We are firm believers that we are BETTER TOGETHER - the more we join together to support one another, the more we all will accomplish.
Each quarter we aim to highlight a new cause that we are passionate about - from civil rights to environmental issues. We aim to shed light on what's going on, show ways people can get involved, and raise funds for the cause - donating 10% of all sales to the chosen organization.
UP NOW:
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose sole purpose is to end homelessness in the United States. They use research and data to find solutions to homelessness; they work with federal and local partners to create a solid base of policy and resources that support those solutions; and then they help communities implement them.
Their strength is that they are an outcome-driven organization. Starting with their name and continuing with how they choose the work they do, allocate staff time, and use their resources, they focus on one thing: ending homelessness.
Click HERE to learn more.
PREVIOUSLY SUPPORTING:
Everytown is the largest gun violence prevention organization in America. Made up of more than six million mayors, moms, teachers, survivors, gun owners, students, and everyday Americans who have come together to make their communities safer.
Donations help Everytown build awareness of and advance solutions to gun violence in America.
Click HERE to learn more.
Cultural Survival’s work is predicated on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They engage opportunities to leverage their experience and leadership in advocacy, media, public education, programs, and in providing platforms to amplify and empower the voices of Indigenous Peoples as they work to claim their rights to self-determination, their lands, cultures, and precious ecosystems that are essential to the whole planet.
Cultural Survival supports a movement of empowered Indigenous Peoples organizing their communities to engage the international processes, national policies and human rights bodies to respect, protect, and fulfill their rights. The organization is Indigenous-led and has a diverse board of directors bringing experiences from the Indigenous and non-Indigenous worlds to inform their perspectives and scope of work.
Their Mission
Cultural Survival advocates for Indigenous Peoples' rights and supports Indigenous communities’ self-determination, cultures and political resilience since 1972.
Their Vision
Cultural Survival envisions a future that respects and honors Indigenous Peoples' inherent rights and dynamic cultures, deeply and richly interwoven in lands, languages, spiritual traditions, and artistic expression, rooted in self-determination and self-governance.
Their Work
Cultural Survival is an Indigenous-led NGO and U.S. registered non-profit that advocates for Indigenous Peoples' rights and supports Indigenous communities’ self-determination, cultures, and political resilience, since 1972. For almost 50 years, Cultural Survival has partnered with Indigenous communities to advance Indigenous Peoples' rights and cultures worldwide. They envision a future that respects and honors Indigenous Peoples' inherent rights and dynamic cultures, deeply and richly interwoven in lands, languages, spiritual traditions, and artistic expression, rooted in self-determination and self-governance. The core of Their efforts rest on the principles of supporting, amplifying efforts and raising awareness of self-determination for Indigenous communities.
Cultural Survival has curated a robust network of partnerships with Indigenous communities spanning over 70 countries on 6 continents. Their work is predicated on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) where they work to empower Indigenous Peoples as they strive to assert their rights to self-determination and sustain their lands, cultures, and vital ecosystems that are essential to the health of our planet and all living things. Additionally, Cultural Survival has deep connections and influence across movements, sectors, governmental agencies, and international mechanisms like the United Nations, where they have held consultative status with the United Nations Economic Social and Cultural Council since 2005. They support grassroots Indigenous solutions to protect, respect and fulfill the rights of Indigenous communities and our approach centers traditional knowledge to restore balance in the natural world. Based in Cambridge, MA, they have 26 staff based in 10 countries; their staff is majority women, and both staff and board are majority Indigenous—they are a true reflection of the communities they serve!
Click HERE to learn more.
The Trust for Public Land creates parks and protects land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come.
They do it in a commitment to
Health: Access to the outdoors boosts our health and wellbeing
Equity: Access to the outdoors brings us together and improves quality of life for all
Climate: Access to the outdoors makes our communities more resilient to change
Their initiatives:
By 2025, they will directly engage more than 300 communities and improve quality of life for more than 85 million people.
