Operation Santa's Soldier

SGT Joshua Evans created Operation: Santa's Soldiers as a way to give back to those in need. His organization donates winter coats and boots to homeless shelters in the U.S.  Evans knows firsthand the struggles of being homeless:

"Just six years ago, Evans lost his job, home and had to send his daughter to live with his in-laws, KSTP.com reports. Today, the 33-year-old is finishing up his second deployment in Kuwait and [working to emerge as a nonprofit.] The organization provides warm coats and boots to those in need. 'I want this to go on in a pay-it-forward kind of way,' Evans told Stripes.com." Source.

Evans' mission is to give the gift of warmth to people less fortunate. Operation: Santa's Soldier is still growing.  Evans wants to see the effort spread beyond his own unit in Kuwait.  You can keep up with his work by following him on Facebook.

The Family Giving Tree

The Family Giving Tree believes giving empowers.  The organization's emphasis is on helping children realize their critical role in their communities.  Kindness, philanthropy and volunteerism are the core values, and special emphasis is placed on making sure kids have all the supplies they need as school starts each year:

"The Family Giving Tree began in 1990 as a San Jose State University MBA class project. Jennifer Cullenbine and Todd Yoshida were asked to "create a program that adds value to someone else's life." They created the Family Giving Tree with the hope of providing holiday gifts to 300 children in East Palo Alto. Encouraged by the success of the first year, Jennifer decided to continue and expand the organization. In the 20th year of the program's existence, the total number of gifts and backpacks donated had grown to over 700,000, making the Family Giving Tree the largest gift and backpack donation program in California." (Source)

The Family Giving Tree also provides for the holiday wishes of homeless and low income children.  Volunteers and other nonprofits are encouraged to host their own holiday gift drives to help make Christmas wishes happen.

One Acre Fund: Breaking New Ground

Family farmers in Africa grow a year's food supply using a hoe and seeds harvested from the previous year.  Often the supply comes up short, and people experience a season of hunger.  Yale business student Andrew Youn saw a way to create solutions with the One Acre Fund.

Our core service package for farmers includes: group formation, education, seed and fertilizer delivery, flexible payments (credit or sales), and market access. Farmers pay for these services.

One Acre Fund helps poor farmers grow more, loans money for tools, and serves 75,000 east African farmers.  On average, farmers double their income.

One Acre Fund was the recipient of the Financial Times Sustainable Banking Award for Achievement in Basic Needs Financing. The award recognizes groundbreaking programs, transactions, and initiatives that use the power of finance to address the scarcity of essential goods across society.

Bridge Communities: Adopt a Family this Christmas

The nonprofit Bridge Communities allows anyone to take responsibility for providing Christmas gifts, clothes and food for homeless children.

Many people associate “family” with the holiday season. We spend time with families. We celebrate family traditional. We send cards and gifts to our families. We reminisce about past holidays celebrated with family. This year, why not create your own extended family? Adopt a homeless family that’s currently in Bridge Communities’ Transitional Housing Program, and you can give even more during the season of giving. When you adopt a Bridge client family, you’ll experience the joy of giving love and hope to a Bridge family. --Bridge Communities

All year round Bridge Communities commits its efforts to transforming the lives of homeless families through partnering with talented, resourceful individuals and groups. The programs aim to empower families in the direction of self sufficiency.

The Trevor Project for Teen Suicide Prevention

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among LGBT and questioning adolescents.  The Trevor Project makes itself available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by telephone for young people in crisis:

We promise to create a safe space, through our lifeline and online, for LGBTQ youth. We promise to deliver our message of suicide prevention in schools throughout the country. We promise to hire a highly qualified and professional staff and providing them with incentives. We promise to operate our board, our committees, our lifeline, our offices and our events with the utmost integrity.

The Trevor Lifeline is 866-488-7386. It's free and confidential.  TrevorChat is also an option.  Youth can access instant messaging each Friday.  With the help of sponsors like Wells Fargo, Google, and Levi Strauss, The Trevor Project has fielded more than 200,000 calls from teens in crisis.

LETT 'em play: Tennis Anyone?

LETT, Learning Excellence Through Tennis, is a small nonprofit serving Birmingham, Alabama.  Beginning in 1998 as the Birmingham Area Tennis Association, the organization provides tennis and academic opportunities to youth with an eye on improving health and offering a productive activity for children when they are not in school. Additionally, tennis teaches discipline, social skills, improves self-esteem, and promotes physical fitness.

LETT reaches 10,000 children each year with after-school, summer camp, and academic programs.  Children who are interested are given access to all the equipment necessary to play. The organization gears itself to take on beginners and see them through to USTA Youth Team Tennis competitions.

