Putting Your Money Where Your Education Is

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By JohnPosted In: ChildFund International

It’s always lovely to see when people learn something in school and then actually put it to use. At the University of Notre Dame they have a class called Philanthropy: Society and the Common Good which has partnered with the Philanthropy Lab to evaluate local nonprofits.

The students worked in teams of five researching various nonprofits, conducting online research and going to site visits. They then awarded $83,000 to six local organizations. The organizations included: the food rescue organization Cultivate; Neighbor to Neighbor which fosters relationships among immigrant and non-immigrant populations; The Elkhart Education Foundation which offers free school supplies for teachers and others; Dismas House which houses ex-offenders with students; A Rosie Place for Children which is a respite care program for children with medical issues; and Imani Unidad which has risk counseling and HIV/STD prevention and education services.

It was a program and an outcome that should certainly be emulated in other locations.

Facts and Figures with Go Fund Me

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By JohnPosted In: Charity in BusinessTagged:

As a site that looks at charitable causes and charitable giving, it’s interesting to see an article about Go Fund Me. We all know about Go Fund Me, the site where anyone can set up an account and ask for money for just about anything and anyone. How have they changed the face of fundraising? And who uses the site?

According to this article from CBS News, Go Fund Me says that “10,000 new campaigns are created every day – about one every eight seconds.”  Over $9 billion dollars has been raised on the site, and a third of all pages are for medical expenses.

The Go Fund Me platform has a few very interesting pieces to it. First of all, “For years, GoFundMe collected five percent of every donation, plus three percent for credit card fees. But in 2017, CEO Solomon made a change that was both different and risky: Instead of taking a cut of every donation, GoFundMe now asks every donor for a voluntary tip. ” And this has actually worked.

In addition, you would assume that a lot of fraud would take place on the site. But they have many people working just to weed out fraud and have found that only 1/10th of 1% of their campaigns have misuse associated with them.

It’s certainly an interesting platform and the article is one worth reading.

Charity Ball Helping Pregnant Women

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By JohnPosted In: ChildFund International

It’s remarkable to see what fundraising can do, when done correctly. The recent Mercy Health Foundation Fort Smith Charity Ball in Fort Smith, Arkansas raised over $538,000 to help with health care services in the River Valley area. This is an annual fundraiser that was held, this year, on December 13.

Featured entertainment included country singer Gabby Barrett an an after party with the Emerald City Band. The donations this year will go to help with the prenatal services for those in need at the McAuley Clinic to help pregnant women receive the prenatal care they might otherwise not get.