Twenty facts about the ACLU - please support us with a year-end contribution!

There is still time to make a year-end contribution to one of the most important organizations in America - the ACLU! People give to the ACLU for lots of reasons: tax-credits, feel-good charitable contributions, passing along some of that holiday gift cash... But we hope you'll consider making a gift today!

As an ACLU activist and supporter, you know that we play a crucial role in defending freedom in America. But we are betting the list below might surprise you. And we are hoping that you'll make a generous gift today -- help us add even more accomplishments to the list in 2010.


Number of online messages ACLU activists sent to Congress and the Obama administration in 2009: 1,208,466

Number of students in the Pittsburgh school district that will finally receive comprehensive sex education after pressure from the ACLU to stop teaching an abstinence-only curriculum: 28,000 students in 66 schools

Year the ACLU first defended reproductive freedom: 1928

Number of schools where the ACLU has intervened after school officials tried to ban or treat gay-straight alliance clubs differently from other school clubs
in the last five years: 36

Number of those schools that succeeded in banning or discriminating against gay-straight alliance clubs: 0

Miles of documents about the Bush torture program obtained through the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuits: 20.5

Number of victims of the Bush torture program who have had their day in court: 0

Number of national organizations that joined the ACLU in opposing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II: 0

Number of states that have rejected Real ID and a National ID card, due to pressure from the ACLU and others: 24

Number of US military spy satellites the Department of Homeland Security will be allowed to use for domestic intelligence, counter-terrorism and law enforcement after objections by the ACLU and others: 0

Number of hours per day children housed at the T. Don Hutto family detention center in Texas were forced to remain in their cells before an ACLU lawsuit forced conditions to be improved at the facility: 11-12

Challenges to FBI abuses of the Patriot Act’s National Security Letter (NSL) provisions filed by ACLU: 3

NSL requests dropped by the government after ACLU challenge: 3

Year the ACLU first took on creationism in public schools: 1925

Year the ACLU last took on creationism (disguised as "intelligent design") in public schools: 2005

Number of ACLU members at close of 1925: 2,250

Number of ACLU members at close of 2009: Approximately 500,000

Percent of our 2010 budget that the ACLU stands to lose as a result of losing our largest individual donor due to financial circumstances: 25%

Number of people who have taken part in the ACLU’s
Acting Together: 100,000 Gifts Campaign: 70,734

Number of days you have left to make a year-end donation to the ACLU: 4


Feel free to share these facts with friends and family. And, please, make the ACLU a priority in the days ahead.