Vets4Warriors: Vets Helping Vets

Photo Courtesy: Vets 4 Warriors (dot) com
A local New Jersey help line is going national in services veterans all around America.  Vets 4 Warriors' assistance by phone, email and live chat focuses on suicide prevention and crisis counseling.  The success of the organization was rewarded with $5 million--making the nationwide service possible.

From the mission statement:

For any issue, at any time, a Veteran is here to help. We all need a helping hand sometimes and Vets4Warriors provide 24/7 confidential peer support, information, and referrals for all National Guard and Reserve service members.

1-855-VET-TALK is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Vets 4 Warriors staff undergoes specialized training to address the particular needs of military personnel in trouble.  Confidentiality is guaranteed. Vets 4 Warriors want no one to "suffer in silence."

Help Portrait: Snapshots of Hope

Help Portrait brings together photographers from around the world to use their art and talent in the service of others.  Participating photographers are asked to grab their cameras, find people in need, and show them how beautiful they are.  The portraits are not for sale but rather a photographer's opportunity to give back to the community.

Help-Portrait recruits volunteer makeup artists also.  Pros, amateurs, and hobbyists are welcome.  Those interested can visit the organization's community page.  If there isn't an event near you, you can see who's local be connecting with their facebook page.

An organizer in Toledo, Ohio welcomed people from a homeless shelter for a Help-Portait photo shoot.

The Women's Bean Project: Transforming Lives

The Women's Bean Project knows that empowering a woman is more than opening up a future for one.  The lives of her children, friends, and other family members are lifted.  The project dedicates itself to helping women break the cycle of poverty and unemployment.  The organization's mission is an ascent to self-sufficiency through social enterprise for every woman that participates in the program.

Job and life skill training is used to end problems like chronic unemployment and poverty.  The women, who are often former prisoners or drug users, tap their undiscovered talents and develop skills for the workplace.

With this stepping stone toward success, the women will be able to support themselves and their families and create stronger role models for future generations.   --Women's Bean Project

The 501 (c)(3) nonprofit makes and sells salsa mixes, spice rubs, coffee beans, and jelly beans in addition to  soups and chili, along with gift baskets, baking mixes, and much more.  The Women's Bean Project is rated highest at 4 stars by Charity Navigator.

Free the Children (from poverty, exploitation, and powerlessness)

Free the Children aims to free children from poverty, exploitation, and a sense of powerlessness.  Changing the world for good is in the hands of anyone who wants to try.  Free The Children inspires youth "to develop as socially conscious global citizens and become agents of change" through local and global empowerment programs:

• Adopt a Village
• Turn students into youth leaders
• Promote Self-Sufficiency

This 501 (c)(3) nonprofit has built more than 650 schools and school rooms around the world and has reached more than one million young people through outreach in North America and the United Kingdom.

Earthspun Clothing Line: Giving Customers an Eco-Friendly Alternative

Forty-seven million barrels of oil are needed each year just to supply America with all of the plastic bottles used.  A textile company that's been around since the American Revolution has found an innovative way to reduce oil consumption.  Patrick Yarns makes its Earthspun® brand clothing from recycled plastic bottles and recycled cotton.  No dyes are used because the green, blue, and brown bottles plus old X-ray films provide the color for this apparel.  Here are some facts the company highlights for those interested in making an eco-friendly choice:

• 1 shirt is made from .5 pound of fiber or about 6 bottles.
• 1 ton of recycled plastic saves 3.8 barrels of oil.
• 1 million recycled plastic bottles eliminate 180 metric tons of CO2.
• 10% of all US oil, 2 million barrels, is used to make plastics.
• 500 tee-shirts made from Earthspun® yarns save about 1 barrel of oil.

Because of an adaptive and innovative business model, Patrick Yarns remained profitable even after the recession hit, and the owners kept their textile plants in the U.S. (Source)

Beagle Freedom Project: from lab animals to pets

ARME, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, created the Beagle Freedom Project to address the immediate need of placing beagles, a popular breed among researchers. These dogs are preferred because of their docile natures and their adaptability to life in a cage.  ARME works with labs to legally obtain ownership of the animals and prep them for adoption.  Lab beagles come with special challenges:

"Anyone interested in fostering or adopting a lab beagle should be aware of the challenges these dogs have. They will not be accustomed to life in a home and will not have experience with children, cats, or other dogs. They will not be house-trained and accidents will happen, although they learn quickly. Many have gone directly from a commercial breeder to the lab, and have never felt grass under their feet or even seen the sun. They will have been fed a special diet formulated for lab animals and may be difficult to adjust to new foods. They will be unfamiliar with treats, toys, bedding and may never have walked on a leash. They will have lived in cages with steel wire floors and may have inflamed or infected paws from the pressure. They may be fearful of people initially and may have phobias from a lifetime in confinement or from being restrained. They are likely to have been surgically de-barked by the breeder."

