Yeah, it's my birthday. Yeah, I'm shamelessly exploiting it.

Yeah, that's right...I turn 48 today. I've never been shy about self-promotion, and I am still trying to turn my "healthcare data/policy analysis & snark" thing into a full-time career, so I thought about the best way to approach it.

Here's what political candidates often do:

"It's Candidate X for Congress's 48th Birthday! Help celebrate by donating $48 or for 48 people to pledge a few bucks per month!"

(The difference is that in this case the money would be going to support my work here at ACASignups.net, not a political campaign. And no, it's not tax deductible.)

I'm angling folks more towards the smaller, monthly support model since that makes things more consistent/steady, but I'm not gonna say no to one-time support either!

However, for anyone who doesn't feel like lining my pockets, there's a far more deserving cause you can donate $4.80, $48 or $480 to instead, and Hillary Clinton already did the hard work for me:

We should be heartbroken to see families torn apart, but we should not be hopeless. There’s something you can do right now to help.

Make a donation that will be split across eight organizations working to protect kids separated from their families.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 18, 2018

We can be heartbroken about what's happening at the border, but we shouldn’t feel hopeless.

Make a donation to support the groups working to protect the kids and families separated by ICE:

• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
• Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project
• Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project
• Human Rights First
• Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)
• La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE)
• Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES)
• United We Dream Action
• We Belong Together
• Womens Refugee Commission

Your donation will be split among the groups listed above, each of which is doing critical work to support and protect these families.

If you donate to the border crisis organizations, please let me know with a comment below or via Twitter, thanks.