Ways to make a difference Archives - Page 24 of 28

Education January 23, 2015

Making a Difference

After a long day at work yesterday, I arrived home only to be told by my second born son, that I needed to get back into the car and head to his Senior Service night. Did I mention that it was at 7pm in downtown Los Angeles? Needless to say, I was not happy at the thought and yes I know, service is what I love but back in the car I went…because I also love my son, but boy was I grumpy.

However, not for long. Quickly, my grumpiness faded as I listened to these 17-year old boys sharing their experiences about their various month-long service projects throughout Los Angeles. My sons class of 303 young men practice their school’s motto of being “Men for Others” by spending one month committed to service. Some of the stories shared were about living on Skid Row for the month, working with victims of domestic violence, being at Homeboy Industries with rehabilitating gang members and on and on they went.

What made my grumpiness fade was to see the shift in each of these incredible young men as they learned from doing….the power of serving others. While I was incredibly proud of my son, his month-long commitment to inner city children and their low-income school, I was beyond proud to be a tiny part of an organization that makes a huge difference in our world….and more importantly practices what they preach in raising Men For Others.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration January 19, 2015

Charity Matters Quotes:MLK

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

Martin Luther King

Today is Martin Luther King Day, a holiday and more importantly a day that is recognized as a national day of service. MLK day is often referred to as a “Day On” rather than a day off.

I think the hardest thing to do in having a “Day On” is discovering where to begin.

What should I do? What can I do with my children or family?

Here are a few first steps….

doonething.org/actnow
handsonnetwork.org
volunteermatch.org
serviceforpeace.org
nationalservice.gov
servenet.org
idealist.org

Sometimes it simply takes a little faith to know that even the smallest step forward makes a difference.

As Dr. King said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

Enjoy your Day On and know that every step you take big or small makes a difference.

Charity Matters.

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Ways to make a difference January 16, 2015

Je suis Charlie

“Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.”

Voltaire

je suis charlie

I saw this cartoon and it made me cry. I can’t think of the last time pencil and ink brought me to tears. I am by no means a journalist but I am a messenger. We all are.

Je suis Charlie.

Charity Matters.

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Holidays and Holiday Giving December 17, 2014

Operation Christmas Child

With the millions of non-profits just in the United States, I often feel like my job is like looking for a needle in a haystack. To make the search easier, I have tried to keep the focus on people helping people in the United States. I have also tried to avoid politics and religion, for the same obvious reasons that you don’t discuss them at holiday parties either. When searching for a holiday non-profit that shares the joy of the season and spreads the message of Christmas, I found myself breaking most of my rules this week.

The reason was because of a cause called Operation Christmas Child, which is part of a larger non-profit called Samaritans purse. Their mission is to help the poor and suffering of the world, and yes there is a little religion mixed into the formula. However, once I saw the faces of these children and how easy it is to bring Christmas joy….I needed to share.

One of the ways they accomplish this mission is to have people put together a shoe box for a child with toys, school supplies, tooth paste, a handwritten note and a picture of the sender which are delivered all over the world to the neediest children. The beauty is in the simplicity and the sheer joy of giving.

If you are looking for a simple way to spread the love of Christmas for a few dollars, or looking for a project to do with your children creating a Christmas box is simple. That is why 113 million of these have been sent since 1993. That is a huge amount of Christmas, joy and love. At the end of the day, Christmas isn’t about rules it is about spreading love to all…

Charity Matters.

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Ways to make a difference December 8, 2014

What a difference a # makes

I love all these days of giving that have been created in the past few years. More importantly, I find myself wondering what came from all the effort? Just because celebrities tweeted “unselfies” holding signs of causes they care about…was something actually accomplished more than a social media whirl and many a #hashtag ? I am happy to report that the answer is yes, there was much accomplished last #GivingTuesday and much giving done.

The numbers of giving were up 64 percent! That equates to non profits raising nearly $46 million dollars in donations, compared to last years $28 million, according to early estimates from Indiana University’s Lily Family School of Philanthropy.

