Friday, January 31, 2025

Feel Good Friday - Goods Unite Us

If current events are motivating you to find multiple ways to support your political beliefs, whatever they may be, you’ll want to keep reading about today’s highlighted organization, Goods Unite Us.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, the mission of Goods Unite Us is “to empower people to become political consumers and investors so that we can all collectively put an end to corporate political donations.” Watch this one minute overview video from CEO Abigail Wuest to learn more.


Goods Unite Us has a research team that hand curates and certifies all of the data they share on their website and app. By bringing more accountability and transparency to political donations made by corporations, they help consumers more easily align their everyday purchases with their politics. Search for a company or brand to find out “what percentage the company, its affiliates and its senior management and executives collectively donate to Republicans and Democrats, what percentage comes from the company itself versus its employees, and the top five politicians donated to.” 


After downloading and using the app, I was very sad to find out that, despite their Berkeley, California roots, Peet’s coffee gives more money to Republicans than Democrats and earns a -37 Campaign Finance Reform Score. These scores can range from -100 to +100. The higher the score, the more likely that purchases from the company or brand will lead to meaningful campaign finance reform. Time to switch to Starbucks since they rate a score of 66.


Not only can you explore brands and companies one at a time, you can also take this quiz to rate yourself, find out where your money goes, and make any needed adjustments. If you also want your investments to reflect your political beliefs, and those beliefs are Democratic, you can invest in the DEMZ fund. Designed to provide similar risk and performance as the S&P 500, it only includes companies that have made over 75% of their political contributions to Democratic causes and candidates.


If you’re ready to reclaim your voice and align your spending with your political beliefs, download the app and start checking on the brands you support. To help more people learn about Goods Unite Us, spread the word on social media. Like their Facebook page, follow them on Instagram.


Friday, January 24, 2025

Feel Good Friday - California Community Foundation

Another week and fires are still burning around Los Angeles so again we’re going to highlight an organization providing support to the impacted communities. Today, it’s the California Community Foundation.


Established in 1915 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the mission of the California Community Foundation (CCF) is “to lead positive systemic change that strengthens Los Angeles’ communities.” They do this through fundraising and awarding grants to organizations that provide “long-term, comprehensive solutions that address the vital issues concerning quality of life in Los Angeles County.”


Let’s start with the wildfires. This falls under CCF’s focus area on community resilience and empowering communities to adapt and thrive in the face of climate change. In response to the current wildfires, CCF created a Wildfire Recovery Fund. As of January 17th, they have raised over $30 million from a cross-section of donors, including major corporations, foundations, and more than 27,000 individual donors. Over $15 million in grants has already been awarded to nearly 130 nonprofit organizations and future donations will help people in the region recover and rebuild.


Other areas of focus for CCF include housing and homelessness, education, health, immigration, arts and culture, and civic engagement. Examples of what the funding provides includes: low-interest loans and grants to create and preserve affordable housing, making art accessible for all, healthcare and health education for economically disadvantaged residents in greater South Los Angeles, creating more equity and inclusion so immigrants and their families can thrive, and education initiatives for students from underserved communities.


In the last fiscal year, CCF gave out more than 9,837 in grants, which totaled just over $440 million. Since 2004, they have given more than $3.9 billion in grants, which has impacted hundreds of thousands of lives across Los Angeles County.

If you’d like to help the California Community Foundation respond to the wildfires or otherwise help strengthen Los Angeles communities, you can. Make a donation and spread the word on social media. Like the CCF Facebook page and follow them on Instagram and LinkedIn. 

Friday, January 17, 2025

Feel Good Friday - Disaster Relief

The fires in Los Angels are still burning so we’re going to highlight another organization providing support to the impacted communities. Today, it’s Direct Relief.


Established in 1948 as the William Zimdin Foundation and headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, Direct Relief “provides appropriate and specifically requested medical resources to community-based institutions and organizations throughout the world and across the United States.”


Let’s start with the fires in California. Direct Relief has coordinated their response efforts with local and state agencies and health associations, deploying emergency response teams to deliver critically needed relief items. This includes 2.3 million N95 respirators and more than $100 million in medicines and medical supplies. This short video shows what Direct Relief is bringing to community centers in the region.


This is just one example of how Direct Relief responds to disasters around the world. Whether the event is caused by fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, typhoons, disease outbreaks or is a humanitarian crisis as a result of war, the focus is on rapid mobilization. Direct Relief responds to specific requests from local partners and coordinates with other organizations and public agencies in the affected areas to ensure the most efficient use of resources.