A lab in Spain turned over 41 dogs to the Beagle Freedom Project.  ARME organizers are now looking for foster and adoptive homes.

Operation Write Home

Operation Write Home provides a touching way to support America's armed forces by turning volunteers into makers of greeting cards.  The handmade cards are blank on the inside and meant to encourage a note home to family or letters to friends.  

People all around the world are participating.  And card makers are nearing a million card milestone.   Operation Write Home makes it easy to volunteer because people can create from the comfort of their own homes.

For those who are intimidated by making personal greeting cards, there are other ways to help out Operation Write Home.  Click the link to find out more.

Operation Homefront: Helping Military Families

Operation Homefront (OH) was founded in 2002 as a support system for families of deployed service members after 9/11. This 501 (c)(3) nonprofit is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, with 25 chapters serving 30 states and the main office taking care of everyone else. The lowest-paid service members (E-1 through E-6 enlisted ranks) constitute the majority of those receiving assistance.

The goal of Operation Homefront  is to offer emergency financial and other types of assistance to the families of our service members and wounded warriors.  Evictions, child care, food insecurity, and auto repair are just some of the areas where OH can step up to help.  Recently, laptops were donated to troops deploying overseas.

A network of generous donors makes Operation Homefront's efforts successful.

Visit Operation Homefront's youtube page to see what the organization is doing for the holidays.

Share Our Strength

Twenty percent of American children don't have enough to eat. Their hunger and food insecurity doesn't manifest as rail thin limbs and bloated tummies like their counterparts in other countries, but hungry American kids face the same risk lacking the energy to learn, grow and thrive physically and intellectually.

The nonprofit, Share our Strength aims to end child hunger in America by 2015.  Here's a look at what the organization is trying to tackle:

• More than 16 million children in America are at risk of hunger.
• 15.7 million children in America live in poverty. 
• 18.6 million children are SNAP/food stamps recipients.
• Over 20 million children get a free or reduced-price school lunch.
• 10.5 million children get a free or reduced-price school breakfast.
• 6 out of 7 children do not get the free summer meals they are eligible for.

Share Our Strength partners with major corporations and donors mobilizing to create community wealth and  promote lasting change.

Hoops of Hope: Shooting for the Stars

In the spring of 2004, Austin Gutwein saw a video about orphaned children who had lost their parents to AIDS. After watching the video, The nine-year-old knew these kids weren’t any different from him except in magnitude of suffering.

Austin felt God calling him to do something to help them. He decided to shoot free throws and on World AIDS Day, 2004, he shot 2,057 free throws to represent the 2,057 kids who would be orphaned during his day at school. Friends and family sponsored Austin and he was able to raise almost $3,000. That year, the money was used by World Vision to provide hope to 8 orphan children. Source.

That event was the beginning of Hoops of Hope, the world’s largest free-throw marathon. Shooting basket balls, participants raise awareness and funds for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. All funds raised by the event go directly to care for kids in highly affected areas.

Feeding the 5000

'Feeding of 5,000' to Combat Waste

Feeding the 5000 showed people in London the insane level of food waste going on every day by preparing a feast for thousands with discarded and unwanted food.  A crooked carrot might be tossed at a supermarket because aesthetically that carrot isn't desirable.  Shockingly, all of the world's nearly one billion hungry people could be nutritiously fed on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the US, UK, and Europe.

"The bread and other cereal products thrown away in UK households alone would have been enough to lift 30 million of the world's hungry people out of malnourishment." Source.

Food businesses, restaurants and retailers are asked to sign up to the Feeding the 5000 Pledge and commit to ending the scandalous amount of waste.

Harlem Children's Zone

Serving 17,000 children in a hundred block area, Harlem Children's Zone implements a new method to end the cycle of generational poverty. An entire community is empowered with information at the same time that the educational needs of the community's children are being met.  Parents learn developmental milestones to watch for and discover ways to turn ordinary life at home into an educational experience.

The Harlem Children's Zone sees families through a child's college experience.  Ninety percent of the nonprofit's high school participants go on to study on the university level. This incoming freshman class obtained over $6.4 million in scholarships and grants.

