Mutual Aid Thread Rules & Guidelines for Givers and Helpers

Every day of the month (updated from weekly previously), we focus on fundraising, particularly for people who need mutual aid to keep from slipping further into poverty, prevent eviction, pay medical bills etc.

You can currently find the latest thread created by searching "From:Tinu #MutualAidThread" on Twitter, and it is sometimes my pinned thread. As we expand outside Twitter, you'll see a link to the latest thread in the newsletter or as an announcement on this and other sites in the Everywhere Accessible universe.

This is currently the only help I can offer due to my latest years of poor health, fighting Long COVID and Cancer. So your help as a giver or helper is absolutely essential.

The following are the rules and guidelines we have in order to have the maximum help for all people. I also invite people to help us get people funded, so if I directed you to this page, yes, I expect you to read this whole page if you're going to do more than give people money or retweet.

Probably because you asked me "what else can I do?".

Using crowdfunding hashtags in a quote tweet helps those who are looking for folks to help to find more people who need help.

Please don't use more than 4 hashtags per post to promote a fundraiser on non-visual platforms like Twitter, Skylandia, Mastodon and Hive. Those posts often get ignored as spam, unlike the effect on Instagram.

Can you trust the people asking for help?

99% of the time, yes. The fear of scammers in mutual aid circles is vastly overblown. We do get around 1 scam submission a month, normally hidden by me so you never see it, but I do miss things now and then. But 1 o2 two out of up to 200 a month isn't bad for an ongoing open community mutual aid project.

When in doubt, give to people you know in the communities or who are vouched for by those you consider reputable.

If you have doubts post in public, don't DM me- it could be months before I see it and I can't kick people off the internet. Rumors of my powers are vastly overstated. If you have PROOF - that isn't harassment of some poor person who has to ask to make ends meet every month or just abuse of a trans person who is forced to use their deadname on their ID?

All the ways you can contact me with it are on my Twitter page. At minimum you'll be able to text me. When in doubt, you can use the means on this website.

Please don't leave advice.

Give money, retweet, alert us to scammers or encourage people.

People posting to my threads have done all the advice already. If someone is part of one of my communities, chances are advocates and activists or even social workers have tried to help them offline, sent them to this or that site, and had them fill out miles of paperwork.

Or time is of the essence and the help that used to exist no longer does.

Once you get to mutual aid, you are at the end of your rope. It is very difficult to ask for help from people outside your immediate circle who might not know you well or who are going to vouch for you to their network.

Advice isn't helpful. Money and sharing the content is.

And as always? Thank you SO much for your help!!