Kevin’s ‘Hart’ of Gold: Comedian Gives $250K to Philly Schools

Actor-comedian Kevin Hart donated $250,000 to the School District of Philadelphia to assist in the purchase of 500 computers for its schools and recreation centers. As a Philadelphia native, Hart felt fortunate to be able to give back. He said in a statement, “I am blessed to be in a position that allows me to give back to the city that made me who I am.”

Mayor Michael Nutter joined Hart on Friday to visit four schools that collectively received 300 laptops. The district has endured severe budget cuts this year, including the closure of about two dozen schools.
In an interview with Hot 107.9′s Philly’s Morning Show, Kevin added:

“I felt like the city was in a time of need. I feel like it’s good to step up and show kids that regardless of where I’m at in my life now, I once sat in the same seat they sit in.  This city made me. So, me reaching back is me showing them, you have the same opportunity that I had, and it’s just time to make the best of it. You’re not alone. You have people like me that care and hopefully me doing what I’m doing will provoke other people to step up and do the same and help out when they can.”

When asked if he thought that other Philly celebs would step up or if he’d be the only one, he responded:

“Well if I am I am. This isn’t something that’s going to go away from my standpoint. I bleed Philadelphia. There is gonna be other ways where I can help. This time, it was me going in my pocket alone, without sponsors or other people to add to it. The next time, because of the attention that this has drawn, I’ll get corporate companies to come in and get involved and help me raise money. This is definitely a start of something big for me. I’m jumping into this philanthropy world and for me, this is where I wanted it to start. How am I going to continue to raise money? I don’t know yet, that’s why I went into my pocket personally, but this is something that I’m going to take serious and go full steam ahead with it.

“I can only do but so much. It’s sad and I know they are struggling and it’s at a point where the city can only do but so much because the debt that they are in. This is when I really really need a voice and it’s funny because I didn’t know how I could be a voice, how I could do things. I’m a comedian, I’m not trying to go out and talk about politics, I’m not doing that,  that’s not my lane. Then by accident, I found my lane, helping my city.  That’s my lane, trying to put my city on my back, uplift it and showing these kids that I give a damn.  By showing them that I give a damn, hopefully, it’ll keep them interested to stay in school, and make it out, like I did.”

Source: http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/11/01/good-deed-kevin-hart-donates-250k-philadelphia-school-system/

Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine to give $70 million to USC for new academy

Hip-hop star Dr. Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine are donating $70 million to USC for a new academy that they say will give students the tools they need to break into the rapidly changing music industry.

Scheduled to be announced by Dre (whose given name is Andre Young) and Iovine on Wednesday in Santa Monica, the gift will establish the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation. The academy will open with an inaugural class of 25 students in fall 2014.

"The vision and generosity of Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young will profoundly influence the way all of us perceive and experience artistic media," USC President C.L. Max Nikias said in a statement. "Our goal is to ensure that the academy is the most collaborative educational program in the world."


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Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine give $70 million to create new USC academy
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Dre, Iovine and Nikias declined to be interviewed before the announcement, a USC spokesman said.

An unspecified portion of the $70-million donation will go toward construction of facilities that will house the academy. Students, who can earn an undergraduate degree from the academy, will use existing facilities while new ones are being built.

The four-year program will feature four core curriculum areas: arts and entrepreneurship; technology, design and marketability; concept and business platform; and creating a prototype. It aims to foster entrepreneurship that brings students' entertainment, technology and business skills into play. Instruction will involve engineering, computer science, fine arts, graphic design, business and leadership training.

That training will come from faculty at USC's Thornton School of Music, Roski School of Fine Arts, Marshall School of Business and Viterbi School of Engineering, as well as "industry icons and innovators as visiting faculty and guest speakers," according to USC's statement.

"Academy students will have the freedom to move easily from classroom to lab, from studio to workshop individually or in groups, and blow past any academic or structural barriers to spontaneous creativity," Erica Muhl, dean of the fine arts school, said in a statement. Muhl will serve as the first director of the new academy.

The outline of the program appears to create an academic counterpart to the street-smart path Iovine and Young have traveled in building their careers.

As Dr. Dre, Young first came to fame as a member of the Compton hard-core rap group N.W.A and went on to become one of hip-hop's most respected performers and producers, mentoring Eminem as well as 50 Cent, the Game and other rappers.