Harmony, Hope & Healing

Music possesses a power that reaches beyond entertainment and performance.  Harmony, Hope & Healing harnesses the creative and therapeutic aspect of song as a way of offering dignity and spiritual healing to homeless and underserved women, men and children. This Chicago-based nonprofit was founded in 2000 by singer and educator Marge Nykaza.  Programs offer a chance to learn, heal, and experience a sense of community:

• Adult music sessions
• Musical English lessons for non native speakers
• Senior group piano lessons
• Senior choir rehearsals
• Parent / child music classes
• Children’s music classes
• Pre-school music classes
• Annual music event at each program site
• Choir performances in public or private venues

Harmony, Hope & Healing "delivers direct services in the form of therapeutic music programs that offer healing from the devastating effects of poverty, homelessness, domestic violence, substance abuse and the isolation of aging."  (Mission Statement)

Mama Hope: Community, Hope & Progress in Africa

Africans and Americans come together in celebration of Mama Hope's Campaign: Stop the Pity. Unlock the Potential. The organization believes the essential first step in changing the world is telling the story of connection instead of contrasting images of wealth and developing nations and showing human potential instead demoralizing poverty.

People everywhere have talent and capacity, and people everywhere share a desire to be able to use those gifts to improve their lives and the lives of the people they care about. To learn more about the projects we undertake to unlock this potential and get involved: ‪http://www.mamahope.org

Mama Hope was founded after Nyla Rodgers lost her mother and visited Kenya to visit a young man whose education was made possible by her mother's sponsorship.  Rodgers learned hundreds were actually helped through her mother's efforts.

Thus far, 76,000 people have benefited from Mama Hope projects in agriculture, food security, water, health, education, shelter, women’s empowerment and the environment.

One Spirit Lifting the Lakota People

While the world reels in apprehension about global markets, one North American nation experiences 87% unemployment and an average life expectancy of 50 years.  The people of the Lakota Nation live with hunger, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and malnutrition on an epidemic scale.

One Spirit works in partnership with the Lakota people on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to care for those in need through food, heat, art and youth programs..

Despite constant hardship and unrelenting adversity, the Lakota preserve their cultural and traditions for their children and the world:

• About 1/3 of the population still speak the Lakota language
• Almost all maintain their traditional spiritual and cultural beliefs
• They are leaders in knowledge of environmental preservation.
• They are a sharing society - when one eats, they all eat - or they all do without.
• Their exquisite beadwork, quillwork, quilting, sewing, painting is art at its best.
• They wish to find ways to be self-sufficient. (Source)

One Spirit provides opportunities for anyone to directly sponsor an elder, families, children and a Safe House.

One Spirit is recognized as a top notch nonprofit by Great Nonprofits (dot) com.

World Clothes Line: a mission to clothe the world

 

Basic human needs include food, water, and shelter, but clothing matters, too.  A young woman, Mallory Brown, realized the import of proper clothing after encountering truly impoverished people in Laos.  Clothing protects a body from sun and wind burn, frost bite, and insect bites.  A habit many of us take for granted, changing into clean clothes every day promotes good health by preventing infection, chafing, skin disorders, and the spreading of viruses.

"However, in cases of extreme poverty, clothing is often one of the first needs to be ignored. Statistically, more than one billion people in the world live on less than one dollar a day. Almost 2.7 billion people (that's 40% of our population) survive on less than two dollars per day. In such circumstances, daily necessities like food and water take top priority. Clothing, which can be reworn, therefore is reworn. Day after day. After day..."  --World Clothes Line

Brown decided to found a clothing company with a "buy one, give one free" business model. While World Clothes Line is a for-profit venture, profit is not its mission.  Success is measured in philanthropy.

Sustainable Prisons: What If?

Serving hard time means facing a hard reality once a sentence is served.  Former convicts often finish their sentences unprepared for jobs, much less professions, and are generally considered undesirable as employees.  An experiment (and actually a number of research projects) being conducted in Washington state brings science and nature to prisons and prisoners.  One goal is education for inmates and sustainable job training.

"We conduct ecological research and conserve biodiversity by forging collaborations with scientists, inmates, prison staff, students, and community partners. Equally important, we help reduce the environmental, economic, and human costs of prisons by inspiring and informing sustainable practices."  Sustainable Prisons Project

Washington State Department of Corrections partners with Evergreen State College by way of the Sustainable Prisons Project.   Current inmates and ex-offenders who show an interest are taught sustainability, green-collar jobs, and given educational opportunities that advance scientific research.  Some prisoners do organic gardening.  Others are trained as beekeepers.  One program has prisoners raising the endangered Oregon spotted frogs for release back into the wild.  Endangered plant life is being cultivated for transplanting in nature.

