5 Places for Holiday Giving
Cheers to the 2020 Holiday Season! This has been quite the challenging year. A time that we’ve reevaluated what we value, what makes us happy, and how we measure our self-worth. The usual metric was how much stuff we had and could acquire. Personally, I’m a fan of philanthropists. Philanthropists measure their value and happiness by how much they can give. Giving is empowering. If you have the means and haven’t recently, I highly recommend it.
In a time of crisis, giving can be grounding. We can’t control what happens to the economy and our neighbors. We can control how we respond.
Here are 5 causes I’ve personally given to. If you’re in a position to give, I hope they can also be your partners for fulfillment.
School on Wheels
Mission: Enhance educational opportunities for children experiencing homelessness between kindergarten and 12th grade.
What they do: School on Wheels tutor’s children experiencing homelessness across Los Angeles County, as far North as Santa Barbara, south to Carlsbad, and east as Riverside.
Why I give: Did you know one in twenty-five children in LAUSD are experiencing homelessness? Housing instability is incredibly disruptive to healthy child development. The children often do not have a private and quiet place to do their homework. It’s likely they’ll miss or have to change schools altogether. School on Wheels sends volunteer tutors to meet the children where they are for one on one tutoring. They’ll meet the children at libraries, school sites, shelters, and group foster homes. Income inequality is only widened by educational inequality. School on Wheels does great work in keeping that gap from growing. They are also the only organization of it’s kind in Los Angeles County, to have their sole mission be tutoring children experiencing homelessness.
Union Station Homeless Services
Mission: To help individuals and families rebuild their lives and end homelessness.
What they do: Union Station Homeless Services is the Los Angeles County designated lead homeless service agency for the area’s largest region, the San Gabriel Valley. The organization provides outreach, bridge housing, permanent housing, and community integration for people experiencing homelessness.
Why I give: You’re likely aware USHS has been my primary employer since July 2019. Were you also aware homelessness in Pasadena, where Union Station has the largest presence, has decreased 50% since 2010? The organization has a 97% retention rate of program alumni being able to maintain housing and not fall back into homelessness. Last year, USHS helped over 1,100 people out of homelessness, which reflects approximately 20% of the total in the San Gabriel Valley.
Like every organization listed here, I have profound respect for their leadership, programs, and fiscal management. When the pandemic started and some organizations tightened their belts, Union Station had reserves and infrastructure to source additional funding to increase meal services from 2,000 to over 6,000 meals/week and accepted the role of service provider for several Project Roomkey locations, totaling over 200 families and individuals.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles
Mission: To advance the civil and human rights for Asian Americans and promote a fair and equitable society for all.
What they do: AAAJ-LA provides direct legal services to individuals often speaking little to no English, develops a pipeline of future API community leaders, and advocates for systemic change to close the gap of inequality for the API community.
Why I give: Kung Flu. The Chinese Virus. The pandemic pulled the curtain back on the model minority myth and directed a spotlight of misguided hate on Asian Americans. Asian Americans testing positive have had a fatality rate 3x that of the overall population in California. Hate crimes increased over 32% year over year. These two are related. Translators for the countless dialects of the different ethnic groups are scarce and the fear of being attacked deters the community from wanting to test and become a target. There’s not enough support to meet the need and a fear to reach out for the services that are available. Giving to AAAJ-LA can help meet that need.
Social Venture Partners
Mission: to catalyze significant long-term social change in Los Angeles through expanding the capacity of innovative nonprofit and cultivating effective and engaged philanthropists.
What they do: SVP conducts workshops and trainings to identify and reduce racism in our communities. Systemic racism is among the main causes of inequality and homelessness. Systemic change is needed to create a more equitable society. SVP supports leaders in honing strategy, growing their network, and expanding resources to achieve their mission.
SVP also conducts an annual nonprofit fast-pitch. It begins with a ten week communications program that trains leaders to better communicate their story. The culmination is an evening where ten nonprofits gets five minutes to pitch the hundreds in the audience and in the community virtually why they deserve the lions share of the money raised that evening. It’s very cool!
Why I give: The systems and programs in place are not enough to create a just and equitable Los Angeles. Money needs to be invested to improve and grow what’s currently in place. Money also needs to be invested in programs that can bring additional value. The latter calls for innovation, is not funded through public dollars, and needs private philanthropists to take the initial risk.
Your Choice
Give your way. Give to what and who inspires you. Kindness begets kindness. Give in ways that are meaningful and affordable for you. Here are some ideas:
· Send a gift card to a front line worker. The gift may not be tax deductible, but still appreciated.
· Reach out to your local fire station, offer, and schedule a day to provide lunch.
· Check in with a local teacher and ask whether they could use headphones or an additional computer monitor. The monitor can be life changing when they’ve been trying to engage thirty students in Zoom squares while toggling back and forth between web pages.
Be creative. Be thoughtful. 2020 has been a strange time. However, it’s always a good time to be intentionally kind.
