Tax-Deductible Donations

Even a small tax-deductible donation to MBIRA can help hugely in Zimbabwe - $25 can pay for food for a month for a rural musician's family, or food for a week for a city musician's family. "Currently approximately 78 percent of the population of Zimbabwe is absolutely poor and 55 percent live below the food poverty line," UNICEF's Child-Sensitive Social Protection in Zimbabwe report said on April 7, 2010. "People living below the food poverty line cannot meet any of their basic needs and suffer from chronic hunger. It is estimated that approximately 6.6 million people including 3.5 million children suffer from this extreme form of deprivation in Zimbabwe."

With one in 4 of Zimbabwe's children now orphans (UN statistics), every family is struggling to pay for basic necessities for themselves and the orphans they support...nutritious food, primary school fees, and health care of any kind are often out of reach for the majority of the traditional musicians MBIRA has recorded all over Zimbabwe. ***SEE MUSICIANS TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY DO WITH YOUR DONATIONS***

Your donations help MBIRA to

• Continue to record a wide variety of Zimbabwean traditional musicians, supporting more rural musicians in Zimbabwe, as well as archiving their styles. Musicians are given an initial payment of $50 each, or a maximum of $100 per group, at the time of recording, from your donations.
• Pay recorded musicians whose recording earned less than $100 in royalties this year - because this is still considered payment for the recording, the musician maintains his self-respect ("Musicians Fund"). MBIRA is supporting over 220 traditional musicians all over Zimbabwe, from the capitol city to remote areas, some of whom have no other source of cash income.
• Our latest development is that anyone who receives donations. in addition to any CD/DVD royalties, commits to teaching children in their community traditional music/dance.  Zimbabwean traditions transmit many positive cultural values which are direly needed in this time of economic and political distress, and rapid Westernization. We believe that small ventures like this give people self- and community-respect as well as financial support, and are small building blocks of a better world in the future.

To make a tax-deductible donation by CHECK or MONEY ORDER, make it out to MBIRA and send to MBIRA, P.O. Box 7863, Berkeley, CA 94707-0863, USA.

To make a tax-deductible donation by CREDIT CARD, PAYPAL, or from a BANK ACCOUNT:

You can also add a donation to your MBIRA catalog order.

We will send a confirmation letter for your records, if requested. Your cancelled check, or printout of your online donation, is usually sufficient to document your donation. Thanks for your help!!

MBIRA is incorporated in the State of California as a non-profit organization and has federal (United States) 501(c)3 status. Keep a record of your tax-deductible donation.

To donate without spending a cent: Stores will contribute to MBIRA if you sign up at Escrip.com, entering MBIRA as your "Group Name". After you sign up, the participating merchants will automatically contribute a percentage of your purchases made with credit, debit, or grocery cards, costing you nothing. Stores participating include Whole Foods, Macys, Shutterfly, Office Max, Sierra Trading Post, and many many more. Escrip is an old, safe and reliiable organization.

See photos of musicians receiving donated food in January 2009.

Help!! MBIRA also needs donations of your time and expertise. Any grant writers out there?? We're also looking for help with tech work and office work - a website database expert is particularly needed. Please email erica@mbira.org