Program coordinators note the value of connecting the incarcerated to the world beyond bars and razor wire. Prisoners say they feel like they're being prepared to do something meaningful once their time is served.

RxArt: Brightening the Lives of Hospital Patients

Hospital rooms can be dreary and completely void of the touches of a home-like atmosphere.  RxArt exists to  brighten up a gloomy, clinical environment using some paint and colorful, contemporary art.

"The New York based nonprofit was started in 2000 by Director Diane Brown with a project at Rockefeller University Hospital in New York. Brown attributes her inspiration for RxArt to her own fear of hospitals."

RxArt is a non-profit organization seeking to promote healing and inspire hope in patients, families and staff.

Net Literacy: Children Take the Lead

Kids bridge the digital divide by helping senior citizens learn to navigate the internet.  Net Literacy was founded by middle school students in 2003.  The organization has since developed a series of digital literacy projects: Senior Connects, Safe Connects, Financial Connects, and many more. Net Literacy has made computer access possible to more than 170,000 people with a small army of tech-savvy, student volunteers.

"One hundred million Americans do not have high speed Internet at home, and 18 million Americans live in areas with little or no broadband infrastructure.  Seniors, minorities, low-income and rural Americans remain disproportionately offline. "

The Net Literacy mission to get the digitally disconnected engaged has included students refurbishing 15,000 plus computers in just the last four years.

Out of the Rubble, A Community Garden

The Holt Community Garden emerges from the destruction following Alabama's April 27, 2011 Tornado disaster.  The photo captures the recent groundbreaking ceremony for the sustainable living project.  The land used to provide produce for local soup kitchens, and good work continues.

Through the cooperative efforts of Bennu America Foundation, Project Team Up, Soma Church, Tombigbee RC&D, and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, the property will serve as a teaching tool for beginning farmers and ranchers and be used to address food insecurity.

• The 'model' will include the farm, local food processing and food preparation (in the 18-wheel mobile kitchen "Joshua" stationed at Soma Church by ACTS World Relief).
• The farm will also serve as a 'demonstration farm' for beginning farmers and ranchers; those interested in agriculture as a career or source of local sustenance; interns pursuing a variety of studies and research; and the surrounding community-particularly children and youth.
• The crops will be used as ingredients in seasonal menus which will be prepared in Joshua, local churches and other community agencies.
• The farm represents an opportunity to provide the community, students and others with occupational training in agriculture, food processing and culinary arts, while also serving as a platform for education on wellness, local agriculture, food security and food preparation. 

The model in Holt, Alabama has the attention of major NGO's who see the potential for replicating the project in other devastated areas like Haiti.

100,000 Homes for the Chronically Homeless

The 100,000 Homes Campaign intends to secure housing for 100,000 of the nation's most vulnerable homeless people.  More than 100 communities have signed on to make the dream happen.  Getting the homeless housed relies on this working model:

1. Build a strong, diverse local team
2. Clarify the local demand for permanent housing
3. Begin lining up permanent housing and support resources
4. Start moving people into permanent housing
5. Help people improve their health and retain their housing

To date, nearly 11,000 long-term and vulnerable people now have a home thanks to the 100,000 Homes Campaign.  The organization hopes to reach their 100,000 mark by July 2013.

Jon Bon Jovi's Soul Kitchen: Hope Can Feed the Soul

Musical artist Jon Bon Jovi uses star power to address hunger, build relationships, and celebrate community.  His Soul Kitchen Restaurant welcomes everyone to the table.  There are no prices on the menu.  Customers pay what they can afford....usually a $10 donation.  And people are encouraged to pay it forward for others who have less.  Those who cannot afford a meal are not turned away.  They can volunteer an hour of time helping in the kitchen or in the restaurant's organic garden in exchange for a meal.

Bon Jovi tells NBC's Today Show that he hopes his charitable business model will catch on.

BeCause: Social Change through Storytelling

The BeCause Foundation uses storytelling to bring home compassion and understanding to anyone willing to watch their documentaries.  The goals are social change, widespread problem-solving, and complex social problems addressed with innovation and determination and often love.

BeCause films showcase the extraordinary compassion, resourcefulness, and dedication of ordinary people and communities: A doctor who treats the homeless in Pittsburgh (One Bridge to the Next); An innovative, multi-disciplinary group of professionals supporting child sexual abuse victims in Chicago (Alone No Love); A remarkable community of refugees from Burma risking their lives to help their own (Crossing Midnight); A small Southern town dealing with rapid and culturally complex demographic change (Welcome to Shelbyville).

BeCause pioneers in the synthesis of community campaigns, social media, and video projects.  You can learn more by visiting their website.

