The 2025 5-4 Giving Guide: Don’t Let the Fascists Keep You Down

[SPEAKER_00]: There's some charity people here to see you, sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: No!
[SPEAKER_00]: Send them away!
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of people more deserving than me.
[SPEAKER_03]: But these people want you to give.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Leon from Prologue Projects.
[SPEAKER_00]: On this week's episode of Five to Four, Peter, Riannon, and Michael are back with their annual tradition, the Five Four Giving Guide.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're feeling hopeless about this past year and nervous about what's to come, the hosts are here to tell you about some organizations that are trying to make things better.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you can't do either, it's very least keep listening to this show and telling your friends about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Five to Four, a podcast about how much this Supreme Court sucks.
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome to Five to Four, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have blockaded our civil rights, like Trump, blockading Venezuela and Waters.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Peter.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm here with Michael.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey, everybody.
[SPEAKER_04]: Enriana.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_04]: Happy holidays.
[SPEAKER_03]: Every week, a new metaphor for the escalating war in Venezuela.
[SPEAKER_03]: The gift that keeps on giving when it comes to metaphors.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Fitness Wheel is like a big country.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's got 30 million people.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't think we can accomplish regime change there without like a full-scale bore, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Trump administration saying, hold my beer, you know?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: My actual guess.
[SPEAKER_03]: as to what Trump and his folks are thinking about is that they're just going to send the message into Venezuela.
[SPEAKER_03]: Burger and a drone strike, you unless you leave.
[SPEAKER_03]: That I think is what is actually going to happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're going to start with assassination as their bargaining chip.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you just remove all norms and international laws from the table, isn't that what Trump would do?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is not even that weird.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not just Trump mindset.
[SPEAKER_02]: It predates Trump in terms of U.S. policy.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it does.
[SPEAKER_03]: But we used to not do the assassination until the end.
[SPEAKER_03]: You do an intervention first.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you murder the leader in something that looks like a little more democratic, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe you do like a sort of weird Saddam like trial, where you're like, is this a trial?
[SPEAKER_03]: What is this?
[SPEAKER_03]: Or the people rise up, like Kadafi, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, many flavors and kinds of interventions.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, hard pivot to the purpose of this episode, giving holiday season.
[SPEAKER_01]: Charity, supporting charities and fundraisers.
[SPEAKER_03]: Usually we would each provide three charities that you can give your money to.
[SPEAKER_03]: This year, we briefly thought about consolidating into one, the Luigi Manjoni Defense Fund.
[SPEAKER_03]: We've been told that he's doing fine.
[SPEAKER_03]: The things are actually going well for him, for my representation, for perspective, and so we pivoted back into our usual format.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, who wants to go first to your folks?
[SPEAKER_04]: I can go first.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm going to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_04]: So my first charity is about immigration.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's called immigration equality.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's been around for a long time, but it's not just an immigrant focus to charity.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's specifically a charity directed towards LGBTQ and HIV positive immigrants and asylum seekers.
[SPEAKER_04]: And they connect those people with pro bono attorneys, they advocate for changes in laws and regulations.
[SPEAKER_04]: They do impact litigation.
[SPEAKER_04]: They've been around for a while, and this is, I think an important cause right now obviously.
[SPEAKER_04]: we've seen already court cases and administration moves to limit the access of LGBTQ people to American immigration and obviously these are two intersecting areas of
[SPEAKER_04]: draconian crackdown right now, and this is a great organization.
[SPEAKER_04]: They have stellar long history of very good work of doing a lot with their money.
[SPEAKER_04]: I have the big independent board, all the hallmarks of a great charity.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's called Immigration Equality.
[SPEAKER_04]: Check them out.
