Featured Charity for August: Chicago Red Cross

AUGUST 2012 Living Philanthropic Featured Charity  

My friend John Wilson is donating his birthday to the RED CROSS CHICAGO,  he hates needles and will be donating blood on this birthday August 8th. He will also be throwing a party on August 11th to raise money for the Red Cross Chicago and Living Philanthropic will be partnering with John to hopefully raise more. 

On a side note, anyone who donates blood to the Red Cross gets into the party for free. 

Please consider pledging $1 a day for August or giving blood this month to celebrate the Chicago Red Cross!

The American Red Cross of Greater Chicago serves more than 9.6 million people in northeastern Illinois and northwest Indiana. Counties within our jurisdiction include Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Lake, Kane, Kendall, McHenry, Will, DeKalb, and Kankakee in Illinois, and Jasper, Lake, and Newton in Indiana.　

Today, in addition to domestic disaster relief, the American Red Cross offers compassionate services in five other areas: community services that help the needy; support and comfort for military members and their families; the collection, processing and distribution of lifesaving blood and blood products; educational programs that promote health and safety; and international relief and development programs.

The American Red Cross is where people mobilize to help our neighbors—across the street, across the country, and across the world—in emergencies. Locally we respond to 1,200 disasters every year and more than 4,000 volunteers help the Greater Chicago Red Cross deliver services. We also teach more than a quarter million people in Chicagoland each year health, safety and disaster preparedness skills.

For More information, please visit: http://www.chicagoredcross.org/

Take the Living Philanthropic Challenge Options:

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

Give Blood this month. 

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

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

Let’s win $25K for Waterkeeper!

Living Philanthropic’s featured charity for May is the Waterkeeper Alliance. Waterkeeper Alliance helps communities stand up for clean water and believe that clean water is a basic human right for everyone. 

To celebrate Earth Day, Groupon is giving $25K to the green charity that raises the most funds on Crowdrise. I would love to be able to get this needed support for Waterkeeper. If you would like to help, please join the team, spread the word, or make a donation. The contest ends on May 15th, 2012. 

Also, if you donate $10 or more to Waterkeeper on Crowdrise before May 8th, you will be entered to win an Eco bike from New Amsterdam Bikes!

Join the team and show your support here: http://www.crowdrise.com/lp-waterkeeper

Earth Day is Sunday, April 22. Do some good for planet earth. Pledge your support to Waterkeeper Alliance on the Living Philanthropic team page on crowdrise and help us get $25,000 from Groupon!  JOIN THE TEAM, MAKE A DONATION, SPREAD THE WORD. LET’S DO THIS! The team that raises the most money for their organization by May 15th, 2012 gets a $25K donation from Groupon! Go Earth Day! May 2012 Living Philanthropic Featured Charity   Today, water resources are declining in quality and quantity in virtually every part of the world: More than a billion people are living without access to safe drinking water; California faces the most serious water emergency in its history; Australia is in the midst of an epic, 12-year-long drought-the first industrialized nation to deal with water scarcity on this scale.  Waterkeeper Alliance provides a way for communities to stand up for their right to clean water and for the wise and equitable use of water resources, both locally and globally.  The vision of the Waterkeeper movement is for fishable, swimmable and drinkable waterways worldwide.  Our belief is that the best way to achieve this vision is through the Waterkeeper method of grassroots advocacy.  Waterkeeper Alliance aspires to protect every major watershed around the world. We also continue to reach out and collaborate with other leading national and international environmental and public health organizations to serve the needs of our global network. The growth of the Waterkeeper movement is a testament to the strength of our model. From the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, the Amazon to the Ganges, Waterkeeper Alliance has become a powerful voice for the world’s waters.     Take the Living Philanthropic Challenge Options:Pledge $1 a day for the month of May ($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
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Earth Day is Sunday, April 22. Do some good for planet earth. Pledge your support to Waterkeeper Alliance on the Living Philanthropic team page on crowdrise and help us get $25,000 from Groupon! 

JOIN THE TEAM, MAKE A DONATION, SPREAD THE WORD. LET’S DO THIS!

The team that raises the most money for their organization by May 15th, 2012 gets a $25K donation from Groupon! Go Earth Day!

May 2012 Living Philanthropic Featured Charity  

Today, water resources are declining in quality and quantity in virtually every part of the world: More than a billion people are living without access to safe drinking water; California faces the most serious water emergency in its history; Australia is in the midst of an epic, 12-year-long drought-the first industrialized nation to deal with water scarcity on this scale. 