Street Medicine: Healing the Homeless

Video Courtesy: Invisible People TV

The homeless live in unsheltered conditions on the streets, under bridges, in parks and various other public places.  Exposure to the elements causes its own set of ailments, but many homeless people suffer from mental illness, addictions, HIV/AIDs and physical disabilities.  Too many go untreated.  Invisible People caught up with Dr. Jim Withers of Operation Safety Net in Pittsburgh.  Withers administers Street Medicine by canvassing areas likely to be occupied by the homeless.  Withers is committed to honor the dignity of every person that comes in his care.  Homelessness is often tied to having no where to go after being released prison, foster care, or mental institutions.

The BeCause Foundation follows Withers' work in the documentary, "One Bridge to the Next."

Laughing Man Worldwide: Commerce and Community in Partnership

Working with an Ethiopian coffee farmer inspired actor Hugh Jackman to make a promise.  He wanted to help the farmer Dukale and his community. Laughing Man Worldwide is the realization of Jackman's promise. The company supports entrepreneurs who believe "commerce and community grow together." Through the company, Laughing Man Coffee & Tea, the organization imports, roasts, and serves specialty beverages.  All profits, 100%, go to charities.

Laughing Man Worldwide finds, incubates, and supports companies and products that believe in the "ALL BE HAPPY" vision.  Jackman's efforts are helping to create much needed jobs and more.

Laughing Man Worldwide believes education is the essential foundation for ensuring a peaceful, healthy and prosperous worldwide community. We support innovative and effective educational initiatives both here and abroad. To begin with, we have partnered with Harlem Village Academies and Dr. Deborah Kenny. We have visited these schools and consider them to be a premier example of what education can be and can do.

The organization is on the lookout for who they can help next.

Do Something: You Could Save a Life

The award-winning DoSomething.org mobilizes young people to volunteer for a wide variety of great causes.  Right now the organization's nationwide bone marrow registry drive targets the best potential donors: college students.

Thousands of cancer patients need bone manor transplants every year, but only 2 percent of the population has had their cheeks swabbed to join the national registry. --DoSomething.org 

This nonprofit inspires college students to set up their own bone marrow drives on university campuses around the U.S.

This barely scratches the surface Do Something's mission.  Animal welfare, disaster relief, fighting prejudice, health issues, poverty, or bullying.  Do Something has your cause.  The organization even gives away grants to people 25 and younger so that they can start up programs in their own communities.

Visit the Do Something website to learn more.

Grow Alabama Mobilizing to Aid Farmers

The day-to-day business of Grow Alabama is to serve as a hub for community-supported agriculture.  The organization connects produce customers to more than 50 Alabama farmers.  The state's new immigration  law caused a crisis in farm labor just as crops are set to harvest.  So for the time being, Grow Alabama broadens its mission by connecting workers with farmers before fields rot and livelihoods are laid to waste.  The first week of October, Grow Alabama helped a tomato farmer near Steele.  This week, a sweet potato farmer will be helped with his harvest.

Here's a little about the driving force behind Grow Alabama:

Grow Alabama is the dream of one man, and the chance for everyone to preserve a vital way of life. Jerry Spencer saw Grow Alabama as a way to give our community a direct connection to the family farms of Alabama. Members not only buy more nutritious, flavorful food, they keep money from leaving the State, and a rich tradition from vanishing forever. Starting as Mt Laurel Organic Gardens in 1998, Grow Alabama is now the country’s first statewide multi-farm community supported agriculture program, with the best Alabama has to offer.

Click here to find out about becoming a customer or here to learn more about Community-Supported Agriculture.

Water for People: the current of change

Water For People combines the ingenuity and talent of entrepreneurs, civil society, governments, and communities to find solutions for safe water systems. The people who benefit build and maintain the projects empowering everyone involved. Lives are transformed by improved health and economic boosts which in turn frees families and communities from the grip of poverty.

Clean water is essential to life, health, and prosperity. Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, India, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador are all benefiting from collaborative Water for People projects.  The make up of volunteers is global.  World Water Corps monitors projects in the field.  Young people from around the world are invited to propose solutions to sanitation problems with the World Water Youth Initiative.

Patrice Millet: a Life Rededicated to the Service of Haiti's Children

Patrice Millet survived life-threatening bone cancer and decided to do something different with his life.  The successful businessman sold his construction company to dedicate his life to the service of Haiti's children.  He founded the Foundation Notre-Dame du Perpétuel Secours (FONDAPS).

