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1) Saving ACORN: Tides Foundation Rapid Response Fund -- One of the country's best progressive foundations is Tides, through which wealthy people who have progressive political visions have for decades banded together to fund decent grass-roots social change. And one of the country's most serious grass-roots community organizer groups is ACORN, which has led many successful campaigns for living wage laws -- and which was both headquartered in New Orleans and organizing local folks there. Tides has worked with ACORN for years. Now it has set up an emergency response fund for ACORN and other grass-roots groups in New Orleans and the surrounding region so that they can help grass-roots people.

You can make an instant online donation to the fund by clicking the DonateNow button at -- http://www.tidesfoundation.org/RR_0905.cfm.

2. Community Labor United (CLU), a coalition of progressive organizations throughout New Orleans, has brought community members together for eight years to discuss socio-economic issues. They have been communicating with people from the Quality Education as a Civil Right Campaign, the Algebra Project, the Young People's Project, and the Louisiana Research Institute for Community Empowerment (RICE).

They have set up a People's Hurricane Fund that will be directed and administered by New Orleanian evacuees through the Young People's Project, a 501(c)3 organization formed by graduates of the Algebra Project. (The Algebra Project was founded by Bob Moses. Moses was the extraordinary SNCC organizer in Mississippi in the '60s who more recently decided knowledge of algebra is crucial to Black equality today, and set up a very effective teaching program in Boston that he has spread into the South through his old connections.) Donations can be mailed to:
The People's Hurricane Fund
c/o The Young People's Project
99 Bishop Allen Drive
Cambridge, MA 02139
3. LEAN -- Louisiana Environmental Network, 162 Craydon Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA 70806 -- LEAN members provided an airdrop of food, water, and medical supplies to the trapped residents of St. Bernard, Plaquemine and Washington Parishes. LEAN is also working hard now to raise more funds to allow local people, working with local government leaders to provide direct, immediate assistance with all the efficiency that comes from not being a bureaucrat or an outsider. LEAN won't just leave the area when the immediate crisis is over but will work to address the toxic cesspool and chemical contamination that will be left behind 'when the water finally recedes.

"At this time, the most needed items are tetanus shots, insulin, IV fluids, as well as financial resources to purchase and transport medical and food assistance directly to victims."

4. Local religious & community spaces -- You can mail or ship non-perishable items to these following locations, which local sources report are REALLY delivering services to folks in need:

Center for LIFE Outreach Center,121 Saint Landry Street, Lafayette, LA 70506, atten.: Minister Pamela Robinson, 337-504-5374;

Mohammad Mosque, 2600 Plank Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70805, atten.: Minister Andrew Muhammad, 225-923-1400; 225-357-3079;

Lewis Temple CME Church, 272 Medgar Evers Street, Grambling, LA 71245, atten.: Rev. Dr. Ricky Helton, 318-247-3793;

St. Luke Community United Methodist Church c/o Hurricane Katrina Victims, 5710 East R.L. Thornton Freeway, Dallas, TX 75223, atten.: Pastor Tom Waitschies, 214-821-2970;

S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, 3815 Live Oak, Houston, Texas 77004, atten.: Deloyd Parker, 713-521-0641.