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. 

Day 268: Compass To Care

I’ve heard a lot a great things about today’s charity, and with good reason. Compass to Care provides travel support services for parents whose children are fighting cancer. This is a wonderful service and organization, especially for those families that might need a little a lift to the clinics and doctors providing the best cancer care.  If you know anyone who might benefit from or would like to help Compass to Care, please share this information. 

Compass to Care was founded by Michelle Ernsdorff in honor of the adversity her parents, Mike and Sandy Ernsdorff, faced in helping cure her of cancer. In 1974, Michelle was diagnosed with a Wilm’s Tumor, a form of kidney cancer. The family began years of traveling to the Mayo Clinic for surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and medical issues associated with treatment.

In honor of Mike & Sandy Ernsdorff, Compass to Care aims to supports these families by serving as their medical travel concierge. The Compass to Care team will both coordinate and pay for all travel arrangements, including airfare, bus fare, car rental, gas, lodging, meals, parking fees, taxi fees and train fare while traveling to seek the best cancer care for their children.

C2C believes that by serving as each family’s medical travel concierge, they will be able to focus solely on their child during this critical time. By providing this compass to their care, C2C is working to ensure each child diagnosed with cancer receives the best care and is cured, like Michelle was in 1975.

Amount Donated: $10

To support Compass to Care, please visit: http://compasstocare.org

Day 198: Patient Advocate Foundation

Having a life threatening illness is pain enough, and the added stress of medical bills, loss of employment, and retaining health insurance can make the experience even worse. For those patients in need of support battling these additional stresses, the Patient Advocate Foundation is there to help.

Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF) is a national 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization which provides professional case management services to Americans with chronic, life threatening and debilitating illnesses. PAF case managers serve as active liaisons between the patient and their insurer, employer and/or creditors to resolve insurance, job retention and/or debt crisis matters as they relate to their diagnosis also assisted by doctors and healthcare attorneys. Patient Advocate Foundation seeks to safeguard patients through effective mediation assuring access to care, maintenance of employment and preservation of their financial stability.

Their Mission is to provide effective mediation and arbitration services to patients to remove obstacles to healthcare including medical debt crisis, insurance access issues and employment issues for patients with chronic, debilitating and life-threatening illnesses. 

They assist patients with:  

  • Medical Debt Crisis   
  • Insurance Access Issues   
  • Job Retention Issues

Amount Donated: $5

To support the Patient Advocate Foundation, please visit: http://www.patientadvocate.org