I had asked earlier about doing our annual holiday season board charity, and the answers I received were that we should do it again this year. So on that note, I figured we should probably get started earlier this year so that we're not quite so time crunched in nominations and the eventual recipient scrambling to get all the information we need. On that note, here we go!
Here's what nominating your charity entails:
1. You must work with, or be able to work closely with, the charity that is chosen. Two years ago we had a charity in mind, and they never responded. Another awesome charity was chosen.
2. You have to be willing to be the point person for collecting donations of $ through paypal and/or items from an Amazon wish list. Remember that we are like herding cats, and you will probably field a lot of questions from us.
3. The charity has to be a reputable one, and preferably non-religious based. If it is religious based, please make sure that it is a non-proselytizing one.
I think we had also included non-charities, such as if no one worked with a charity people were willing to go pull a couple of tags off their local Angel Tree.
We'll keep nominations up until October 15. At which point we will vote on which charity to sponsor.
Post by redheadbaker on Oct 1, 2015 11:13:38 GMT -5
Nominating Cradles to Crayons. www.cradlestocrayons.org I don't currently volunteer, but can be point person. They help children in Philadelphia and Boston.
"Cradles to Crayons was founded in 2002, with the mission of providing to children ages 0 to 12 some of the most important basics of life—free of charge.
These basics include clothing, school supplies, toys, and much more. In other words, we provide all the physical goods that children need to be safe, protected from the elements, and ready to learn. And by supplying them with high-quality used or new goods, we make children feel valued.
We partner with social service organizations to connect communities that have surplus resources—new or used items in good condition—with communities that desperately need access to those resources. When you donate to Cradles to Crayons, you can be absolutely sure that your donation will go to a deserving local child, for whom the donation was specifically requested.
We make it simple for children, families, and corporations to participate: whether by organizing a clothing collection, hosting a fundraiser, or working in one of our warehouses. And the more people and institutions that volunteer their time, treasures, and talents, the more children in local communities we can help. We provide unique, hands-on opportunities for people to help other people. This is one of the most powerful aspects of the Cradles to Crayons experience.
And finally, we do our work efficiently. Charity Navigator—an independent group that rates charities on both their organization capacity and efficiency—recently awarded us a four-star rating: their highest ranking (“exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its cause”)."
My aunt is the director, so I can be point person.
Our Purpose
Austin's House provides emergency shelter and compassionate care for up to 10 children between the ages of birth to 18. The children who are placed at Austin's House have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect.
Austin's House provides care to both boys and girls who are unable to be maintained in their own homes, until they are either reunited with their family or an appropriate long term placement is made.
Under the guidance of the placement agency, Austin's House supports each child's educational, health, and emotional needs.
Whenever possible, children stay in the school they attended before being placed at Austin's House.
Austin's House collaborates with other agencies to help provide support to children and families in need in our local communities.
Our Mission
The mission of Austin's House is to provide a safe haven for any child in need; to provide a nurturing living and learning environment; to promote the health and well-being of children and their families through assessment and appropriate intervention; to help prevent child abuse and neglect by providing education and community awareness.
My company works very closely with this organization in Atlanta. Our Angel Tree every year benefits children here. They provide services for homeless women and children.
History/Mission Our Mission- Our House breaks the chains of homelessness by providing quality early childhood education and comprehensive support services for families who are experiencing homelessness. A rich legacy of making a difference. In the late 1980’s, a group of local area citizens took notice that homeless mothers and children were required to leave emergency shelters early every morning, despite the weather conditions, despite the wellness of all family members and regardless of whether or not these families had anywhere to go. These mothers were given a relatively short amount of time to secure both employment and other housing before being required to permanently leave the shelter.
Our House founders envisioned offering homeless parents more than free childcare: they wanted to provide a loving, safe haven where a parent could confidently leave her child while she sought employment and permanent housing. They realized that without reliable childcare, homeless parents, especially single women, were trapped in the cycle of unemployment, poverty and homelessness.
Our founders understood that to effectively combat homelessness, programs and services had to address the root causes of homelessness: lack of child care, lack of education and lack of work skills among homeless parents.
Our House, Inc. was founded in March 1988 with the mission to break the chains of homelessness by providing quality early childhood education and comprehensive support services for families who are experiencing homelessness. A continuing mission to provide childcare assistance to homeless families. Today, Our House has evolved into a full-day, year-round, nationally-accredited early childhood education center, serving up to 81 children daily and offering comprehensive supportive services to parents that help them to improve their situations and attain greater self-sufficiency.
