John has much experience working in the philanthropic world, and takes great interest in charitable goings on today.

Earl Morrall/NFL Alumni Celebrity Charity Golf Classic

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The 12th annual Earl Morrall/NFL Alumni Celebrity Charity Golf Classic is being planned. It includes golf pairings, a cocktail party, a silent auction and a golf tournament. Both the cocktail party and the auction will take place on November 3rd and the golf tournament will be on November 4th.

The proceeds from the event will go to the staff sergeant (SSG) Marc Scialdo’s scholarship fun and also the Trauma Imaging Foundation’s research and treatment for military veterans and NFL players who have both brain and neck injuries. The Marc Scialdo fund was created after war veteran SSC Marc Scialdo was killed in Afghanistan in March. His wife, Kara, set up the scholarship fund to help children and grandchildren of veterans for educational grants.

The event chair will be Earl Morrall, a former Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Colts quarterback. Many players from the Miami Dolphins 1972-73 season will be there including former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula, Bob Griese and Gale Sayers, of many.

So far, the sponsors include Hilton Naples, Shula’s Steakhouse, Hideout Gold Club and the Meyer Corporation.

Justin Timberlake Greets Post-Surgery Fan

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timberlakeSome celebrities really know how to have their priorities in place. Recently, while on tour, Justin Timberlake put his press tour on hold to meet one fan. Giana DiLascio, 13, has survived brain surgery and recently won concert tickets from a radio station. When Timberlake walked into the room where Giana was standing, her mom called out to him and explained their situation.

Timberlake stopped what he was doing to take a picture with Giana and talk. As she said to ABC News, “I couldn’t believe it. I’m still in shock.”

A year ago, Giana had surgery for a condition called Hydrocephalus, a condition that causes excessive fluid to form in the brain. As her mom said to The Huffington Post, “He gave her great joy. He made her feel important.” As she continued, “She put out such a positive message for children going through something traumatic. She made it seem like, ‘look you can get through this.’”

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Jonas Brothers Soccer Match to Benefit Children Foundation

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Last Saturday, on August 17th, the Jonas Brothers held a charity soccer game. Joe Jonas was joined by brothers Nick and Kevin and pregnant sister in law Danielle. The game was in celebration of Joe’s birthday. All proceeds went to the Jonas Brothers’ charity Change for the Children.

The Change for the Children Foundation supports programs that motivate and inspire children to deal with adversity with confidence, determination and a desire to succeed.

After winning the game, Nick wrote, “ACU @A_C_United wins! Thanks to everyone who came out to support such a great cause!”
The event took place at the Stubhub Center in Los Angeles.

Here is a very cheeky video that the trio put up before the match. Enjoy.

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Bowling with the Dodgers

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DodgersIf you love bowling, then the LA Dodgers Foundation Bowling Extravaganza at Lucky Strike Lanes in LA was the place to be on July 29th. The charitable event, in its ninth season, raised money with a silent auction, with a live auction and with donations.

As Catcher A.J. Ellis said, “This is more important than what we do on the field, It’s great to get out in the community and make a difference. It’s very important to do things like this, raising money and awareness for a very important group of people.”

Many team members were in attendance including Dodger pitchers Clayton Kershaw, Chris Capuano, Paco Rodriguez and Chris Withrow, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, second baseman Mark Ellis and others.

AJ Ellis was the event host for the first time, taking over from former Dodgers first baseman James Loney. The LA Dodgers Foundation is the team’s official charity and they support programs in sports and recreation, education and literacy, health and wellness. They certainly harnessed the energy that their brand conveys for this event.

Enhancing Kentucky’s Criminal Justice System

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LMPDJoining with the Louisville Metro Government, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation recently designed tools and piloted innovations and test systems reforms.  It was hoped that this would make the criminal justice system more efficient and cost-effective while increasing public safety.  Initially data was assembled from system agencies and then analyzed in an attempt to “identify potential pre-trial interventions for implementation.”  To make it more efficient pre-trial programs are being run.

One way of better sharing information through agencies and partners is through the development of technology applications.  It is hoped that this will decrease processing times.  A court notification system might be set up to remind defendants of court dates.  If they are not appearing in court, workloads could be decreased. It is hoped that once the pilot is finished, the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) will have be able to access the data analysis, gaining a better understanding of all operations.  In addition, law enforcement initiatives could be targeted; changes to policy could be identified and training in general could be enhanced.