TPL generates funding for land protection and establishes protected places for public benefit. They aim to put a quality park within a 10-minute walk of five million people who currently lack access by creating new parks, or transforming underutilized parks in the communities of greatest need. They are expanding their schoolyards program to expand park access for nearly 6 million people cross the country and open green schoolyards in 20 underserved school districts. They are connecting more than 3 million people to 1000 miles of local and national trails and greenways.
Click HERE to learn more...
With all that's going on, we've been overwhelmed with the desire to help move the needle and make systemic change once and for all. There are so many organizations doing so much good and important work, we couldn't pick just one. So, we'd like to introduce you to FOUR for whom we'll collect funds over the next two quarters (at least!).
The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.
EJI works with communities that have been marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment. They are committed to changing the narrative about race in America. EJI produces groundbreaking reports and short films that explore our nation’s history of racial injustice, and they recently launched an ambitious national effort to create new spaces, markers, and memorials that address the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, which shapes many issues today.
Color Of Change is the nation’s largest online racial justice organization.
They help people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by 1.7 million members, they move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America.
Their campaigns and initiatives win changes that matter. By designing strategies powerful enough to fight racism and injustice—in politics and culture, in the work place and the economy, in criminal justice and community life, and wherever they exist—they are changing both the written and unwritten rules of society. They mobilize their members to end practices and systems that unfairly hold Black people back, and champion solutions that move everyone forward.
Black Women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S. according to Forbes. Yet they receive a disproportionate amount of funding, if any at all, to their businesses.
Last year, only 2.2% of $85 billion in VC funding went to Female Founders. Every year, Women of Color get less than 1% of total funding. Only 1% of Black business owners get a bank loan during their first year of business compared with 7% of white owners.
Consider Something Better's Mission:
Tear down a broken system and honor the fiduciary responsibility to communities by creating economic and racial equality; given equal access to funding to the next generation of Black Female Founders. We believe that holding these entities accountable for the racial inequities that they pledge to dismantle is the catalyst for equitable advancement.
Goal:
To raise $5m to support Black Women-led businesses and create a real, actionable shift toward economic and racial equality for Black Female Founders.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans. LDF also defends the gains and protections won over the past 75 years of civil rights struggle and works to improve the quality and diversity of judicial and executive appointments.
LDF’s mission has always been transformative: to achieve racial justice, equality, and an inclusive society.
The new political landscape and a retrenchment in key areas of civil right poses unprecedented threats to the hard-won gains of the last half century. From new assaults on voting rights, to a renewed push to undermine equal access to quality education, to the reversal of criminal justice and policing reform, they face significant challenges in every area of our work.
CDC Foundation's Combat Coronavirus Campaign
The CDC Foundation is an independent nonprofit and the sole entity created by Congress to mobilize philanthropic and private-sector resources to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s critical health protection work.
They are a catalyst for unleashing the power of collaboration between CDC and philanthropies, private entities and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world.
The government has unique capacities as well as limitations. The same is true for the private and philanthropic sectors. The CDC Foundation believes that people, groups and organizations have greater positive impact and can accomplish more collectively than individually. By aligning diverse interests and resources and leveraging all parties’ strengths, their focused collaborations with private and philanthropic partners help create greater impact than any one entity can alone. Your support saves and improves lives—right now and in the future.
The new coronavirus (COVID-19) is both close to home and global, unpredictable and personal. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other public health agencies are taking aggressive measures to help protect the health of Americans and assist international partners.
The CDC Foundation, a nonprofit organization, helps serve ALL OF US, all of the many needs that arise during an emergency response that the federally-funded CDC cannot cover.
Your dollars will:
- help communities prevent, detect and respond to COVID-19
- increase laboratory capacity to keep pace with increasing demand for staffing, specialized equipment and supplies, specimen collection and delivery
- deploy emergency staffing with the skills required to meet the needs on the front lines at the state and local level
- provide support to vulnerable communities, including people with underlying health conditions and those who are homeless
- develop health education and awareness campaigns to combat misinformation, advance prevention and reduce stigma
- boost clinical tools to improve health outcomes
- develop new technology tools and update existing disease surveillance systems
- build capacity and infrastructure for global response efforts and other immediate needs as they evolve
Even with the U.S. government emergency funding package that has been signed into law, there are a wide variety of urgent demands where government support will not be available or available in time to meet all the rapidly-changing needs on the ground. ALL OF US, empowered by the CDC Foundation, can make a difference.
