I didn't have the opportunity to post these photos of children watching Victory Day parades in Chelyabinsk, Russia, when they were current back on May 9.

Now that I've shaken the dust of the road off, a long weekend (stateside) with a martial theme seems like a good enough excuse to me. Someday, this generation will come to you and ask, "what was the 'summer driving season'?"

Happy December.

Snuck right up on you, didn't it?

That cold sweat breaking out might the realization -- knowing full well that December is the development sweet spot, and especially the last week of the year -- that you've got to get that holiday ask out right quick, and you haven't had a chance to give it a speck of thought up to now.

Best Practices for a 3x5 Notecard

There are 18 business days from Wednesday, Dec. 4 through the end of the year, assuming you're actually working all of them and none fall victim to office parties, inclement weather, holiday sniffles, or miscellaneous NGO emergencies.

For those also scratching out grant reporting, board cozying, postal mail soliciting, major donor massaging, admin drudging and -- oh yeah -- that part of the day that's actually about the mission all this is supposed to uphold -- finding as much as half a working day over that span to devote to online giving might very well be an achievement. And even that might be a questionable return-on-investment proposition if the idea is to, say, bump up your donation harvest by +50% ... from an expected 20 donations.

I question how well those of us with the chutzpah to speak from Olympus on the subject treat with that reality for the small and the strapped.

Take The Procratinators' Guide to Year-End Fundraising (.pdf), a new joint publication of Care2 and Sea Change Strategies. These are smart cookies, and there's some very good stuff here for building an online fundraising presence.

But four chapters of 10 are about what you should have been doing for the other 11 months, which is rather the opposite of what the title promises. And many of the other suggestions (videotape test donors interacting with your pages?!) could only be implemented quickly by an online department so well-resourced that it wouldn't have been procrastinating its year-end fundraising to begin with.

Other organizations may have a more basic and pressing question:

How do you get the most return for four hours' work on your online ask?

Talk about Thanksgiving.

There may be a few leftovers to feed the blog, but DIA is closed for Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday. We'll catch you next week for the homestretch.

Once again, we've assembled an assortment of gift-giving options that span the gamut of DIA's members and their respective causes. There are many awesome gifts available through our community that you can feel good about giving.

The gift-giving ideas are seperated into easy-to-navigate categories. Make sure to visit them all!

It's spooky that a site like ExecutedToday.com even has enough material to exist.

But did you notice that there won't be any new dates from the U.S. for a while?

Not that our fair country is exactly free of medieval superstitions in our modern courts. Satanic murder case, "pretty much a witch hunt"?

By way of Salsa users at the UN Foundation: the UN turns 62.

Note the link to the Briefing Book by fellow DIAniacs at the Better World Campaign.

Start out by sending your pals an E-Card to show that you care, courtesy of Oceana.

Don't forget the administration! Ask them to lead the way in defending the whales. Whale hunting for commercial purposes must be stopped, calm returned to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, and the government of the United States must stand up with its citizens for the whales and the oceans that give them life.

Still not sure what to get your Valentine? How about a special gift that is sure to warm their hearts and cool the planet.

Hmmm, what to get your pals for the holidays? I present to you:

DIA's Alternative Gift Giving Guide

Get something cool this year—there are plenty of organizations selling interesting merchandise

Democracy. It's a Gorgeous Thing. Check out the MMob's democracy-inspired holiday gift ideas.

Be a PEER Undercover Activist, with shorts to match.

Get the War Tapes DVD from IAVA. ASAP.

Do you stand on the side of love? Prove it with a UUA T-shirt.

Order the DVD that shows the solution to our healthcare mess

From Violence To Wholeness, in paperback.

Are you for Safe Access? Get the gear.

Secularists, unbelievers, and followers of illicit gods! December brings a fresh front in our Weihnachtenkrieg!

Prognptech, in keeping with its decadent reputation, has set us an example with an Advent Frimaire calendar's worth of besotting bacchanals here in Babylon (all times Eastern).

Dec. 1:
12:30 - The Center for American Progress hosts a discussion of online strategies in the 2006 election, free noshes included.
2:00 -- NTEN's phone-in tea time