What I think is even more fantastic was the volunteering efforts that went along with the day. Last Tuesday, volunteers had clothing drives, tutoring projects and a wide range of activities aimed at helping local non-profits across the country. Almost 18,000 charity, corporate and civic partners registered to officially be a part of Giving Tuesday this year.

Sheila Herring from the Case Foundation was quoted as saying,”The biggest thing for us is that Giving Tuesday directly challenges Black Friday and Cyber Monday, where you have analysts lining up to look at the numbers as a gauge of the health of our economy. What if, as a nation, we focused that kind of attention on giving and we wanted that to be our identity?”

If a #hashtag and a celebrity “unselfie” is what it takes to get us thinking, acting and giving then #allforhashtages, #givewithmeaning, #makingadifference and of course my favorite #charitymatters.

Charity Matters.

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Holidays and Holiday Giving December 1, 2014

#GivingTuesday

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is now ready to jump into the season. It is the most wonderful time of the year and it is December 1st today, so the holiday season has officially arrived. I know that the stores have been telling us since before Halloween that Christmas and the holidays were coming but we all know that this season is really about, love and giving.

Just like Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, we now have an offical day to give called Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday was created to promote the simple act of giving to a cause you care about. This day and now movement began as something to counter Black friday and Cyber monday, It was started by New York’s 92nd Street Y, which has 139 years of fundraising experience. They reached out to the United Nations Foundation and joined as partners. Soon after, big corporations and non-profits signed on to help spread the word and the rest is history, as they say.

As you sit down this week to make out your Christmas list, think about adding the causes you care about to your list. Or perhaps, giving a donation in someone’s name to their favorite cause? Think about how you feel when you give and what is important to you? Giving Tuesday is a beautiful reminder of what is important every day of the year, not just tomorrow. If you do decide to give, there is no time like the present.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Quotes November 24, 2014

Living your purpose

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

As I mark my one year anniversary as the Executive Director, of a non-profit youth leadership organization, I find myself full of gratitude. I know it is Thanksgiving week, but this is more than being grateful. I am in awe of the path that lead me to this place where I am in a position to inspire, engage and motivate hundreds of middle and high school students each year. In turn, they are in the position to do the same to me and have.

More than motivation or leadership, what I find brings me the greatest joy is living a life of purpose. I was telling a girlfriend about my job the other day and she responded, “Wow, I didn’t realize you could get paid to make the world better?” Her reaction surprised me a bit. More than that, it made me think that my “payment” is so much more than a check (don’t get me wrong, raises are always appreciated).

Of course this past year has been full of challenges and road blocks but what great adventures aren’t? Life is journey and when you get to a place on your path, when you get to be your best self and show that to others…..well there is simply no place else I would rather be.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration October 13, 2014

This I Believe

As I mentioned on friday, I spent the later part of last week at TCU, on a panel, discussing the topic, “How can you better prepare students for lives of meaning?” A question and topic that inspired many amazing discussions about service, faith, and leadership. One segment that stood out as a highlight of the trip, was a piece entitled “This I believe.”

At TCU, they have asked their students to begin their first college essays as freshman writing 500 words on the topic “This I believe.” The goal is to challenge students to think about their values and their core beliefs. There is no right or wrong answer, it is simply your story. The hope is that by articulating your beliefs, that when faced with a difficult life decision, students will know the answer because they understand what it is that guides them. The stories that we heard were inspiring, amazing, full of hope, adversity and perseverance. I wish I could share them all with you here. What I can share is what I learned about This I Believe.

Believe it or not, This I Believe, Inc., is a non-profit! In March 2003, National Public Radio Executive Producer, Dan Geldman came across the original book This I Believe. Dan became intrigued with the history of the 1950s radio program based on the same name, that was hosted by Edward R. Murrow. The original radio show featured compelling essays from cab drivers, secretaries, corporate leaders as well as people such as; Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller, and Harry Truman. Anyone who was able to share a few minutes of the guiding principles by which they lived.

