners with our network to further a national discourse on inclusive emergency management that saves lives. In every state and territory, our network provides a lifeline to people who have no other options. In jails and prisons. In schoolhouses and courthouses. In institutions and group homes. Wherever and whenever we are needed. Our network is there to protect the most vulnerable in our communities, providing advocates and attorneys to literally thousands of people with disabilities in need. No other organization can make this claim. Help us keep this work going. Your support on this #GivingTuesday will allow us to continue to fight for the rights of people with disabilities across the United States and the territories. Please give. | 