They also provide healthcare for vulnerable communities. This work focuses on maternal health,  tribal health, health equity and disease prevention. Direct Relief supports locally-run facilities around the world providing essential health services, as well as supporting facilities in all 50 US states. You can explore this interactive global aid map to see the distribution of humanitarian aid and their international network of healthcare partners.


Since July, 2024, the beginning of fiscal year 2025, Direct Relief has provided over $98 million in medical aid, 763,780 pounds of medicine and supplies and more than 21 million doses of medicine to people in need.


If you’d like to help Direct Relief improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty and disaster, there are many ways you can support them. Volunteer in their Santa Barbara office, make a general donation to the organization, or a specific donation to respond to the California wildfires. You can also amplify their work on social media by following Direct Relief on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and subscribing to their YouTube channel. 

Friday, January 10, 2025

Feel Good Friday - Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation

This week a series of devastating wildfires have been burning in the Greater Los Angeles area and the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) is leading the response. Time to learn about an organization that supports these firefighters, the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation.


Established in 2010 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the mission of the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation is to “provide essential equipment, training and public outreach programs for the Los Angeles Fire Department to supplement city resources.” 


According to statistics on their website, there are “over 3,500 firefighters embedded in 106 stations throughout the city” and “the LAFD responds to an emergency call every 35 seconds, making it one of the busiest in the nation.” Right now there are over 400 firefighters from LAFD battling the Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires.


What you may not know is that approximately 97% of the city's fire budget is allocated towards personnel costs, which leaves only 3% to cover all other life-safety costs. That includes things like fire engines, gear such as gloves and rescue flashlights, and specialized equipment like thermal imaging cameras, drones, and swift-water rescue boats.


That’s where the LAFD Foundation comes in. They channel donations from private, corporate, and community partners and turn them into tangible resources to help firefighters protect the people of Los Angeles. They also use this money to fund a variety of programs that include: addressing the mental health of firefighters; training and deploying canine therapy dogs to critical incidents; an adopt-a-fire-station program that makes improvements at individual stations; and youth programs that “offer students the opportunity to learn about a career in the fire service through engaging task-driven activities where they develop skills in leadership, teamwork, and overall confidence.”


Since 2018, the LAFD Foundation has provided over $25 million to LAFD to fund programs and  fire station grant requests. They have recently issued an Emergency Funding Alert to provide crews fighting the current wildfires with emergency fire shelters, hydration backpacks and wild land brush tools. You can help by making a donation in response to this alert.


Other ways to support the LAFD Foundation include shopping for LAFD swag, donating to the Adopt-a-fire-station program and spreading the word on social media. Follow the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation on Facebook and Instagram.


Friday, January 3, 2025

Feel Good Friday - Bridges to Prosperity

The start of a new year is a great time to think about building new connections and metaphorical bridges. It’s also a great time to learn about an organization building literal bridges, Bridges to Prosperity


Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda, Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) “partners with communities, governments, private sector, research and technology, and other stakeholders to help plan, prioritize, assess, construct, and manage transport access for rural communities around the world.” 


Why bridges? According to info on their website, “almost a billion people around the world don't have safe transportation access to critical resources like health care, education, or employment due to an impassable river.” This lack of connectivity affects more than 1 in 7 people living in rural areas and is a root cause of poverty. B2P believes that “connection is the foundation to opportunity” and that’s what inspires their work. 


It starts by building better data. As CEO Nivi Sharma explains in this TedX talk, 60% of rivers and waterways in Africa are not mapped making it difficult to know where a bridge might have the most impact. Working with data scientists and deep learning models, they’ve been able to map waterways and can now predict travel paths and travel times.


Next, B2P works with local communities, governments and foundations to build footbridges, also known as trail bridges, in areas where they’ll have the most impact. Right now work takes place in Rwanda, Uganda, and Ethiopia with plans to expand into Zambia and Kenya. This 1 minute overview video shows many examples of the bridges that have been built.


Trail bridges are an effective solution for rural communities where people mostly travel by foot, bicycle or small vehicle. They’re easy to build, maintain, and replicate in addition to being cost-effective, durable, and safe. By connecting people to educational, health care and economic opportunities, B2P impacts households across multiple dimensions.


Since they began, they’ve built over 600 bridges providing more than 2.5 million people with safe access to the resources they need. In the areas surrounding the new bridges, farmer profits increased by 70% because they were able to take their crops to market, household incomes increased by 30%, girls’ attendance at school is up by 200% and vaccination rates increased by 45%. That’s a lot of prosperity!


If you’d like to help Bridges to Prosperity reach their vision of “a world where poverty caused by rural isolation no longer exists” there are a few ways to do so. Make a donation and help amplify their message on social media. Follow on them Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.