Why Susan's Place is worth donating to:
People come to Susan's Place from all over the globe, people here vary in ages from teens to retirement. This variety of ages, experiences, cultures, and identities makes Susan's Place more rich than many local trans* groups. It's often faster and easier to get advice and ideas here at Susan's than to spend hours combing through the internet. If you need help figuring out which product is best for your body type, you can just start a post and ask away, and often in a short amount of time someone will answer and give their experiences. If you're not sure which doctor to get surgery from, you can ask away and people will tell you which one they went with and why.
You're able to get support in all walks of life. From receiving encouragement and help drafting coming-out letters, to relationship advice, to tips that will help with recovery from surgery, to fashion and make-up advice, Susan's has it all. You're also able to get good laughs over in Fun & Games, hugs when you need it in ARGGHH!, help in picking a major in Education, band recommendations in Music, and help with some recipes in Cooking. You're not just limited to trans* related stuff here, you can get everything you need here.
What makes Susan's Place special to many is the personal connections which are made here. Once you've been here for a bit, you can make great friendships that go beyond the corners of this website. Many people here become Facebook friends, share e-mails, phone numbers, mail each other letters and packages. Some here have even met in person. I can't always get this personal connection with other trans* people in my day-to-day life, since I am engaged when my local (which isn't quite-so-local to me) trans* group meets once a month. Susan's is available whenever I want and need it to be, unlike my local trans* support group. Because of Susan's Place, there's a few people who I probably know better than some of my "in real life" friends, and who I'd be willing to do a lot for.
When the Donation program was first started here, I thought "geez, I think I can only afford to donate $5, that seems hardly worth donating". But, if that's all you can afford, that $5 to Susan is like giving a million dollars. Anything counts, it all adds up, and it shows her how much you appreciate and enjoy all that she and the other admins and moderators have done over the years to help the community grow and prosper. She's been giving her hard-earned cash over the years to sustain the website, so anything is helpful. If you can't donate anything, that's fine too, your presence here in adding to the shared experiences is valued by all. People come to the forums for you, whether you're able to donate or not.
I am also not going out on Black Friday, one of the reasons is when I think of some of the people in my life, I'd rather buy a Christmas gift for Susan's Place than some of the other people in my life. Giving something here would be more appreciated than the Bath & Body Works basket or Dunkin Donuts gift card I'd get for someone else.
