Mahomes Steps Up for Local Charities

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By JohnPosted In: Charity Activity

It’s always heartwarming to see what those with money do to help others. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is only 24 years old, and he has a lot of pressure in his life, but he takes time out to volunteer for those in need. For several years now, he has been volunteering with Veterans Community Project to help build tiny homes for struggling veterans.

In 2018, he helped the organization to build the first 13 homes in a project of 49 tiny homes for veterans. As he told Fox4KC,

“It’s awesome. Just to be a part of this with Community America and to be able to come out here and help out some veterans of our country is something that’s truly special. And they’re doing a lot of great work here, and hopefully we can help out a little bit today.”

Mahomes also has a personal charity called ‘15 and the Mahomies.’ Through this charity, he helped underprivileged children through 15 different local youth organizations.

A Delicious Charity Idea

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By JohnPosted In: ChildFund International

Here is a delicious way to give to charity and help others. And we do mean delicious! The United Way in Wood County, Ohio is having a fundraiser on February 7th called the Charity Chocolate Crawl. It’s taking place in conjunction with Bowling Green’s Winterfest Chillabration. The tickets are $20 and include getting a sample from each location and getting into the Chillabration wine and beer tent.

This is a great opportunity to give to those in need and to get a delicious afternoon and evening out!

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.

An Amazing Holiday Giving Guide

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By JohnPosted In: Charity Activity

It’s really important during this time of year to consider what you will give back, rather than just looking at what you hope to get. The New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof recently wrote a powerful piece about 2019 giving. It is worth reading and learning about the amazing organizations that are helping people around the world, and how they are doing so.

Read this article and learn about charitable giving.

The American Red Cross Is Always There

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By JohnPosted In: ChildFund International

We all know that the American Red Cross (ARC) collects blood and helps during disasters. But what do they do?

Red Cross Preparedness Courses

American Red Cross CPR Class
Red Cross CPR Training

The Red Cross teaches courses to prepare people for everyday medical emergencies. There are CPR, First Aid, water safety and caregiving courses. There is a course to become a nurse’s assistant and there are courses for treating adults and for treating children. Participants in these courses receive a certificate upon completion. Many of these courses can be taken online but may need practice sessions to be conducted with an instructor.

Red Cross Blood Collection

Did you know that 4.5 million Americans would die each year without lifesaving blood transfusions? In fact, every 3 seconds someone in the United States needs a blood transfusion: 32,000 pints of blood per day are given to patients. The ARC collects approximately 40% of the blood donated in America while the rest is donated at hospitals and other blood banks. The American Red Cross, with over 300,000 volunteers, can undertake the massive project of collecting and distributing this amount of blood. The ARC also collects blood platelets and plasma in order to save lives. It’s important to mention that 82% of the ARC members are volunteers. This cuts the costs of all ARC activities and enables the major programs to function within financial constraints.

American Red Cross Disaster Relief

Another of the Red Cross’s major functions is disaster relief. When disaster strikes, victims are happy to receive whatever help they can get.  Each year the American Red Cross (AMC) helps people in more than 60,000 disasters, such as apartment and home fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, hazardous material spills, and others.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst hurricanes to hit America during the last 50 years. It claimed over 1,800 lives, and over 81 billion dollars of damage, including 350,000 damaged or destroyed residences.

During the disaster, The Red Cross:

Enabled over 3.8 million overnight stays in shelters.

Served over 68 million meals and snacks.

Served a million meals in one day.

Provided emergency financial aid to 1.4 million families.

Opened a website for people to register and find their missing relatives.

The Red Cross is an organization that has done and will do a lot of good through its preparation for emergency courses, its blood collecting, and its disaster relief assistance.

What Is Giving Tuesday?

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By JohnPosted In: Charity Activity

We’ve all heard of Black Friday, where you have the chance to go into debt buying things you might not need…but at least you an do so at a discounted price. Cyber Monday then comes along as well. But less people probably know about Giving Tuesday, it’s a global movement that started in 2012 to shift the holiday focus away from buying – and towards giving.

December 3 is Giving Tuesday this year and since it started, there have been more than 40,000 organizations in 71 countries that are part of the movement. If you use this hashtag #givingtuesday on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram you to connect with other people who are promoting and using this movement.

How can you be part of Giving Tuesday? Just go to your favorite charity online and give to them. Post that you’ve done so on social media to encourage others to as well.

And then feel great that you’ve been part of the giving, rather than the taking!

Jon Bon Jovi Giving Back

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By JohnPosted In: Charity Activity

Many people may not know this about Jon Bon Jovi, but he really gives back. He has donated over $500,000 to help to build 70 new homes for homeless veterans around Washington D.C. He has done so, with his band, through the JBJ Soul Foundation. While speaking on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” he explained his motivation.

“Oftentimes, they’re [veterans] left to deal with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] and the issue of coming back to the workplace after leaving the battlefield … Life as you knew it is going to be different, and sometimes, people need that extra help.”

His band’s new song, Unbroken, just dropped as well and is written for the document called “To Be Of Service” about veterans and their service dogs. All proceeds from the song will benefit the Patriotic Service Dog Foundation.