The National Network of Abortion Funds has launched a new, secure Bowl-a-Thon site after seven days of darkness.
For the past seven years, NNAF has been throwing a nationwide Bowl-a-thon fundraiser event throughout the month of April to help raise funds for women and girls seeking monetary abortion assistance.
Last week the national site was hacked by anti-choice activists, and NNAF was forced to shutter the national donation page for safety and security reasons. Though local funds – such as Texas’ Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity – throughout the U.S. still had live donation pages, the deactivated fundraising page did take a toll. “It’s critical that people donate to Bowl-a-thon through May 1 to make up for the time and momentum lost to cyber attack,” says NNAF’s Communications Manager & Bowl-a-Thon Coordinator Lindsay Rodriguez.
The new site is a more simplified version that consists on a one-page donation form. With this in place, Rodriguez says they’re more able to “concentrate on funds’ ability to raise money and build power with their supporters.” In Texas raising $75,000 for abortion access is the goal, but with only a few days left, they’re $12,000 from the finish line. Nationally, NNAF is hoping to raise a total of $800,000.
“Abortion funds across our network rely on the Bowl-a-Thon to fund significant parts of their annual budgets, and donating is a direct show of solidarity and support for our work.”
This article appears in April 22 • 2016.