Working to Give: Philanthropies & Philanthropic Work

Rock & Brews co-founder and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Paul Stanley of KISS is doing some lovely things. He is hosting a veteran luncheon at one of his locations in Vacaville, California on February 20th with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The luncheon will include more than 100 veterans in partnership with the local charity, Operation Care and Comfort

As Stanley said in a press release, “We are excited to become a member of the community of Vacaville and look forward to contributing to the vibrant restaurant scene with our unique dining and entertainment experience. With all openings, we look forward to paying respect to local veterans, active military and first responders who dedicate their lives to protecting their community and our country.”

This Rock & Brews location just opened to the public at  200 Nut Tree Parkway.

Black Friday is a bit of a crazy experience, with everyone forgetting about how thankful they are on Thanksgiving, and killing each other for the best deal instead. Here, however, is an interesting perspective on Black Friday and on ways to bring much more meaning to the experience. A few of their suggestions include the following.

1. Only buy things from companies that are giving back to help those in need.
2. Go Green instead of black by thinking about sustainability.
3. Look into Giving Tuesday. It’s actually a thing – and an important one at that.

Read the full article and see how you can retain that sense of wonder and appreciation over Thanksgiving and give instead of take.

If you haven’t heard of DonorsChoose.org, you’ll probably enjoy learning about it. Charles Best was a teacher in the New York area and a graduate of Yale who, in the year 2000, created a website where teachers could post needs that they had in the classroom and encourage donors to help them put the project together. He paid a developer a few thousand dollars and DonorsChoose.org was born. Donors can find projects that inspire them and put in as little as $1 towards the cause. When the project has its funding, the site buys the needed supplies and ships them directly to the school. Every donor also gets a thank you note from the teacher, photos from the classroom and an accounting of how the money was spent.

Today, a staggering 76% of public schools in the U.S. have a project posted on the site. Learn more about their site, and think about how one person with an out-of-the-box idea can change an industry.

If you happen to be in Hawaii between August 30 and September 8, you may want to check out the grand opening of Jersey Mike’s Subs in Wailuku. Located at 52 Maui Lani Parkway, they are having a free sub fundraiser with all proceeds going to support the American Cancer Society. The franchise owner Alvaro Garcia is sending out 7500 coupons and offering a free sub for a minimum $2 contribution to the American Cancer Society.

As Garcia said,

“We are very excited to be opening our second Hawaii store in Maui. At Jersey Mike’s our fundraising partnerships create a layer of sustainability for schools, youth sports leagues, and other nonprofits in and around our city. These partnerships allow us to truly become members of our community by allowing us to contribute to the success of our youth and our city. Our crew, city officials, and residents have a high level of respect for us for that reason. We honestly feel that we are changing the world one sub at a time.”

Jersey Mike’s has done an amazing job of giving back. Since 2010, their locations throughout the country have raised almost$25 million for charities and they have given away more than 1.5 million free subs to help many causes. This year alone, their 7th Annual Jersey Mike’s Month of Giving in March raised more than $5.5 million for close to 150 charities throughout the country.

A little bit of giving really can go a long way. Bikes 4 Orphans, a nonprofit run by brothers, has given more than 250 bikes to orphans around the world. They started out while in high school at St. Francis High School, trying to raise enough money to purchase and deliver new bikes to orphans in six countries including Kenya and Armenia.

Recently, a supporter recommended to brothers Shawnt and Sebouh Bazikian that they help America’s foster youth, who often don’t have transportation. As Shawnt explained, “We thought that this was kind of a similar situation with the orphans in the other countries [that we’ve previously helped] and there is a real problem here. The more research we did, the more we wanted to help out these foster students.”

17 students at the CSU Northridge’s Resilient Scholar’s program were identified as needing transportation and they were given new bikes, helmets and locks.