Taylor Swift Named 2012 Most Charitable Celebrity

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By JohnPosted In: Charity ActivityTagged: , , , ,

taylor swift 1She may have trouble in love, but she’s doing right by those in need. Taylor Swift was just recently named the most charitable celebrity of 2012. The 23 year old country music singer received the award by DoSomething.org, which just released its top 20 Celebs Gone Good of 2012 awards.

Swift was recognized for donating $4 million to the Country Hall of Fame museum and for being the youngest recipient of the Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for her charity work.

Taking second place was Miley Cyrus. She was recognized for her work with the non-profit animal activist group Saving Spot! Rescue. Third on the list was Channing Tatum who was given a nod for his work with the Rainforest Foundation. Lady Gaga received kudos as the forth place winner and Justin Bieber got the fifth spot for his work with Pencils of Promise and his Believe Charity Drive.

Way to Go Angie Harmon!

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By JohnPosted In: Education

harmonUNICEF has just announced that actress Angie Harmon will now be their official face, and the new UNICEF Ambassador. Her first role as the new ambassador will be in a Public Service Announcement that she’s making to raise awareness about child trafficking and urge Americans to be part of the solution.

These 15, 30 and 60 second PSAs will air this month, which is Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

As Harmon said, “After learning about the horrifying practice of child trafficking both in the United States and abroad, I knew I had to do something about it. That’s what drew me to UNICEF. I believe that ZERO children should be forced into prostitution or made to work, especially at dangerous jobs. I look forward to working with UNICEF to help reach a day when every child has a safe and healthy childhood.”

As Caryl Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, recently said, “We’re thrilled to have Angie Harmon join our efforts to help ensure the health, education, equality and protection of every child.”

Angie Harmon will be in very good company as the new Ambassador. Past Ambassadors have included: Audrey Hepburn, Laurence Fishburne, Selena Gomez, Alyssa Milano and Sarah Jessica Parker.

“12-12-12” Benefits Hurricane Sandy Victims

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On December 12th, Madison Square Garden hosted “12-12-12”, a fundraising event aimed at supporting victims of Hurricane Sandy. The concert featured performances by Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, The Who and many others.

The concert was presented by Chase, with the proceeds sent to the Robin Hood Relief Fund. Robin Hood, an independent poverty-fighting organization founded by Paul Tudor Jones II, donates 100% of its proceeds to charity.

The concert was produced by Madison Square Garden Executive Director James Dolan, Clear Channel Entertainment Enterprises President John Sykes, and The Weinstein Company Co-Founder and Chairman Harvey Weinstein.

 

 

Buy the Voice of God for Charity : Only $299!

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Autism Speaks recently held a brilliant year-end fundraising campaign. They offered supporters the chance to buy custom-recorded messages from celebrities like Tom Hanks, Ed Asner, Will Ferrell, Carrie Fisher, Derek Jeter, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Betty White and Morgan Freeman.

One of the fastest selling items, according to Marc Sirkin, the charity’s chief digital marketing officer, was the Morgan Freeman recording, as his deep voice has earned him the nickname “Voice of God.” The campaign ran for the first week of December only, and anyone who wanted a voicemail greeting from a star could donate $299 to Autism Speaks. Each celebrity message was limited to 50 people. When a message was purchased, the fan was able to tailor a script for the celebrity to say, as long as it didn’t include any advertising. Each celebrity had final approval of the messages.

When the campaign ended, 346 of the possible 500 messages were sold. They raised $103,000 for Autism Speaks. Hear more from Austism Speaks about this campaign.

See more with their video for the campaign.

Ideas for Charitable Giving to Education

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classSometimes, even if you have the time or money to dedicate towards helping others, you just don’t know where to begin. It’s ironic that we often end up doing nothing simply because we don’t have direction for our efforts. For people who are interested in improving educational opportunities for children in America and around the world, there are certainly thousands of resources.

One way to help children and to impact educational services is to think small. Talk to a local school and see what needs they have in the library. You might start a few magazine subscriptions from National Publishers Exchange or another company and have those educational magazines sent to the library each month. Turtle magazine, for instance, helps early readers and can be sent by National Publishers Exchange each month.

For people who want to send money somewhere or do something more global, here are just three of the thousands of possibilities to give you a taste of the choices for charitable giving.

1. Aura’s House: This is a grassroots project that raises money for housing, health, income generation and educational projects for children in developing countries. since 2003, they have been working with Children International.

2. ClassWish: This is a nonprofit organization that addresses the shortage of teaching supplies by allowing teachers, administrators and others to go to ClassWish.org and create Wish Lists of the items they need for their classes. People can then pitch in to help with the needs that the school identifies.

3. Say Yes to Education, Inc.: This is a United States non-profit that wants to improve inner-city schools. They offer support services at at-risk locations and pledge full scholarships for college or vocational education for children living in poverty.

Baby Buggy Charity Event at alice + olivia

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Starting November 27th and going through Christmas Eve, the alice + olivia and DASH boutiques people can drop off new and unused toys, books and diapers as part of the Baby Buggyholiday charity. Kourtney Kardashian and the team at DASH have been collecting essentials for the holidays for awhile now. More recently, Jessica Seinfeld and Stacey Bendet have joined forces with Kourtney and they are expanding the efforts nationwide.