Millet's nonprofit organization uses sports to educate kids on fair play, teamwork, respect, love, and how to become a responsible, contributing citizen.  Poverty is pervasive in Haiti; so, FONDAPS offers a food program that addresses health and nutrition.  School tuition is also paid for youth whose parents cannot afford the fees. Besides offering sports, nutrition, and opportunities for education, FONDAPS makes regular donations to Haiti's orphanages and youth soccer clubs.

Millet has been nominated as a top 2011 CNN Hero.

The Oldham Project: a tribute to life and beauty

In 2008, The Oldham Project began providing free photo shoots for people facing terminal and life-threatening illnesses.  Photographer Terri Shaver contemplated the nonprofit after losing a second sister to breast cancer.  As a 501 (c)(3) organization, The Oldham Project offers beautiful portraits FREE of charge to patients in Lansing, Michigan and the surrounding area.  If those afflicted cannot travel, the studio does house calls.

"Following the portrait session, the family will receive a CD of retouched images, along with a copyright release so they can print and use the photos as they desire. The Oldham Project currently offers portrait sessions to anyone suffering from an illness, but more specifically, we offer two programs: Be Bold, Feel Beautiful and Kourageous Kids."

The Oldham Project's website is deluged with visitors right now because CNN has spotlighted Shaver's work for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  But you can have a look at her work and the patient stories at the studio's blog.

Nourishing NYC: Growing Food is Power

Nourishing NYC tackles health and food security issues in impoverished East Harlem.  Chef and nutrition expert Gina Keatley saw the correlation between diabetes and lack of access to nutritious food in the NYC community and found a way to begin to empower residents through her nonprofit.

Twice a week, Nourishing NYC now offers nutrition classes at community gardens, shelters, and other nonprofit organizations which serve low-income people.  Urban gardening is also promoted as a way to have healthy food choices and beat paying for expensive produce.  The Junior Chef program teaches children basic cooking skills and how to smartly choose food.  The organization also distributes 1,000 free turkeys for Thanksgiving.

Keatley was recently featured as a CNN Hero.

Garden on the Go: a Farmers Market on Wheels

Indiana University found people in poverty have access to the worst kinds of food, for example, fast food and convenience stores.  The USDA indicates nearly 70% of low income areas are "food deserts" barren of affordable, healthy choices. IU-Health's Garden on the Go remedies the lack of access in poor neighborhoods with a mobile fruit and vegetable market.

IU-Health partners with a vending company year round offering regular and reliable service to people who often lack transportation.  The goal is to fight obesity rates and lower risks for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer by making healthy food available.

Garden on the Go accepts cash, credit cards, and SNAP/EBT.

Aspiritech: Jobs for People with Autism

More than 9 percent of the U.S. population is unemployed, and finding work is challenging for adults with autism even in better economies.  Brenda Weitzberg knew her university educated son could work, but his autism amounted to a serious obstacle in the job market.  His unique talent for attention to detail proved perfect in identifying software anomalies.  And so, she founded Aspiritech, which tests for software problems, not only to address her son's needs but the needs of other people in his situation.

Aspiritech's "mission to provide a path for high functioning individuals on the Autism Spectrum helps these young adults realize their potential through gainful employment."

The nonprofit's vision is to expand to other geographic and business areas in addition to inspiring others to replicate our model. To those ends, we continue to seek sources of funding and additional billable work.

You can find out more about Aspiritech by visiting the website.

Peer2Peer Tutors Impassioned in Education

Erik Kimel launched Peer2Peer Tutors as teenager.  At 16, he knew fellow students entrenched in academics were the best resource for struggling students.  Throughout college Kimel kept at the organization he founded and is now the CEO at age 25.  He not only provides academic help for kindergartners though college age but continues to employ youth as tutors starting at $12 an hour:

Peer2Peer also offers a sorely needed employment opportunity for young people, in an economic climate that has been especially tough on teens and college students. The tutoring company is poised to create 500 youth jobs. 

The organization is for-profit with a social mission.  Philanthropic efforts include donating 1% of its revenue to the communities it serves with free tutoring and services in Virginia and areas of Maryland and Connecticut tutoring Title 1 students free of charge.

Project Cuddle: Pregnancy without Fear

No baby ever has to be abandoned.  Since 1996, Project Cuddle has helped frightened girls and women find solutions and support by empowering the expectant mothers with choices.  Some need advice about telling their parents.  Others need shelter.   The range of care Project Cuddle offers can be as simple as emotional support or as involved as finding adoptive parents.

Ready to listen, volunteers man the 24-hour a day toll free number (888-628-3353) and website.   The Project Cuddle goals focus on the health and safety of the baby while in en utero and following birth.  This 501 (c)(3) nonprofit wants each birth mother proud of the decisions she makes.