[SPEAKER_04]: We'll have a link to their site in the show notes as we will with the rest of the charities.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can go next.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first organization that I want to talk about is one that listeners of 5-4 have heard me talk about before.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the PYM, the Palestinian Youth Movement.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am helping fundaries for the PYM this month and over the holiday season.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you all don't know, the PYM is a, you know, it's a grassroots independent movement of young Palestinian people in the Far Diaspora, organizing in our communities to end genocide, for liberation, organizing against ice, et cetera, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have
[SPEAKER_01]: Marched and mobilized along with hundreds of thousands of other people over the past two years in North America If you have attended a teaching or a community discussion about Palestine If you've learned anything from the PYM's Instagram, which has almost a million followers, then you know the importance of Palestinian Organizing and you can support Palestinian organizing Continuing in the United States
[SPEAKER_01]: In 2020, six, we are organizing for people's arms embargo against Israel and the end of the Israel's lobbies influence in our politics.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can check out the POM.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can donate.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a bit link that's bit.ly slash donate POM 2025 and we'll also have that link in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's Palestinian youth movement and you can also follow on Instagram of course at
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, my first charity, the Bridget Alliance, the Bridget Alliance provides practical support for abortion care, so not just funds for abortion, but travel, lodging food, child care, especially for people who live in the states where abortion is illegal.
[SPEAKER_03]: these things are essential, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: There are a lot of people across the country in red states, especially who lack not only funds for abortion, but who need assistance with logistics and the Bridget Alliance aims to sort of provide that kind of holistic support.
[SPEAKER_03]: So BridgetAlliance.org slash donate, Bridget is BRIGID BridgetAlliance.org slash donate, we'll have that in the show notes, of course.
[SPEAKER_04]: Cool.
[SPEAKER_04]: So back to me, a long time listeners who pay attention to our giving episode will know that I do like to put in something that is about animals or the environment in here.
[SPEAKER_04]: So this year I want to highlight a charity called trees for the future.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's an organization that works with farmers to revitalize land help.
[SPEAKER_04]: with sustainable land practices, planting trees, rehabilitating soil, and helping with food production.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a pretty cool thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: They have planted over a hundred million trees around the world, and claimed to be on track to plant one billion trees by 2030.
[SPEAKER_03]: How many trees are there in the world, Michael?
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know, if I don't need it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever that total is, plus one billion, okay?
[SPEAKER_03]: There's about to be more bitch.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, thanks to this org.
[SPEAKER_04]: Treating her planet well is good on its own, but doing it in ways that make growing food easier and more sustainable is great.
[SPEAKER_04]: Again, trees for the future trees.org.
[SPEAKER_04]: Check it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: nice website there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, my second fundraiser that I want to point people to more in the vein of mutual aid.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's a man, a PhD student in Gaza right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: His name is Wasim Saeed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wasim Saeed has been displaced multiple times over the course of the genocide and really sort of harrowingly and importantly wrote about his experiences over the course of the genocide was basically keeping a journal.
[SPEAKER_01]: over the course of his displacements and what he was witnessing and experiencing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those journal entries have been turned into a book that has just recently been published in English.
[SPEAKER_01]: That book is called Witness to the Hellfire of Genesis.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just published by Eteno for Books.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can check that out.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can check out with same science book.
[SPEAKER_01]: But a fundraiser, a mutual aid collection that was seen has started, is called for those who have no one to campaign for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I'm sure our listeners have seen families in Gaza or individuals in Gaza who start go fund me or other fundraisers so that they can get support which is awesome, but there are many, many, many people in Gaza who haven't had internet or language access to be able to create a go fund me for themselves that reaches Western audiences, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So, what seems
[SPEAKER_01]: to raise money for those in his community in Gaza who don't have that kind of access.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's raising collective mutual aid funds for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a chuffed campaign.
[SPEAKER_01]: If people know about the charity website, chuffed, the link is a little bit long.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, we'll put it in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you do go to chuffed.org, you can search with seam side.
[SPEAKER_01]: W-A-S-I-M-S-A-I-D. And the campaign is
[SPEAKER_04]: When you said this is a chuffed campaign, that sounds like some Gen Z slang like chuggy or something.
[SPEAKER_04]: Do it to me, this is such a chuffed campaign.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's like a go-fun-me or whatever.
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of people putting fundraiser's on there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Chuffed?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that is kind of weird.
[SPEAKER_02]: Chuffed?
[SPEAKER_02]: Chuffed?
[SPEAKER_03]: Chuffed?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'm chuffed up and ready to go.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: She's looking chuffed, man.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, my next couple I actually got from folks in our Slack who had some good recommendations.
[SPEAKER_03]: Indigenous women rising provides reproductive health education and resources to Indigenous women.
[SPEAKER_03]: that includes abortion funding.