Dan and his co-producer Jay Allison decided to bring the series back to National Public Radio. In reviving This I Believe, Dan Gediman said, “The goal was not to persuade Americans to agree on the same beliefs. Rather, the hope is to encourage people to begin the much more difficult task of developing respect for beliefs different from their own.”

Dan, Jay and their team at NPR brought back the topic, the radio series and then a few best-selling books. The proceeds from all of those went into forming the non-profit This I Believe. Org, which was founded in 2004, to engage youth and adults from all walks of life in writing, sharing, and discussing brief essays about the core values that guide their daily lives.

Today, almost a decade later This I Believe Essays have spread across the globe through universities’ curriculum, in a variety of publications, numerous local public radio stations, newspapers, and magazines all challenging us to ask the simple question. What is it that you believe?

Charity Matters.

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Education October 8, 2014

Send Silence Packing

Last week at TCU the main part of campus was littered with backpacks. It wasn’t a fraternity prank or lazy students but rather a nationally recognized traveling exhibit called Send Silence packing which is used to bring attention to the 1,100 students who die from suicide each year.

Each backpack has a personal story that represents and honors the memory of loved ones impacted by suicide. The hope is that by displaying backpacks with personal stories, Send Silence Packing will put a “face” to lives lost to suicide and carries the message that preventing suicide is not just about improving statistics, but also about saving the lives of daughters, sons, brothers, sisters and friends.

These backpacks are the brain child of Alison Malmon, whose brother, Brian, committed suicide in March 2000, when Alison was a Freshman at the University of Pennsylvania. Following the suicide of her brother, Alison learned that Brian had been experiencing depression and psychosis for three years but had concealed his symptoms from everyone around him.

Recognizing that few Penn students were talking about mental health issues, though many were affected, Alison was motivated to change that culture on her campus. She wanted to combat the stigma of mental illness, encourage students who needed help to seek it early, and prevent future tragedies like the one that took her brother’s life. After searching unsuccessfully for existing groups that she could simply bring to her campus, Alison created her own and formed the non-profit Active Minds, Inc.

Today, eleven years later Active Minds, Inc. has grown with more than 400 campus chapters, hundreds of thousands of young adults all across the country are benefiting from the Active Minds model. As Alison says, “The work is never done.” Alison has started and continued a conversation about mental health that is a beautiful legacy to her brother.

Charity Matters.

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Childrens' Causes October 1, 2014

Project Giving Kids

One of the best things about Charity Matters is that I get to meet amazing and inspiring people who make our world better. Each conversation I have with a non-profit founder never ceases to leave me feeling uplifted and hopeful. Last week’s conversation with Molly Yuska was no exception.

Molly is the founder of Project Giving Kids , a nonprofit which connects busy kids and families to fun, meaningful and age-appropriate service activities. It all began when Molly co-founded a group at her church to connect families with young children to charitable organizations in need. Despite Molly’s graduate degree in Non-Profit Management, the challenge of connecting families to causes was not as simple as she initially thought.

Undeterred, Molly began to envision what a resource like that might look like. The criteria were simple: Fun for kids; reliable and convenient for busy families; and partnered with nonprofit organizations that could really use the compassion and energy of young volunteers.

Molly said,” I wanted to show my family how to give and realized that there wasn’t a resource for young families to begin the conversation of giving.” The result was tireless research and an incredible web-site she created as tool for families who want to start the conversation and process of incorporating service and giving into their lives.

Project Giving Kids started with a color wheel full of causes kids care about, and the belief that kids could be powerful drivers of the entire process. Molly believes that this continues with you and your family. She said,” If I only impact 100 children, imagine their ripple effect in the world? That makes this all worth it.”

Charity Matters.

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Charity Profile September 24, 2014

Caring for the Caregiver: CAN

The other day, I mentioned my friend, who has an adult child that is ill. This recent change of events has put her in a role that millions of us find ourselves in each year, becoming a caregiver. Whether it is an aging parent, a sick family member and or everything in between. The question becomes, who cares for the caregiver?