Indeed, it is believed that such analytics, data and technology can be used to enhance all parts of the criminal justice system. Already throughout the country police departments have been setting up similar activities which have significantly helped law enforcement officers more efficiently deal with crime.  There is much more to be done, but this integrated approach set out by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, is a good start.  It has been suggested that the improvements encountered in Louisville can serve as templates for changes throughout the US, such as decreasing the problem of overcrowding in prisons; testing electronic monitoring supervision; studying court processing teams and more.

60 Minutes Interview with Paul Tudor Jones II

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Hedge fund mogul Paul Tudor Jones II recently appeared on 60 Minutes to discuss the Robin Hood Foundation. The charitable organization works to eliminate poverty in NYC by supporting charter schools, job training, food programs and other organizations. Jones explained that he was initially inspired by another philanthropist on 60 Minutes, choosing to support NYC schoolchildren after watching a segment of the show. After five years, he realized his efforts had failed.

“I felt like I had failed a great deal of those kids, but failure is a lot of times the fire that forges the steel for success, right? There are going to be stops, there are going to be failures, there are going to be setbacks but you grow from those and you get better and it becomes transformative.”

Here is the full interview from CBS News:

Gates Foundation Helps Eradicate TB

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Tuberculosis, or TB, infects an estimated 8.7 million people a year according to the World Health Organization’s statistics from the year 2011. Almost all TB cases occur in low and middle income countries and those who have HIV or most vulnerable because of their already weakened immune systems.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made the eradication of TB as one of its goals. Dr. Peter Small, of the Foundation, is impressed by recent research developments. As he said, “There were probably forty years in which there was very little, arguably no, progress because there was no effort. What we’ve seen in the last decade is an acceleration. And it’s really changed what was a vicious cycle of neglect and despondency into one in which we’re starting to see exciting new products. We have now, for the first time, the capacity for untrained healthcare workers to definitively diagnose TB within two hours and know if it’s drug resistant. More than two and a half million of those tests run in the world.”

Dr. Small is the senior program officer for TB for the Foundation. He has researched the genetic variability of the disease and has seen the effects that TB can cause while he lived in India. As he said about treatment plans, “I think the Holy Grail remains a vaccine. We do need a vaccine to finish the job. The great thing is that we’ve completed a phase three trial. We’ve shown that we can get definitive answers and unfortunately that trial was ineffective. But I think that the vaccine pipeline is now something which we know we can test. The good news is, in the last fifteen years there have been massive improvements in understanding immunology.”

Bill Gates Will Be Featured Speaker

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It was just announced by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) that Bill Gates will be the featured speaker for the 44th Annual ACCT Leadership Congress. This congress will take place at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle on October 2, 2013.

As the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates has helped to increase opportunities for the world’s most disadvantages populations while also focusing on educational opportunities for students in the United States.

The ACCT Leadership Congress brings together community college trustees, presidents and administrators and is the largest national gathering of its kind. More than 1500 people are expected to take part in the congress. This year’s theme is  “Society Demands, Community Colleges Deliver: Moving the Needle.”

Warren E. Buffet Offers Amazing Donation

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There are charitable donations – and then there is Warren E. Buffett’s charitable donation. Recently, Mr. Buffett distributed 17.5 million Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This is a gift valued at $2 billion based on the closing price recently.  The gift was part of Buffett’s annual charitable giving that included gifts to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Buffett’s total donations this year were 22.9 million Class B shares.

Mr. Buffett committed, seven years ago, that he would give a total of $31 billion over time to the Gates Foundation. He planned to give the bulk of his massive fortune to the Gates Foundation and to four other philanthropies.

Together, Mr. Buffett and Mr. Gates have actually tried to persuade other wealthy Americans to give away a large chunk of their fortunes. They have created something called the Giving Pledge for this purpose.

Interactive Database of Laws

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The first ever interactive database of pretrial justice based laws for all 50 states is being put together by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF).  In recent news, the third phase (of this four-part project) has been completed.  The subjects covered are pretrial detention and diversion.  Materials assembled complement the ones that have already been released to date that provide summaries of statutes on related topics including: release conditions, pretrial risk assessments and more.

According to Vice President of Criminal Justice at LJAF, Anne Milgram, “using the resources developed through this project, states can learn from one another as legislators focus on these vital issues.”   While the LJAF funded the project, it was implemented by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). To date, research has shown that many states have been attempting to reduce pretrial detention and offer alternatives to detention where possible.

It is hoped that the project will ultimately help jurisdictions find ways to improve pretrial justice.  Using the resources will give lawmakers and criminal justice practitioners access to the current legal framework while providing reform opportunities.