Waterkeeper Alliance provides a way for communities to stand up for their right to clean water and for the wise and equitable use of water resources, both locally and globally.  The vision of the Waterkeeper movement is for fishable, swimmable and drinkable waterways worldwide.  Our belief is that the best way to achieve this vision is through the Waterkeeper method of grassroots advocacy. 

Waterkeeper Alliance aspires to protect every major watershed around the world. We also continue to reach out and collaborate with other leading national and international environmental and public health organizations to serve the needs of our global network.

The growth of the Waterkeeper movement is a testament to the strength of our model. 
From the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, the Amazon to the Ganges, Waterkeeper Alliance has become a powerful voice for the world’s waters.    

Take the Living Philanthropic Challenge Options:
Pledge $1 a day for the month of May ($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

Bottom Line (@bottomlineinc) Success Story: Javier Hernandez

Javier is a student in Bottom Line’s College Success Program and a graduating senior at UMass Boston. He gave this speech at Bottom Line’s 2011 Get In, Graduate, and Go Far Dinner.Visit bottomline.org to learn more.

Bottom Line is Living Philanthropic’s featured charity for March 2012. Join the team at Crowdrise.com/lp-mar12

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

Bottom Line (@bottomlineinc) Success Story: Marian Younge

Marian is a participant in Bottom Line’s College Success Program and a student at Tufts University. She gave this speech at Bottom Line’s 2011 Get In, Graduate, and Go Far Dinner. Visit bottomline.org to learn more.

Bottom Line is Living Philanthropic’s featured charity for March 2012. Join the team at Crowdrise.com/lp-mar12

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: Give Anything, But Up!

As Year 2 of Living Philanthropic winds down over the next 11 days, I wanted to give a little update. In year 1, we banded together to raise $20K for 365+ charities. In year 2, we teamed up to raise another $32K for charity. Our total combined impact for the past 2 years of Living Philanthropic is $52,496! That’s an amazing number, but I want to say we are not done quite yet.

My personal motto is: Give Anything, but up. 

Which means for continued success in anything you do, you have to keep giving anything you can, just don’t give up. 

As I work to hash out the details of Year 3, we are going to continue the monthly featured charities, but I am working hard to get another program off the ground for year 3 of Living Philanthropic. More details to come soon.

I wanted to personally say thank you for all the support and drive you have shown over the past 2 years, your messages and generosity towards the greater good are a constant inspiration and our success is a collective one. 

I would love to close out these 11 days in style, here are a couple ways you can help!

1. Spread the word. Share this blog, get your friends to like the Facebook page or follow on Twitter. If we can hit 5,000 likes and follows, it would help us spread the word in Year 3. 

2. Pledge $11 (a dollar per each day left in March as of this post) to Bottom Line, the featured charity for March on Crowdrise. The first $1,000 in donations will be matched! http://crowdrise.com/lp-mar12

3. Submit a Guest Blog Post. After you make a donation, consider writing a guest blog post. http://bit.ly/lp-blogger 

Stay Tuned for more information about Living Philanthropic: Year 3. 

January 2012 Featured Charity: Operation Respect

LIVING PHILANTHROPIC’S JANUARY 2012 FEATURED CHARITY is OPERATION RESPECT!

FIRST $1,000 in contributions matched by State Farm’s Go To Bat Program and Anonymous Donor CYPHER!

Operation Respect is a non-profit organization working to assure each child and youth a respectful, safe and compassionate climate of learning where their academic, social and emotional development can take place free of bullying, ridicule and violence. Founded by Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary, the organization disseminates educational resources that are designed to establish a climate that reduces the emotional and physical cruelty some children inflict upon each other by behaviors such as ridicule, bullying and-in extreme cases-violence. It is a unique organization that provides a gateway to broad scale adoption of school-based character education as well as social and emotional learning (SEL) programs.

Toward this end, Operation Respect developed the Don’t Laugh at Me (DLAM) programs, one for grades 2-5, another for grades 6-8 and a third for summer camps and after-school programs. All of the programs utilize inspiring music and video along with curriculum guides based on the well-tested, highly regarded conflict resolution curricula developed by the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) of Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR). Thanks to the generosity of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Operation Respect disseminates the DLAM programs free of charge. More than 150,000 copies of the program have been distributed to educators since Operation Respect’s inception.

Operation Respect also offers assembly programs and professional development workshops designed to provide educators with the tools for effective implementation. To date, over 40,000 educators have participated in workshops throughout the United States.

For more information, please visit: http://operationrespect.org or To donate to team Living Philanthropic, please visit: http://www.crowdrise.com/lp-jan12

Take the Living Philanthropic Challenge Options:
Donate $1 a day for a week or month.
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 second year.