You can double the power of your donation to help victims of Hurricane Katrina

We hope you read in our e-mail alerts recently or in various industry news sources that our founder and Chairman, Dave Biggers, will personally match up to $250,000 in your donations to the American Red Cross made through our website: www.alamode.com/katrina. The link takes you to a secure area on our site where you can donate by credit card. Your donation will be routed to the Red Cross, matched dollar for dollar by Dave.

Taking into account our $150,000 donation to the REALTORS® Relief Fund to be applied toward housing needs for disaster victims, we've raised or contributed more than half a million dollars in the wake of Katrina. And we've done it with contributions from people just like you, our customers and other real estate professionals – many of whom are uniquely susceptible to the enormous increase in gas prices. The huge wave of contributions we've seen in the last week is real money coming out of real people's pockets, at a time when they could probably use it themselves.

We're not patting ourselves or even you on the back – we want to let you know about the power and goodwill of the real estate professionals we work for. And we want you to donate if you haven't! Or if you have, pass the web address, www.alamode.com/katrina, on to colleagues, friends and family. Dave will match their donations dollar for dollar, too.

"These are our clients, our neighbors, and our friends, and we intend to do all we can to help. I truly hope our users donate as much as possible, so I can give the entire $250,000," Biggers said. "And if the response is overwhelming, I'll be happy to go farther. Living in Oklahoma City, through bombings as well as devastating tornados, I know what sort of hospitality the nation, and this industry, extends during a disaster."

We've heard from some of our customers who have lost their homes, some who were allowed to return to their homes briefly before having to leave again for possibly weeks, and some who were a little luckier but whose business is going to be down for quite a while while their city or region rebuilds. We've heard from customers who want to do more to help than donate cash. The government, the Red Cross and experts agree, though, that the very best individuals who want to help can do is to donate. Particularly when it will be matched.

We've hired a customer who lost his business in the hurricane, offered corporate housing to displaced families who may need it and deferred all fees and payments due us under service contracts, annual subscriptions, website renewals or anything else for our thousands of clients in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. We're doing everything we can – please consider giving, because we can offer even more together.

www.alamode.com/katrina