This was a question asked by two friends, Suzanne Mintz and Cindy Fowler, over twenty years ago. The two were discussing their similar roles with Suzanne caring for her husband with MS and Cindy caring for a mother with Parkinson’s. Their conversation led to the realization that there must be others in the same situation. They were right, it turns out that there were 65 million caregivers in this country.

The two made it their mission to provide support to others who may not know how to reach out for help and who did not even know the phrase “family caregiver.” The result was their founding the National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA) in 1993. “Our original vision was to get information and resources into people’s hands and to let them know they weren’t alone,” according to Fowler. NCFA focused on providing a voice for caregivers that would enable them to speak up and get the help they need.

As Suzanne Mintz recalled: “We wondered why no one seemed to be focused on the fact that helping a loved one with a deteriorating illness had a very real impact on not only the person with the illness, but also on those of us who were primarily responsible for helping them.”

For the celebration of the National Family Caregivers Association 20th anniversary, they renamed their non-profit to the Caregiver Action Network or CAN. These two women took their challenges and turned them into an awareness, a non-profit and a movement to inform each of us that family caregiving is a lifespan issue, not one restricted to the aging community.

They are an inspiration and their newly named organization CAN, simply says it all.

Charity Matters.

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Ways to make a difference September 22, 2014

Running on Empty

I recently found myself giving great advice to a friend who is running on empty. She has been caring for her adult son who is ill and needless to say her tank is out of fuel. I write each week about giving. Giving of oneself, giving time, sharing talents but I rarely write about giving to your self.

I find it fascinating that we do not think twice about supporting a cause, giving our energy and resources and yet, time and time again we all put ourselves at the bottom of the list. While I do believe and practice the philosophy of “the more you give, the more you receive.” There is a line, a fine one, but it is there. Each of us needs to start looking at that line and knowing what to do when we see it.

That line is our gas tank and if our fuel is running low, then we need to take the resources we need to fill it up before we can begin to give to another. As they say on the plane, put your oxygen mask on yourself first and then on your child. Our giving is no different, we need to make sure that we are at the top of our list so that we can take care of everyone else below.

You give so much too so many, remember to give to yourself….first.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Profile September 17, 2014

Getting rid of Mean Girls: The Kind Campaign

photo via: USA Today

The other day I had lunch with a girlfriend and we began talking about mean girls. No, not the movie but how cruel girls can be to one another, especially young girls. As the mother of sons, I was saddened by this and came upon an amazing and inspiring campaign….one that makes me proud to be a girl and its called The Kind Campaign.

It all began in 2009 when two college girl friends, Lauren Parsekian and Molly Thompson, who were both affected by female bullying decided to create a documentary, a non-profit, a school program and a movement towards kindness and away from bullying. Their movement is based upon their powerful belief that kindness brings healing to the negative and lasting effects of girl-against-girl “crime.” Their mission to stop and change this behavior, was a very personal one to both of them.

Molly was bullied in high school, ostracized by a group of girls and felt an incredible loneliness. The bullying Lauren experienced in 7th and 8th grade lead her to avoiding school, failing grades, depression and an eventually a suicide attempt. When Molly and Lauren met at Pepperdine University and began sharing their experiences they knew they were not alone and decided to start with a documentary on the topic, Finding Kind. That film lead to the national tour, the non-profit and now the movement.

Today, Lauren and Molly continue their mission. Their Kind Campaign has been implemented in hundreds of schools across the country. They have Kind Clubs, a Kind Magazine that features powerful stories of Kindness and even a place on their site to apologize or spread some Kindness. Two girls who took their pain and turned it into kindness. The result has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people across America, simply being KIND.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Quotes September 5, 2014

Charity Matters Quotes

” You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week is all about back to school. Teaching is more than what comes from a book. School is a place where children need to learn how to be kind and compassionate. The sooner we teach and model these skills, the better our world becomes. It is just that simple.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Charity Matters.

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