Before Iovine founded Interscope Records in 1990, he also was an in-demand producer and engineer for hit recordings by John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and other rock and pop acts. At Interscope, which became Interscope Geffen A&M Records, of which he is now chairman, Iovine has been at the helm of the label behind such music-world successes as U2, the Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga. Iovine remains a co-owner of Interscope with its parent company, Universal Music Group.

When Dre asked Iovine several years ago whether he should endorse a line of high-end athletic shoes, Iovine famously replied, "Speakers — not sneakers."

That led them to create the Beats by Dr. Dre line of headphones that now accounts for more than half the consumer market for high-end headphones. Their Santa Monica-based Beats Electronics company has since expanded with the Dre Beats laptop, high-quality ear buds, speakers for car stereo systems and other products. The company's annual sales in 2011 were $500 million.

Forbes put Dre's current net worth at $350 million, ranking him third — behind Sean "Diddy" Combs and Jay-Z — on the magazine's 2013 list of the wealthiest hip-hop stars.

Celebrity NetWorth puts Iovine, a regular guest judge in recent seasons of "American Idol," at $700 million. Forbes in 2011 estimated Iovine's net worth at $400 million.

USC has a history of cultivating strategic relationships with the entertainment industry and a number of its leading practitioners. In 2009, for example, George Lucas' Lucasfilm Foundation gave $75 million toward construction of new facilities for the USC School of Cinematic Arts, plus $100 million for the school's endowment. Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Disney have also donated to the school.

First Black Female NASCAR Driver Seeks Community Support

Nationwide (May 14, 2012) -- Professional racecar driver Tia Norfleet has visions of giving to a community that supports her. As the first, youngest and only African-American female driver on the NASCAR circuit, Tia Norfleet has set the stage to opening the doors of diversity in a highly controversial and predominately male oriented sport.

With lawsuits that have been filed as well by other minorities, which have accused NASCAR of racial discrimination, many people wonder why and how can Norfleet compete in this division of racing. "It is sheer passion and instinct that drives this youngster to want to compete in this sport, she was born to compete," says Isaac Hayes, spokesperson/CEO of the online fund raising organization, Tiapower.com.

Norfleet comes from a family with a history in racing. Her father Bobby Norfleet made his NASCAR debut at the Portland International Raceway road course on March 26, 2000, where he competed against NASCAR driver Bill Lester making that race historical. It was the only time in NASCAR history that two African-Americans drivers have competed at the same time.

With many accolades of her own including being spokesperson for the Safe America Diving program, and appearing in commercials such as the Verizon wireless, numerous magazine ads and radio and television interviews. Tia Norfleet has given Black women everywhere new hope in following their dreams.

The million dollar question that many people ask is, will the NASCAR community accept Tia for who she is, and that is according to Hayes, a true competitor. "Our goal is to raise funds needed for everyone to find out," says Edward Williams, founder of the medium sized marketing company Team Tia.

Taking a page out of the country's 44th President Barack Obama's playbook, going grassroots to make history. Williams said "If President Obama can raise $700 million, surely we can raise $5 million to get Tia on the track. We have a good team and I think with the public's help we can get Tia on the track and testing in two weeks.

"To ensure the success of this effort to fundraise," says Hayes, CEO of Tiapower.com, "we have inked a lucrative deal with Alvin Kline, the social media guru and wed success agency team to head this unique grassroots online crown funding campaign."

Hayes continues, "I am confident that Alvin Kline along with Team Tia and the additional benefits and memorabilia we are offering the donors at Tiapower.com should allow us the chance to find out." As Tia prepares to take the wheel, the world holds on and wonders if the community that she supports will support her. The answer awaits at the finish line.

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Issac Hayes at (877) 239-4924 or email contact@tiapower.com or visit www.tiapower.com

Source: http://www.blacknews.com/news/tia_norfleet_first_black_female_nascar_driver_support101.shtml

Donate: Plan USA - Helping children since

Plan is a global partnership of caring people founded in 1937 to bring hope and help to the world’s poorest children.

Plan began as a child sponsorship organization. Today, we are one of the oldest and largest organizations of our kind—our grassroots, self-help programs assist more than 10 million children and their families in poor communities around the world.
We are proudly private, not for profit, and respectful of local religions and cultures—we have no agenda other than helping kids. Plan USA is one of more than 60 national organizations bearing the renowned Plan logo.

