Featured Charity for July: Grassroot Soccer

The featured charity for July 2012 is Grassroot Soccer, join the Living Philanthropic team on Crowdrise and make you $1 a day pledge for July and help the youth of Africa live HIV-free lives. 

“Grassroot Soccer’s work is a refreshing and highly promising effort that can help turn the tide against HIV. Soccer is like a universal language…Grassroot Soccer thus reaches large numbers of young people with HIV education, and bases its programs on the best available evidence.” - Helen Epstein, author, The Invisible Cure

Mission: Grassroot Soccer uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilize communities to stop the spread of HIV.

Vision: A world mobilized through soccer to create an AIDS free generation.

Strategy: To achieve our mission, we continuously improve our innovative HIV prevention and life-skills curriculum, share our program and concept effectively, and utilize the popularity of soccer to increase our impact.

Grassroot Soccer is a leader in sport-for-development and HIV prevention, Grassroot Soccer improves health among youth by continuously developing and improving our innovative educational tools and techniques, sharing our model effectively with like-minded partners, and tapping into the power and popularity of soccer to advance the global fight against HIV and AIDS.

For more info, please visit: http://www.grassrootsoccer.org/

Take the Living Philanthropic Challenge Options:

Pledge $1 a day for the month of JULY ($31)

Take up a cause and give a tweet!

Give once. Give Everyday.

Thank you for being a living philanthropist!

Want to be a guest blogger on Living Philanthropic?
Join the team and donate on this page & submit your blog post about why you made a contribution here:  http://bit.ly/lp-blogger

Living Philanthropic was founded in April 2010 as one man’s mission to give to charity everyday for a year. This mission is built on a belief that you don’t have to be rich in dollars to make a difference; you only need to be rich in spirit. After completing his 365 day mission, the spirit of giving everyday carries on through his friends and in his mission to continue his micro-philanthropy for a third year. For more information, please visit:www.livingphilanthropic.com

Join the Living Philanthropic team and pledge $1 a day: http://www.crowdrise.com/lp-grassroot

Day 294: Project Angel Food

There is nothing more soothing to the soul than a warm healthy meal, but sometimes it’s not always possible to obtain. For those dealing with or affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses, getting a nutritious meal is not only important to satiate a hunger, but is vital to promoting healing and wellness. Today’s give goes to LA’s Project Angel Food whose mission is to provide the meals for those in need. Thanks to birthday girl, Elizabeth Banks for the inspiration.

Project Angel Food’s mission is to nourish the body and spirit of men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Volunteers and staff cook and deliver free and nutritious meals prepared with love throughout Los Angeles, acting out of a sense of urgency because hunger and illness do not wait. They deliver more than 13,000 meals every week to people in need. 

Amount Donated: $10 

To support Project Angel Food, please visit: http://www.angelfood.org

Day 237: Project Angel Heart

I feel very fortunate, I want to thank everyone who has contributed to my expedition to Mexico fundraiser. You rock! I can’t believe I will be building a school ten days from now. I can’t wait! Today’s give goes to a wonderful organization based in Denver dedicated to provided nutritious meals to individuals living with life-threatening illnesses. It is a wonderful mission born out of a simple idea, I commend their great work!

Dedicated members of the Denver community founded Project Angel Heart in 1991. They were determined to ensure that those living with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses were receiving proper nutrition — vital in the fight against disease. Project Angel Heart initially served 12 clients from a single, donated pan of lasagna. In 2009, Project Angel Heart delivered over 410,223 meals to 1,842 clients, free of charge. During eighteen years of phenomenal growth, their goal has always remained the same: ‘meals with love’ for men, women, and children living with life-threatening illness.

Support from the community has been unwavering since those first meals were delivered in 1991. Their delivery zone has expanded from 150 square miles of central Denver to encompass delivery boundaries that include 750 square miles of metropolitan Denver and 150 square miles in the Colorado Springs area. Such growth would not have been possible without our corps of dedicated volunteers. In 2009, 3,017 people donated 43,282 hours of their time preparing food in the kitchen, driving 72,020 miles to deliver meals to clients’ homes, helping in the office, and assisting with fundraising events.

For over 800 clients served each week, Project Angel Heart embodies stability and hope by providing nutritious meals, free of charge, and specifically prepared to meet the nutritional needs of each individual client. Life-threatening illnesses can drain a person’s energy and finances, threaten their dignity, limit their independence, and leave them feeling alone and vulnerable. Project Angel Heart provides life-saving nutrition necessary for physical, emotional, and financial health.

Amount Donated: $5

To support Project Angel Heart, please visit: http://www.projectangelheart.org

Living Philanthropic to match Empty Bottle’s pledge to Howard Brown Center

As you might have read in recent weeks, Chicago’s own Howard Brown Health Center (Day 25) has hit a financial crisis and is on the brink of closing. They are investigating their past mistakes, but working hard to raise the necessary funds to remain open and continuing serving their community, many patients of which do not have insurance and can not pay for the treatments they need. I encourage you to read their mission and check out all the services they provide.

The Empty Bottle, a popular music venue/promoter in Chicago is doing a lifeline event to raise money for Howard Brown Center. The Empty Bottle will be donating $1 for every ticket sold to their New Year’s Eve event with Big Freedia and Nobunny to help Howard Brown Center continue their ability to provide lifesaving services to the LGBT Community of Chicago. Ticketweb, the company I work for, will be knocking $1 off the the service fee to the ticket buyers. I am happy to be teaming up with Empty Bottle and announce that Living Philanthropic will match their $1 per ticket pledged donation to Howard Brown Health Center.