[SPEAKER_03]: It also includes resources for survivors of sexual assault, which indigenous women experience at extremely high rates, some of the highest in the country.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the organization posts things like fuck Columbus on social media.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're here for that and want to support that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, just that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's one as I saw.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'll be voting now.
[SPEAKER_03]: I W rising dot org slash donate for indigenous women rising.
[SPEAKER_04]: All right, so my last organization is I recently moved back to New York City and is a New York-based organization called Food Bank for NYC and their website's foodbank NYC.org, very cool charity.
[SPEAKER_04]: They do all sorts of
[SPEAKER_04]: food-related things, distribution, food rescue that would otherwise be in the trash, education, advocacy, but what I really like about it is that it's also a volunteer platform.
[SPEAKER_04]: They work with a lot of groups in New York, and so you can go to their website.
[SPEAKER_04]: Obviously, you can donate and if you have the free cash you should, because there are a lot of hungry people in New York.
[SPEAKER_04]: But if you're here, you can register on their website.
[SPEAKER_04]: And once you're registered, you can put in your zip and go to their little volunteer calendar and see five opportunities to volunteer a day.
[SPEAKER_04]: Every day in your zip or near your zip code.
[SPEAKER_04]: Seen your center, civic communities, whatever.
[SPEAKER_04]: Click on it.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, some will be great out because it'll tell you how many.
[SPEAKER_04]: slots.
[SPEAKER_04]: There are what the thing looks like and you just sign up.
[SPEAKER_04]: You click sign up and then you can go Vontia.
[SPEAKER_04]: It makes it super easy.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's really cool.
[SPEAKER_04]: A really cool thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: And, you know, if you want to volunteer, it lowers the barriers to that so much.
[SPEAKER_04]: It makes it so easy to find opportunities and sign up for them.
[SPEAKER_04]: So check it out.
[SPEAKER_04]: Again, the website is FoodBankNYC.org.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a good one.
[SPEAKER_03]: I give a little defeat bank every year.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a cool thing that they do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, last one for me, folks, everybody listening to this knows about Lakal Kordia, a Palestinian woman who is currently in ice detention.
[SPEAKER_01]: A few weeks ago at this point we had an episode about Lakal an interview with her attorneys.
[SPEAKER_01]: She is in ice detention in a Texas immigration detention center 1500 miles away from her house in New Jersey.
[SPEAKER_01]: Her only offense, the only thing that she has done, right, is raising her voice after losing many extended family members in Gaza, is attending a protest in New York City.
[SPEAKER_01]: that made her the target of ICE, the Trump administration, and she is still in detention.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're now closing in on, I think, over 10 months.
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of being with her family right now, during what has been, you know, just an unbelievable indescribable past two years, LeCla is in ICE detention.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's sleeping on concrete floors.
[SPEAKER_01]: she's denied many of her religious rights and she is being punished straight up again for being Palestinian.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can support local academia by supporting her legal fund.
[SPEAKER_01]: You heard from some of the amazing attorneys that represent her.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are legal organizations, non-profits that are doing incredible work in the fight against ICE and the fight against the Trump administration right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can support LeClockCordidia's legal fund, tinyurl.com slash free LeClock fund, LeClock is spelled LEQAA Free LeClock fund.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so check that out if you can to support LeClockCordidia and the legal fight right now against ICE and these criminal deportations.
[SPEAKER_04]: Very important right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, my last charity, another recommendation from our Slack, the Wanda, Austin Foundation in Washington, DC.
[SPEAKER_03]: They provide support services to at-risk homeless LGBT youth in DC.
[SPEAKER_03]: They have a housing program that includes assistance in creating pathways out of homelessness.
[SPEAKER_03]: They provide counseling and mental health services.
[SPEAKER_03]: just a sort of well-rounded boots on the ground organization.