All customers who come into the DASH and alice + Olivia boutiques with these charity items will get a 15% discount at all of their stores. It’s certainly a win-win situation for all involved over the holiday season!

Baldwins and So Lucky To B Me Pair Up for Charity

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So Lucky To B Me has just enjoyed a wonder pairing with the Baldwin family. Hailey and Alaia Baldwin, daughters of director, producer and author Stephen Baldwin will help So Lucky To B Me to raise awareness for breast cancer research and support for the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund. This organization, founded by Stephen’s mom, helps with all types of research for breast cancer. A portion of all sales of the So Lucky To B Me clothing will be donated to the fund.

As Hailey explained, “What this company stands for is really great, and the shirts are an awesome representation of the love that comes from the heart of the Fund.”

Alaia added, “The women who are working hard behind the scenes of So Lucky To B Me and behind CMBBCRF are the greatest examples of strong women. They can all relate to those who are going through the hardest of times. Andie Graff’s desire to support my grandmother’s organization is truly a blessing.”

The shirts were designed by Andie Graff, the founder and designer behind So Lucky To B Me. She explained her inspiration for her line of clothing as she said, “I created the line to share messages of empowerment to help build women’s self-esteem and encourage them to believe that they are more than enough, simply by being themselves. I am thrilled to partner with an organization that is also working so tirelessly on behalf of women.”

Colts Cheerleaders Shave Their Heads for Worthy Cause

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Two Indianapolis Colts cheerleaders are showing their commitment to a charity they believe in. Megan and Crystal Ann both had their heads shaved by the team mascot on Sunday during the game at Lucas Oil Stadium. They were sticking by their commitment to shave their heads if they managed to raise $10,000 for leukemia research, and they’ve reached $22,670.50 at this point.

Blue, the Colts’ mascot, had put out the challenge on Twitter, and Megan and Crystal Ann took up the challenge. Megan’s father held up a sign over the rails that read, “Megan… Bald is beautiful. You are Chuckstrong … Love Dad”

First-year coach Chuck Pagano was diagnosed with leukemia during Week 4 and has since undergone aggressive chemotherapy. The cheerleaders have joined quarterback Andrew Luck and other Colts players to show their solidarity for Pagano.

Pagano was in attendance at the game and received a standing ovation from the crowd of over 64,000 when he came out to wave. As Colts Reggie Wayne said about Pagano being there, “We knew he was here before the game. Our motto was, when it’s all said and done when this game’s done, make sure he’s smiling. We went out there with that approach. … Hopefully he’s on his way smiling.”

The Colts have raised, in total, more than $250,000 for the cause.

Ryan Gosling Drops In for Big Surprise at School for the Deaf

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Ryan Gosling is one of those celebrities who knows how to appreciate what he has – and give to others. He recently took a break from filming his latest movie in Austin, Texas to make a surprise visit at the Texas School for the Deaf.

As Anne Adams, the executive director of the school’s foundation, said “We knew that Ryan was in town, and he’s been on streets around campus often so we were just pipe dreaming (and look what happened!).”

He came to their Spooky Skedaddle 5K, which is an annual charity run. He contributed to the event by raising approximately $20,000 for the event and getting other supporters. As Adams told E!, “Ryan was extremely kind, allowing lots of photo ops with fans and when the director told him, ‘Enough,’ he said, ‘No, one more,’ and pulled a small deaf child out of the line for a picture. Ryan is a wonderful person and we were delighted that they came!”

The Giving Library

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library-1In August 2012, together with his wife Linda, John Arnold launched The Giving Library.  This $4m project is a collection of videos featuring the works of 250 charities.  The idea is that philanthropists can use the data from the Library to facilitate learning what they need to know about the nonprofits.  The Giving Library was launched because when Linda and John Arnold started their philanthropic journey, they found it challenging to figure out which nonprofits were most worthy and in need of support.  Spending so much time on searches and meeting with executive directors is not necessarily the most efficient use of everyone’s time so once they had done it, they developed this resource to save others’ time.

Until the Giving Library was established, most philanthropists were only able to access details from a few worthy organizations.  Thus foundation executive directors had to spend way too much time on fundraising.  As Laura Arnold explained, “we saw a need to create more efficiency in the system to have a more organized vision of receiving and processing information on nonprofits.” John added, “we started to do our own research, trying to go to websites to read about nonprofits. We realized we got much more insight by speaking to the founder. If you have significant resources, it’s worth their time to sit down and meet a particular funder but that’s not always practical for the majority of funder or nonprofits.”

The Arnolds thus took it upon themselves to film the work of worthy organizations and made the short documentaries Internet accessible so that these people could tell their stories and reach a much larger audience. They also sent letters to nonprofits – any organization that they had received confirmation was a legitimate nonprofit.  They then began working with some of these places to help them improve their scripts.  This is an ongoing project which has already helped save a lot of time of many willing philanthropists.