Dollar Philanthropy

Noah's Ark: A Haven for Orphaned Children and Animals

When I began this whole endeavor, I sent out an e-mail to all my friends, acquaintances, and family members to join with me in spreading the news about good causes and to hopefully generate some much needed money for worthy organizations.  I also asked them to send me suggestions for inclusion here.

I recently got an e-mail from an acquaintance, Sheryl, who I briefly worked with on a nonprofit project.  She regularly volunteers for organizations and has high standards for what makes an excellent nonprofit  organization.  She recommended that Noah's Ark be highlighted here at Dollar Philanthropy.  What a piece of synchronicity--- I had just driven by this organization on a family trip down to Jackson, Georgia.  I recognized the name because a family friend had taken her grandchildren down to Noah's Ark one afternoon to volunteer. So when I drove by, I placed it on my list to check out. With Sheryl's recommendation, it flew to the top of the list.

So What is Noah's Ark?

The mission of Noah's Ark is "bringing children and animals together for the purpose of providing unconditional love, unconditional service, and a future full of hope." Thus they operate children's homes and an animal rehabilitation center.  So-- here again, a slam dunk for highlighting here at DP--animals and kids-- two of my favorite things.

The philosophy of Noah's Ark is to bring children and animals together to provide a unique approach to rehabilitation for both. The animals at the rehabilitation center play a large role in providing unconditional love needed by the children. This, along with a great need for children's care homes, makes Noah's Ark a vital refuge for many hurting children and animals.

The highest hope for Noah's Ark is to provide an awareness through our rehab/education programs which emphasizes that all living things have value no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. The expectation is that when we as a society can recognize this fact, we will begin to win the battles for conservation and preservation.

As a courtesy to donors and grant makers, Noah's Ark is comprised of two nonprofit organizations so that donors can be assured that their money is going to help as they intend. 

The Children's Home provides a true home for abused, neglected or unwanted children. Through this program Noah's Ark provides an education for a culturally diverse group of children that focuses not only on academics but also on improving social skills, and helping children develop emotional stability that will help to break the cycle of poverty and destructive behavior.  As a part of this program Noah's Ark has a vision to provide a Virtue Village as a little city for children where virtuous character gives a child entrance and allows them privileges. The definitely need donations to make this happen.

The Animal Rehab Center is located on 250 acres and takes in unwanted, abused and/or neglected wildlife, domestic livestock, exotic animals, and birds. If an animal cannot be released back into its own habitat, it will have a forever home at Noah's Ark.  Thousands of school children participated in the Educational Program each year. They provide a 40 acre Nature Trail for visitors to experience natural habitat animals as well as native wildlife along the way. All these services, and more, are provided absolutely free of charge. This is why donations are so critical.

Ms. Jama Hedgecloth, the executive director and the folks at Noah's Ark have won many awards and accolades for their work including:

• TBS Citizen award 1991,
• Who's Who among outstanding Americans 1995,
• featured in Guidepost Sept 1999,
• featured in Southern Living June 2000,
• featured in Power for Living Oct. 2001,
• 2004 Woman of Substance,
• 2006 TBS Pathfinders Award,

To Send Your Dollar (or More):

By Mail to:

Noah's Ark Children Care Homes, Inc 712 LG - Griffin Rd Locust Grove, GA  30248

Noah's Ark Animal Rehabilitation Center, Inc. 712 LG - Griffin Rd Locust Grove, GA  30248

By Credit Card through their website:  Click Here

Through Network for Good ($10 minimum): Children's Home or Animal Rehab Center

Other Needs:

They also need a volunteer to redesign their website.  If you need some good press for your web design company and are willing help them create a professional cutting-edge site, please contact Sally.

Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida: Responding to Orlando's New Ordinance on Feeding Homeless People in Parks

The city of Orlando, Florida has passed an ordinance that requires non-profits to obtain permits from the city to give sandwiches and other food to homeless people in city parks.  Read about it: here, here and here. Since a permit has yet to be issued, this new ordinance is essentially a ban on feeding homeless people in parks.

In fact Andrew Cohen a journalist at the Washington Post has written a wonderful discussion of the implications of the law and has awarded it the Stupid Law of the Week. The Christian Science Monitor also discusses this trend.  (Thanks to Jacqueline Dowd for the link to this article.)

Having worked with mentally ill, homeless individuals I understand how they view the world.  Oftentimes, they resist going to shelters because their illnesses make them too paranoid to stay close to others.  Additionally, addicted individuals are required not to use substances and for many the addiction is so strong that they are not able to do that.  For these folks, creative services are needed to get them engaged in traditional services that will help them with their illnesses and get them reintegrated into society.  Oftentimes, it is the homeless outreach teams that are the worker bees that get homeless individuals to begin to trust and engage in systems that help them out of this dreadful cycle.

I'm not going to make a political statement about the new ordinance.  However, one of the main implications of it will be that nonprofits that serve this population will obviously incur more costs in order to fulfil their mission.  Either they will have to pay the permit fee and pay staff and or lawyers to obtain these permits or they will have to establish new facilities in approved areas and figure out how to re-engage with those that need their help.

