Taya Kyle Starts Charitable Foundation

Taya Kyle was the wife, and now widow, of Chris Kyle. He was the Navy SEAL known for the memoir “American Sniper.” Now, she is on a book tour, “American Wife,” and is working with her new foundation, the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation.

Her goal with the foundation is to provide breaks for military couples, veterans and first-responders such as the police and the fire fighters.

In her book, Kyle talks about her own marriage and how it almost fell apart a number of times. As Kyle told the U-T Talks audience,

“Nobody wants to tell their spouse: ‘You have the most fulfilling, purposeful existence in a job that you’ve dreamed of — and I’m out. It does feel unpatriotic.”

The Kyle foundation has joined with several others with links to the Navy SEAL community.

Kyle described the foundation as: “I know for a fact, when you give them a weekend away, even in their own hometown, where they can stay in their sweatpants or whatever, and they can do whatever they want with no stress, no bills, and not at home where there are things to do … that gives them a longevity that you can’t get any other way.”

Last month, around Chris Kyle’s birthday, the foundation gave $55,000 to many charities that work on behalf of veterans and the New York Fire Department.

 

Chideo Is Taking Off

If you haven’t heard about Chideo yet – you will. Chideo – the combination of the words charity and video – has enlisted more than 100 VIP participants so far. This includes people from YouTube, sports figures, Academy Award winners and others. Patricia Arquette even gave Chideo a shout-out at the Oscars.

So, what is Chideo? It’s part of Todd Wagner’s plan to build a charity network. As he said,

“If you can have a Military Channel and a History Channel, I don’t see any reason there can’t be a ‘Cause Network.'”

He also explained, “More than anything, (Chideo) is me saying, ‘I’m just going to build this thing. I’m going to build what I believe will help these organizations and they just need to plug into it.'”

At the moment, online donations are only a tiny fraction of the money that is raised by charitable causes. Wagner contends that online giving only amounts to 8% of total charitable contributions.

As Wagner said about the endeavor, “We haven’t even started. We’re still in preseason as to where I think this can go.”

Most of Chideo’s video content is free to the public. 80% of the revenue will go to the charity and donations above the asking price will go completely to the charity..

The cost of hosting a charity event can actually reduce what the charity gets by as much as 40%. By teaming with Chideo, the charity gets more money and a greater reach than if they are just in a single ballroom, as Harry Freedman of the Stategic Fundraising Initiatives in Philadelphia explains.