A vision of compassion and empowerment. The nation recognizes that affordable, quality childcare is critical to many families’ success in overcoming homelessness and in overcoming poverty. Since its beginning, Our House has worked to break the chains of homelessness for children and families throughout Metro Atlanta.
Our vision statement is "a self-sufficient family for every child." Our holistic approach to assisting homeless families empowers them to achieve long-term stability and independence
Post by discogranny on Oct 2, 2015 11:41:52 GMT -5
I'm absolutely a lurker/liker more than a poster on this board but would love it if you guys would support my non-profit. I am on the board of directors and at yesterday's board meeting we had a frank conversation about how we plan to overcome our shortfall this year. There are just far too many families that need help and not enough funds to go around.
The Cowboy Santas Program Inc. is a 501 C(3) charitable organization that provides toys to children, 12 and under, from low-income Tarrant County families, during the holiday season. Our charity serves children placed both with their biological parent(s) and in non-traditional family structures such as grandparents, foster care, etc. The applicant families must live in our county and demonstrate financial need to be accepted to the program. Even though our mission says the program is for children 12 and under, we will often take older if they are part of family group with younger siblings. We cap the age only because we have found it to be really difficult to provide items the older kids are actually interested in within the budget confines we are working with. Last year we served 9,607 children in 4102 families.
The program has a bit of an interesting history and structure as it was started in 1981 by a group of city employees and has grown much larger since. Our charter requires that a portion of our board and staff be comprised of city employees. Since they are also part of a larger city department with other functions, their salaries are paid through the city general fund allowing us to use a very large portion of all donated dollars toward actually purchasing toys, books, games, bikes and supplies like backpacks and bags for the toys to be taken home in. We do receive some money from the general fund, but it's just a fraction of what we need to make the holidays happen for these families.
Throughout the year we purchase toys, books and games through discount retailers and store them in a warehouse which is also provided by the city. During the weeks leading up to Christmas volunteers come to the warehouse and are given information sheets about the families needing gifts and a shopping cart. The sheets have information like age, sex, race and any special needs or specific likes the applicant mentioned. The volunteers then go through the warehouse and choose 1 large toy, 1 smaller toy, 2 books, 1 game, 1 craft, a stuffed animal and a stocking stuffer bag for each child, most families have multiple children and you shop for the entire group. It's a bit like the Angel Tree except you are not spending any money of your own and you only shop in our "store." During each 3-4 hour shift a volunteer will process multiple families and we find that people get really into it, putting a lot of thought into trying to get the "best" toys for their kids and even competing against their fellow volunteers for the "coolest" cart. It's also great to see people take special care to match a child with a doll of their race or something that matches their stated interests or needs. The carts are checked for accuracy by staff and then the items are bagged.
Once the toys have been bagged, they are distributed by volunteers from our warehouse to the participants in opaque bags, unwrapped. We do not blast from the rooftops who we are or what we are doing at our warehouse so that those who are receiving the bags are just people walking with big, black bags down the sidewalk to their cars or bus stop to those driving by. We don't want any of our families to feel embarrassed to be seen taking toys from us, so we work really hard to make that process as dignified as possible. We give the gifts unwrapped because we want the parent/guardian to feel empowered to move the gifts throughout their families however they feel best - if a 7 year old is really into dinosaurs we don't want to have wrapped up and tagged a cool dinosaur for his 8 year old brother when it was a better fit for him.
Post by EnchantedSoul on Oct 14, 2015 20:04:16 GMT -5
It looks like some charities have been nominated but I'd also like to mention our Dojo. My son has been attending Pro Martial Arts since their local opening two years ago. He was dealing with some bullying at school and low self esteem issues. The instructors at PMA are amazing! They not only teach forms and terminology, self defense and discipline but they teach self respect and character building. They have a program known as the ARMOR program which teaches bullying and predator prevention. They teach the kids how to recognize warning signs. How to stand up for themselves, self defense, character building etc. I absolutely love this place.
Anyhow, my son is in the Leadership Program and every year, we pick a couple of underserved families and create a Giving Tree. The Leadership kids spend a couple nights wrapping and delivering the gifts. It is a time where we discuss being grateful for what we have and willing to share with those who are without, especially during the holidays.
I am usually the point person for this event and the large school supplies drive. We are a small but mighty Dojo and would love any support we could get. I know I am new here but I thought I'd put it out there. Thank you for considering. And here's my guy, two years in and the Dojo's first ever Red Belt.