So this week, I have selected the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida as the non-profit of the week.  They provide a continuum of services for homeless individuals and families in Orlando and are well poised to develop a plan to cope with this new obstacle. 

As for the stats on their current good works: In 2005, they provided 360,000 meals and 240,000 nights of shelter. They also provide an array of rehabilitation and reintegration services that help people and families get back on their feet.

Send Your Dollar (make sure to tell them you heard about them through Dollar Philanthropy)

By Mail:

Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida

639 West Central Boulevard

Orlando Florida,  32801

By PayPal through the Coalition Website:  Click here

For Donations of $10.00 or more through Network For Good:  Click here

Tags: Orlando, Homelessness, Nonprofit, Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, Stupid Ordinances, Dollar Philanthropy, Philanthropy

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Teaching Kids The Importance of Sharing

When you are around a gaggle of two and three year olds, it doesn't take long to figure out one of the challenges of that age is sharing.  Just at the time that they are figuring out their separateness from others, I imagine it must be quite a rude awakening that all the adults around you are now asking you to consider others. 

Sometimes it seems as if we are always needing a reminder of the lessons we were suppose to conquer at those early ages.  In our busy lives, it is so easy to get distracted and self-absorbed and forget our responsiblities to others. However, the fact remains that it our duty, as adults, to teach children to share.  This means that we sould role model, facilitate, encourage, and celebrate sharing and community service.

It is my hope that Dollar Philanthropy will be a resource for teachers, homeschooling families, and youth church school educators for providing opportunities to exercise our sharing "muscles".  Some instruction/classroom ideas for doing this include:

• discuss why sharing is important
• discuss how sharing with others makes you feel
• discuss how it feels to have others share with you
• discuss how it would feel not to have things you need (food, a home, love, clothes)
• provide youth the opportunity to discover ways they can share what they have
• encourage giving to others by setting aside money, time, or resources for your child to give to causes they choose
• consider collecting change in the classroom to donate to a cause that the kids want to support

Ideally, I hope that you consider using one of the Dollar Philanthropy highlighted causes, but certainly if the kids know of another cause in the community around them where they can see the difference they are making, please do so.

If you have other ideas on how to teach the virtues of sharing, please leave a comment so that others can use this as a resource for good ideas.

Gateway to Canine Partnerships: Service Dogs to Enhance Lives

"One of the great movements in my lifetime among educated people is the need to commit themselves to action. Most people are not satisfied with giving money; we also feel we need to work."  Peter F. Drucker

Peter F. Drucker was a popular business strategist and theorist.  However, in his later life, he began to apply his theory to nonprofits.  I personally think he was an inspired and inspiring genius.  With that said, when I saw that the Leader to Leader Institute, Drucker's foundation to enhance nonprofit management, highlighted an organization that helps animals and people, I knew they needed to be featured here at Dollar Philanthropy.

Gateway to Canine Partnerships

Gateway to Canine Partnerships is an organization that provides service dogs for people with physical challenges whose independence can be increased by having a canine partner.

Scientific studies of companion animals, service dogs and pets indicate:

• Individuals with service dogs scored higher for psychological well-being, self-esteem, community integration and the amount of control over their environment
• In a group of 1000 Medicare patients, those who owned pets had fewer medical care visits than those who did not. (Active Living Nov/.Dec 2002)
• service dogs saved as much as $60,000 in patient care costs over 8 year working span as compared to the $10,000 to train them. 1995 study by Dr. Karen Allen et.al

One thing that I like about this organization is that they recognize, appreciate and are thankful for the smallest of donations.  While the training of a service dog costs approximately $10,000, they really do believe in the notion that "Every Dollar Counts!"  For them  they say:

Every dollar buys a smile!

$5.00 BUYS PUPPY TREATS

$10.00 BUYS A NEW COLLAR

$15.00 BUYS FOOD BOWLS

$20.00 BUYS A NEW LEASH

$45.00 FEEDS A SERVICE DOG FOR A MONTH

$50.00 PROVIDES A VET CHECK-UP

Gateway to Canine Partnerships has relationships with No More Homeless Pets and the Utah Lab Rescue to use suitable rescue dogs to train. Ultimately this assists in the reduction of euthanasia rates in Utah and sends a strong message that rescue dogs are some of the best dogs out there.

Send Your Dollar Today!

This organization only accepts donations by mail.  Make the check out to:

GATEWAY TO CANINE PARTNERSHIPS

40 NORTH 800 WEST

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84116

[email protected]

Tags: service dogs, dogs, nonprofit, philanthropy, citizen philanthropy

E-Mail Updates: Responding to Your Requests

Thanks to everyone who has sent me feedback on Dollar Philanthropy. All of the comments have been very encouraging and supportive.  I also have listened to your requests to begin e-mailing folks when Dollar Philanthropy is updated.

For hardcore bloggers, yes, you can still add the feed to your aggregator of choice.  However, many of my family and friends are new to blogs and are not quite ready to set up a Bloglines or other similar news service.  So... I've set up an e-mail service with Constant Contact. 

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Tags: dollar philanthropy, updates, philanthropy, charity, nonprofits

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