[SPEAKER_03]: WandaAlstonfoundation.org, W-A-N-D-A-L-S-T-O-N.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to say something because I'm so inspired, you know, we don't talk about which charities each one of us is like choosing before we just bring them to this recording session, but I'm so inspired and feel like everything we said is so worthy of people's support, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope that people hear this and like I'm still thinking Michael about like food bank NYC or whatever and how going to their website you have all these opportunities to volunteer, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: like a lot of these organizations are called charities.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that we say the word charity a lot, you know, in this episode, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not inaccurate, but, you know, when you're supporting with your money, these really worthy, worthy causes, I want listeners to like really think about it as participation in something, not just that you're throwing money at a problem, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: but we've all chosen fundraisers, organizations, charities that are doing like really, really meaningful, necessary work that affects people's material realities, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're able to give some money, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that as your participation and maybe one step in a broad spectrum of things that you do that supports social justice.
[SPEAKER_01]: that supports the fight against authoritarianism, oppression, colonization, environmental destruction, what have you, and so look for opportunities to also be participatory in other ways, but of course, of course, your money is important and if what you're able to do is give money, that's amazing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and every year,
[SPEAKER_03]: We hear from some of these organizations after the fact saying you guys mentioning us on the show changed our fiscal year at, you know, or we're like boosted our numbers during the holiday season.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you guys have made a significant difference for a lot of these organizations.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, this isn't dropping the bucket stuff or anything.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're getting messages like couldn't believe the amount of support we got.
[SPEAKER_04]: Which is incredible.
[SPEAKER_03]: It makes me feel bad about all the shit I talk about our fans, you know, you guys really come through and not to get to woo woo about it, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: But like a big theme of this year, a big theme of Trump coming back into office, right, is like we need strong communities.
[SPEAKER_01]: We need to build strong communities, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so whether you're supporting an organization that is
[SPEAKER_01]: doing community organizing or mutual aid or thinking about our neighbors, thinking about environmental repair and protection.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is community defense.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is strengthening our community.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I always get irritated that the term resist and resistance got like co-opted during someone because there is a degree to which this sort of community participation.
[SPEAKER_03]: operates as like friction for reactionary yes absolutely right absolutely what is that if not resistance right it's such a bummer that got turned into such a hollow slogan because it is a useful way to think about stuff like this at a time when the government is almost expressly fascist yeah well we're taking it back yeah we're becoming a resist podcast we're viewing it with life again
[SPEAKER_04]: I think those are great notes to end on.
[SPEAKER_04]: I did want to mention I looked it up.
[SPEAKER_04]: There are three trillion trees in the world, which means if this organization does hit the one billion number, that means one out of every 3,000 trees will have been planted in the world by the fucking serious.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is fucking substantial.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you take a little drive, you're seeing 3,000 trees easy.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, what I mean?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_04]: That is an amazing accomplishment.
[SPEAKER_04]: So, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: So be a part of it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Be a fucking part of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: As always, we wish a pleasant holiday season to all of our listeners and we'll be back in the new year with a couple of episodes about the voting rights act, we'll be last delivery here about it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, our eulogy for the voting rights act.
[SPEAKER_04]: Our pre-obit, our pre-written ovid for the vote.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we're voting rights in America.
[SPEAKER_03]: Remember when we did the Ryzen fall of Rovy Wade six months before Rovy Wade was overturned?
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's just say we have a gift, all right?
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, folks, see you in a few weeks.
[SPEAKER_03]: Bye.
[SPEAKER_01]: Happy Holidays, everybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: Happy New Year, bye.
[SPEAKER_04]: 5 to 4 is presented by Prologue Projects.
[SPEAKER_04]: This episode was produced by Andrew Parsons.
[SPEAKER_04]: Leon Nefock provides editorial support.
[SPEAKER_04]: Our website was designed by Peter Murphy.
[SPEAKER_04]: Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Ships and Why, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.
[SPEAKER_04]: If you're not a Patreon member, you're not hearing every episode.
[SPEAKER_04]: To get exclusive Patreon only episodes, add free episodes, discounts on merch, access to our Slack community, and more join at patreon.com slash five four pod.
[SPEAKER_03]: People on the right, there's something about the way that their brains work that makes like proper not just skin care, but like fashion and it's like it's outside of the realm of their brains, you know what I mean terrible.
[SPEAKER_03]: So few of them can dress and the ones that like put thought into dressing it ends up being preposterous Like you end up doing a Jordan Peterson or something.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, what the fuck is going on?
[SPEAKER_03]: Why are you doing that?
[SPEAKER_03]: Why can't there brains comprehend looking nice?
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't understand