Baldwins and So Lucky To B Me Pair Up for Charity

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By JohnPosted In: Charity ActivityTagged: , , , ,

So Lucky To B Me has just enjoyed a wonder pairing with the Baldwin family. Hailey and Alaia Baldwin, daughters of director, producer and author Stephen Baldwin will help So Lucky To B Me to raise awareness for breast cancer research and support for the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund. This organization, founded by Stephen’s mom, helps with all types of research for breast cancer. A portion of all sales of the So Lucky To B Me clothing will be donated to the fund.

As Hailey explained, “What this company stands for is really great, and the shirts are an awesome representation of the love that comes from the heart of the Fund.”

Alaia added, “The women who are working hard behind the scenes of So Lucky To B Me and behind CMBBCRF are the greatest examples of strong women. They can all relate to those who are going through the hardest of times. Andie Graff’s desire to support my grandmother’s organization is truly a blessing.”

The shirts were designed by Andie Graff, the founder and designer behind So Lucky To B Me. She explained her inspiration for her line of clothing as she said, “I created the line to share messages of empowerment to help build women’s self-esteem and encourage them to believe that they are more than enough, simply by being themselves. I am thrilled to partner with an organization that is also working so tirelessly on behalf of women.”

Colts Cheerleaders Shave Their Heads for Worthy Cause

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By JohnPosted In: Health

Two Indianapolis Colts cheerleaders are showing their commitment to a charity they believe in. Megan and Crystal Ann both had their heads shaved by the team mascot on Sunday during the game at Lucas Oil Stadium. They were sticking by their commitment to shave their heads if they managed to raise $10,000 for leukemia research, and they’ve reached $22,670.50 at this point.

Blue, the Colts’ mascot, had put out the challenge on Twitter, and Megan and Crystal Ann took up the challenge. Megan’s father held up a sign over the rails that read, “Megan… Bald is beautiful. You are Chuckstrong … Love Dad”

First-year coach Chuck Pagano was diagnosed with leukemia during Week 4 and has since undergone aggressive chemotherapy. The cheerleaders have joined quarterback Andrew Luck and other Colts players to show their solidarity for Pagano.

Pagano was in attendance at the game and received a standing ovation from the crowd of over 64,000 when he came out to wave. As Colts Reggie Wayne said about Pagano being there, “We knew he was here before the game. Our motto was, when it’s all said and done when this game’s done, make sure he’s smiling. We went out there with that approach. … Hopefully he’s on his way smiling.”

The Colts have raised, in total, more than $250,000 for the cause.

Ryan Gosling Drops In for Big Surprise at School for the Deaf

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By JohnPosted In: Charity ActivityTagged: , , ,

Ryan Gosling is one of those celebrities who knows how to appreciate what he has – and give to others. He recently took a break from filming his latest movie in Austin, Texas to make a surprise visit at the Texas School for the Deaf.

As Anne Adams, the executive director of the school’s foundation, said “We knew that Ryan was in town, and he’s been on streets around campus often so we were just pipe dreaming (and look what happened!).”

He came to their Spooky Skedaddle 5K, which is an annual charity run. He contributed to the event by raising approximately $20,000 for the event and getting other supporters. As Adams told E!, “Ryan was extremely kind, allowing lots of photo ops with fans and when the director told him, ‘Enough,’ he said, ‘No, one more,’ and pulled a small deaf child out of the line for a picture. Ryan is a wonderful person and we were delighted that they came!”

The Giving Library

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By JohnPosted In: Charity in BusinessTagged: , ,

library-1In August 2012, together with his wife Linda, John Arnold launched The Giving Library.  This $4m project is a collection of videos featuring the works of 250 charities.  The idea is that philanthropists can use the data from the Library to facilitate learning what they need to know about the nonprofits.  The Giving Library was launched because when Linda and John Arnold started their philanthropic journey, they found it challenging to figure out which nonprofits were most worthy and in need of support.  Spending so much time on searches and meeting with executive directors is not necessarily the most efficient use of everyone’s time so once they had done it, they developed this resource to save others’ time.

Until the Giving Library was established, most philanthropists were only able to access details from a few worthy organizations.  Thus foundation executive directors had to spend way too much time on fundraising.  As Laura Arnold explained, “we saw a need to create more efficiency in the system to have a more organized vision of receiving and processing information on nonprofits.” John added, “we started to do our own research, trying to go to websites to read about nonprofits. We realized we got much more insight by speaking to the founder. If you have significant resources, it’s worth their time to sit down and meet a particular funder but that’s not always practical for the majority of funder or nonprofits.”

The Arnolds thus took it upon themselves to film the work of worthy organizations and made the short documentaries Internet accessible so that these people could tell their stories and reach a much larger audience. They also sent letters to nonprofits – any organization that they had received confirmation was a legitimate nonprofit.  They then began working with some of these places to help them improve their scripts.  This is an ongoing project which has already helped save a lot of time of many willing philanthropists.