Our end-of-the-year annual campaign

As you consider your year-end charitable donations, please remember the Center for a Better South. With your support, we'll be able to do more in the coming year to develop and promote pragmatic ideas for thinking Southern leaders.

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we've had several successes this year:

• Early in the year, we unveiled a new Web site that's easier to follow. We hope you'll visit and see what we're doing. More: Bettersouth.org. In particular, you might want to sign up for free emails when we post new information to the site.

• In July, Center President Andy Brack was named a White House Champion of Change for his 2010 work to convene a group of thinkers to develop big ideas for Gulf recovery. Our report, "Ideas for a Better Gulf," got serious consideration at the highest levels.

• In October, the Center released its "2011 Briefing Book on the South," a 51-page document filled with more than 700 statistics about the 11 states of the South. It has generated a lot of editorial discussion about the region's lingering challenges.

• In November, an essay by the Center was included in the Global Research Institute's "A Way Forward" collection of essays about how the South should progress over the next decades.

What's next

In the coming year, we hope to build on past success and launch policy projects that focus on improving the justice system and developing ways to reduce poverty.

We encourage you to give $100 -- or $1,000 (even better!) -- to the Center before the end of the year so we can keep promoting common-sense ideas for people across the South.

Please make your tax-deductible contribution before the end of the year to The Center for a Better South. You can send us a check or donate securely online through Razoo, or by visiting: www.BetterSouth.org/give.htm

With your continued support, we'll be able to keep doing great things for our region. In advance, thank you for your help.

-- Andy Brack, president and chairman