The check out process will also include an offer for an optional $5 donation to be made by the buyer that will go directly to the Howard Brown Health Center.

To learn about or donate more to the Howard Brown Health Center, please visit: http://www.howardbrown.org

To purchase tickets for this lifeline event, please visit Ticketweb.

Day 223: Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

Today is the 23rd annual World AIDS Day. While progress has been made in the area of prevention, there is still a need to promote prevention and eradicate the AIDS pandemic. We need to continue to support the organizations working hard to advocate and spread the word of AIDS/HIV prevention and to provide treatment to those affected that do not have access to the necessary treatment. The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation is one of those great organizations fighting against pediatric HIV and AIDS, they have helped over 10 million woman protect their babies from infection. That’s an amazing accomplishment!

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation is a global leader in the fight against pediatric HIV and AIDS. We’re working in 17 countries around the world to provide HIV prevention, care, and treatment services for women, children, and families—with a mission to eliminate pediatric AIDS.  With a global staff of nearly 1,300 – more than 90 percent of whom are in the field – the Foundation is a world leader in the movement to combat and eliminate pediatric HIV and AIDS. The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation seeks to prevent pediatric HIV infection and to eradicate pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention and treatment programs.

Amount Donated: $5

To support Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.pedaids.org

Day 205: amfAR - The Foundation for AIDS Research

There is no denying that AIDS is a global epidemic, it is life altering and deadly disease. With no true cure, it is important that organizations like amfAR exist to fund research and development of new vaccines, treatments and ultimately a cure for AIDS. 

Founded in 1985, amfAR is dedicated to ending the global AIDS epidemic through innovative research. With the freedom and flexibility to respond quickly to emerging areas of scientific promise, amfAR plays a catalytic role in accelerating the pace of HIV/AIDS research and achieving real breakthroughs. amfAR-funded research has increased our understanding of HIV and has helped lay the groundwork for major advances in the study and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Since 1985, amfAR has invested more than $307 million in its mission and has awarded grants to more than 2,000 research teams worldwide.

Amount Donated: $5

To support amFar, please visit: http://www.amfar.org

Day 186: (RED)

There is still a lot of work to be done to fight AIDS and malaria avoid the world. The more work we can do to preventing the disease, the more lives we can save. Africa is one of the hardest hit countries, due to the lack of resources needed to fight AIDS and malaria. So, today I am supporting (RED) and their partners in their fight to end AIDS.

(RED)™ is a simple idea that transforms our collective power as shoppers into a financial force that helps those affected by HIV in Africa. To date, $150 million has been generated and 5 million people have been helped through Global Fund programs that (RED) supports. When you choose to buy products from (RED) partner companies up to 50% of the profit goes towards eliminating AIDS in Africa.  Everyday over 3,800 people in Africa die of a preventative and treatable disease. That disease is AIDS. You don’t have to be a large corporation or a governing body to donate to the Global Fund inspired by (RED). Anyone can do it. There are millions of dollars at work on the ground in Africa thanks to individuals who donated.

Amount Donated: $5  to the Global Fund inspired by (RED)

To join (RED), please visit: http://www.joinred.com/takeaction/donate

Day 135: Africa’s Children - Africa’s Future

Today’s give comes on a recommendation from another reader of the blog, Africa’s Children-Africa’s Future is a relatively young organization based in Canada. They are dedicated to investing in the future of the world: children. Their focus is on orphans and children affected by the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Through various programs, AF-AC works to provide education, awareness, and training to help these at-risk youth obtain a healthy and promising future and that is a wonderful mission.

AC-AF’s vision is a future in which all children have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential. We offer a wide range of programming worldwide that encourages empowerment amongst youth by providing the tools for them to increase and share their awareness of HIV and AIDS.

As a result of the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, many parents die of AIDS-related illnesses before their children have reached adulthood, leaving many households to be headed by children. Children in these households are vulnerable to financial, social, emotional and health-related difficulties that contribute to a cycle of poverty. AC-AF’s Orphan and Vulnerable Children Support Programme (OVCSP) is designed to address all of these issues in partnership with local communities in Africa. AC-AF provides micro-credit loans to boys and girls in child-headed households so they can attend school. Youth participating in the programme also receive vocational training in which they learn valuable work skills which will in turn allow the children to secure jobs and financially support themselves and their families, through an apprenticeship programme. AC-AF also offers psychosocial support that will enable youth to become confident, happy and productive members of the community. All of AC-AF’s programming is equally targeted to boys and girls, ensuring gender equality. 

Over half of all new HIV infections occur amongst young people aged 15 to 25. In attempt to reach the demographic now most affected by the virus, AC-AF launched a creative youth empowerment programme called u+me=we in 2007. u+me=we works with youth aged 12-19 from around the world through a series of workshops that create opportunities for youth to engage in creative, skill-building and leadership situations and to explore HIV and AIDS related issues in order to increase both awareness and understanding. This program works with local health care professionals, artists and development specialists and encourages participants to launch a meaningful conversation about the realities of HIV and AIDS in both a local and global context.

Amount Donated: $5

To support Africa’s Children-Africa’s Future, please visit: http://www.ac-af.com