Together, ALL OF US CAN COMBAT CORONAVIRUS with our dollars, impact and influence.
Shop now and we'll donate 10% of the sale to the cause, or click HERE to donate directly. To learn more about the CDC Foundation, click HERE.
International Rescue Committee (IRC)
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and regain control of their future. (Think Yemen, Syria, Bangladesh, and South Sudan.)
IRC responds to some of the world’s worst crises, delivering aid that saves lives while paving the way for long-term recovery. They serve people whose lives have been upended by war, conflict and natural disaster in countries where people don’t have the support they need to recover from crisis. IRC responds within 72 hours, staying to help countries stabilize and people rebuild their lives. They resettle refugees welcomed by the United States, helping them to succeed and thrive.
The world’s more than 70 million displaced people, the highest number ever recorded, require more than “aid as usual.” Their growing and increasingly complex needs mandate a transformation—a creative rethinking—in the global humanitarian response. The International Rescue Committee has taken on this challenge. In more than 40 countries and in 26 U.S. cities, their dedicated teams provide clean water, shelter, health care, education and empowerment support to refugees and displaced people.
Visit IRC's website to learn more.
(No portion of the purchase price is tax deductible.)
K.I.N.D. - Kids in Need of Defense
K.I.N.D. is ensuring that no child appears in immigration court without high quality legal representation, advancing laws, policies, and practices that ensure children’s protection, and promoting in countries of origin, transit, and destination durable solutions to child migration that are grounded in the best interests of the child and ensure that no child is forced to migrate involuntarily.
The majority of the children K.I.N.D. serves have fled severe violence in their home countries. Many have been threatened or attacked by gangs, abandoned, abused, exploited, or trafficked. They come seeking safety, but find new challenges in the U.S.
K.I.N.D. staff and their pro bono attorney partners at law firms, corporations, and law schools nationwide represent unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in their deportation proceedings.
Together, they ensure that no child stands in court alone.
Did you know: Unaccompanied children are FIVE TIMES more likely to gain U.S. protection if they have an attorney representing them in immigration proceedings?
Click HERE to learn more about K.I.N.D.
Global Fund for Women
Global Fund for Women wants every woman and girl to be strong, safe, powerful, and heard. No exceptions. The organization is a global champion for the human rights of women and girls. They use their powerful networks to find, fund, and amplify the courageous work of women who are building social movements and challenging the status quo. By shining a spotlight on critical issues, they rally communities of advocates who take action and invest money to empower women.
Founded in 1987 in Palo Alto, California, by four bold women convinced that women's human rights were essential to social, economic, and political change around the world, for the benefit of us all. Frustrated by a lack in funding women's human rights, they founded an organization to fund grass-roots women-led movements directly. They knew that by trusting their grantee partners to tackle the problems they were uniquely qualified to solve, permanent change would happen. They were right.
Though Global Fund for Women has changed with the times, the philosophy of their founders has remained: TRUST WOMEN. Women are the best agents of change in their communities, and giving them resources and voice can change the world. Check out their case studies for a few examples of this philosophy in practice, making real impact.
Artists For Progress
“Artists For Progress exists to channel the energy of the resistance into action. We make art with purpose, and make it available to the public with dual hopes of spreading our message and supporting organizations currently under attack by this administration.“
ABOUT ARTISTS FOR PROGRESS
In this weird new reality-tv version of America, filled with mounting social and political unrest, Artists For Progress was born. It began with 35 artists who chose to fight hate with hope, to use their voices to mobilize for change, and to raise funds for organizations serving the marginalized and oppressed.
Though times like these could render us immobile, we’ve rallied together and are refusing to sit by and watch. We are artists as activists with a voice so loud a corrupt government cannot silence us. We will use every artistic medium and discipline to channel people’s fear and despair into the most meaningful art of our careers and lifetimes.
This is art with purpose, helping to keep our beautiful country progressing toward truth, inclusiveness, acceptance, tolerance, and love.
We are artists for progress.
Learn more HERE.