Three months ago, my team at TOMS embarked on a journey to help reduce gun violence. We’ve committed $5 million dollars to organizations that support the communities affected by gun violence, and used our website as a tool for the public to urge their Representatives to pass universal background checks, something 90% of Americans agree on.
Does your organization help to improve trails in the Southern California foothills or deserts? Does it help to clear chaparral or cleanup after fires? Does it help to restore or expand our natural parklands?
If so, it may qualify for the ExtremeTerrain Clear Trail Grant program.
ExtremeTerrain, a company that sells Jeep parts, established the program in 2015 to demonstrate its respect for "the integrity of the landscape we live, drive and play on" and its intention to "leave the trails we enjoy better than we found them."
Like many Southern Californians, I am horrified and saddened by the burgeoning number of individuals who are homeless in our community. According to the Los Angeles Times, the number has grown to 60,000 a 23% increase over last year.
Why?
Lisa Gaeta, is the founder and chief executive officer of IMPACT Personal Safety-SoCal, a nonprofit whose classes offer assertiveness and awareness skills, boundary-setting, verbal strategies, and full-force physical assailant defense to people of all ages.
But Lisa was considering early retirement from a job—really a cause—about which she is passionate--due to excruciating pain, compromised mobiliy, and the fact that she had no medical insurance to pay for the necessary surgery.
Can you imagine forbidding your children to play in their yard due to poisons in the soil that could damage their brains? Or knowing that if you do allow the kids to play outside, they would likely suffer from learning disabilities or lower IQ? Of course not.
Yet, that is the life that the residents of 7,500 properties in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles.
There are apps to order a ride and food and apps to find dates and dog walkers. But what about an app to help the 42 million Americans who rely on food stamps, otherwise known as the Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP) to feed their families? Calling an 800 number to check one’s balance or maintaining an ongoing tally of purchases are cumbersome and time consuming.
Brooklyn-based Propel, a social enterprise that builds first-class software products for low-income Americans, is addressing this need.
Did you know that nonprofit hospitals in California are required to donate a certain amount of their profits to charity? No? We didn’t either. According to this Los Angeles Times article, “California’s attorney general can set specific charity care requirements for hospitals when a nonprofit hospital merges or is acquired by another nonprofit or for-profit hospital.”