Girls on the Run: Empowering Girls with Self-Respect

The core values of Girls on the Run:

• Recognize our power and responsibility to be intentional in our decision making 
• Embrace our differences and find strength in our connectedness
• Express joy, optimism and gratitude through our words, thoughts and actions
• Nurture our physical, emotional and spiritual health
• Lead with an open heart and assume positive intent
• Stand up for ourselves and others

Healthy attitudes and lifestyles during childhood can equip young girls to make positive decisions and avoid dangerous risk-taking during adolescence.  This is why Girls on the Run focuses on the development of girls eight to thirteen years old. The organization's program combines training for a 3.1 mile run and workouts that build both stamina and self-esteem.

Girls on the Run envisions a world where every girl "knows and activates her limitless potential and is free to boldly pursue her dreams."

Love Kitchen Feeding the Homeless, Hungry, Hopeless, Homebound, and Helpless

Helen Ashe and Ellen Turner have made it their business to feed the hungry.  The twin sisters carry out this mission through their Love Kitchen which has been nourishing bodies and souls for twenty years now.  The twins' charitable work  has been recognized with a CNN Heroes feature, on Oprah, and ABC's Secret Millionaire.


Every week more than 2000 meals are made.  Eighty percent of the food is for the homebound people in the Knoxville area.  The sisters have attracted a lot of volunteers who help make the work possible.  


The Love Kitchen's motto is "Everybody is God's Somebody."

50 Cent Finds a Way to Give Back

Artist, 50 Cent wants to provide a billion meals for hungry people over the next five years.  The way he's undertaken the goal is through enterprise.  He's marketing the Street King energy drink.  The concept is simple: buy a drink, feed the hungry, one drink means one meal.  50 is working with The United Nations World Food Programme.  To date, Street King has funded 2.5 million meals for those without food.

Climb Wyoming Takes Women to New Heights

Across America, single mother households often live in poverty. CLIMB Wyoming challenges the status quo with job training for low income women, and the work is paying off.  Program participants earn higher wages in fields ranging from welding to health care.  Readying single mothers for new careers is a 6 to 8 month endeavor:

• Phase 1-Program Research and Planning
• Phase 2-Participant Recruitment
• Phase 3-Comprehensive Training
• Phase 4-Job Placement
• Phase 5-On-going Support

Essential to the process are mental health services that tackle personal barriers that have impeded success in the past.

You can support the CLIMB Wyoming program at their donation page.

FealGood Foundation Supporting 9/11 Responders

The main focus of the FealGood Foundation is to raise public awareness about the catastrophic health effects on 9/11 first responders.  Founder and first responder, John Feal indicates health issues suffered by firefighters and police officers will soon claim more lives than the 9/11 terrorist attack. Feal's nonprofit  provides assistance to relieve these great heroes of the financial burdens placed on them over the last decade.

The Foundation is also working to create a network of advocacy on 9/11 healthcare issues. The organization  advocates for Ground Zero workers and teaches others how they can advocate for themselves and help others through grassroots activism.

Kenya Help, "Can ya help us?"

"Can ya help, us?" quipped Margo McAuliffe at a recent lecture for TED.  Http://kenyahelp.us is the website for the nonprofit McAuliffe established to address the educational needs of girls in Kenya.  After losing her husband, the recently retired math teacher began to daydream--seeing herself teaching in Africa.  She acted on her dreams and eventually raised more than a million dollars to open a girl's school in Kenya.

McAuliffe's first step was to visit a Catholic parish in the Naivasha District:

I interviewed 6 students whose circumstances were so dire that they were being sent home for lack of school fees. Their stories were heart wrenching: several had a single mom with no work; another’s mother worked in a stone quarry where she had been injured, breaking stones by hand. Her father was also unable to work. Several were orphans who had been taken in by family members unable to pay fees. One boy, highly recommended by his math teacher, had lost his father at about age 10 and had already been sent home. His mother had died at the exact time he was sitting for a crucial exam taken at the end of grade 8. His sister had tried to keep him in school, but had sickened while working at a flower farm and hadn’t been able to find other work. I told these students I was making no promises, but I would try to find sponsors for them.

Within a week after my return home, I had sponsors for all six! Even while I was in Kenya, “miracles” like that began to happen. Right before I left, I met a British woman who was a volunteer for Manos Unitas, a foundation based in Madrid whose mission was to fund programs for women and girls in Africa. It was just a few days after the still, small voice had spoken. Eventually Manos Unitas awarded us $55,000 to build 2 science labs.

McAuliffe credits a lot synchronicity and miracles in making the school possible.  She spends summers in Kenya teaching math.  Find out how you can help.