Your donations to help children through Plan USA are tax deductible and greatly appreciated.

Plan USA is proud to have met the standards of the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance.

Source: http://www.planusa.org/

John Legend's Charity Work

Charity biography

When Grammy Award-winning soulster John Legend first read The End of Poverty by Earth Institute director Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, he was so inspired that he traveled straight to Ghana to learn more about the problems faced by African countries. The book made him realize how it could be possible to set impoverished villages onto the road of self sufficiency and progress, and the trip showed him how he himself could make a difference to the lives of millions.

Legend established the Show Me Campaign to raise the required funds soon after his fact-finding mission, and partnered with Sachs’ Millennium Promise Alliance to serve needy African villages. In 2008, both Legend and Sachs made a tour of universities all over the US to encourage social, economic, personal, and educational growth. Called the Poverty Action Tour, the sessions challenged people to support the fight against poverty, and promote the charities and groups that champion the cause.

Rather than giving out money to destitute villages, the Show Me Campaign and Millennium Promise are more practical. They provide mosquito nets to curb the millions of avoidable deaths from malaria, free meals to children attending school which raises attendance rates and health, safe water points, local clinics and fertilizer to improve crop production and eradicate food shortages.

“Some people will say with some justification that we have a lot of problems here at home that we still need to solve,” said the 29-year-old singer. “But I don’t believe you have to choose. I think every life is valuable and poverty anywhere is something we should address.”

John also raises awareness and support for The Gentlemen’s Fund and is a spokesperson for Tide Loads of Hope, for which he spent a day folding the laundry of those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Legend performed at a concert benefitting the Jason Collier Memorial Scholarship Fund.

John made an ad supporting the GAP (PRODUCT) RED (Two Weeks) Campaign. Proceeds from the sale of the campaign’s T-shirts benefit the Global Fund.

Donate: Keep A Child Alive

Keep a Child Alive is dedicated to providing life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, care and support services to children and their families with HIV/AIDS in Africa and the developing world by directly engaging the global public in the fight against AIDS.


Desperate to obtain the anti-retroviral drugs her three-year-old son Brine needed to survive, Anne walked in to Mombasa's AIDS Research and Family Care Clinic in 2002...read more

Keep a Child Alive is a registered 501(c)3 charity in the US. All public donations fund our programs, while corporate donations fund our operating and fundraising costs.
Click for a pdf of our 2007 Annual Report
2007 Audited Financial Statement // 2007 IRS form 990

Founder and President Leigh Blake
Co-Founder and Global Ambassador Alicia Keys
Global Ambassadors Iman and Padma Lakshmi
Our Board of Directors and Staff
Our Corporate Sponsors

Source: http://www.keepachildalive.org/

Donate: FARM - Africa

FARM-Africa works at a grassroots level with rural communities in eastern Africa, providing long term solutions to poverty. By working with farmers and herders to introduce new and innovative ways to increase food production and manage natural resources, we aim to improve their food security in a sustainable way. Over the past twenty years, we have become experts in rural farming in Africa – and are enabling more communities than ever before to access the benefits of our knowledge and experience. Focusing on those who need our help the most, our flexible approach is easily adapted to suit the different individuals and communities that we work with. Most Africans are small holder farmers - relying on just a few hectares to feed their families and grow surplus crops for sale. FARM-Africa invests in new technologies such as improved seeds and combines them with key skill training and access to water to irrigate land. We believe these are the corner stones to helping these farmers find a permanent way out of poverty – enabling them to be self sufficient and feed their families without the need for handouts. The 12 million pastoralists living in arid regions of Kenya and Ethiopia have one of the highest rates of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Traditionally reliant on their livestock to survive, frequent droughts and lack of access to animal healthcare is damaging their livelihoods. By providing access to affordable veterinary care and enabling them to develop new livelihoods, FARM-Africa is helping pastoralists become self sufficient and access key education and health services. An increased population and demands on natural resources has led to a huge depletion of East Africa’s natural forest. FARM-Africa is working with forest communities in Tanzania and Ethiopia who were traditionally reliant on wood products, to provide the tools and training they need to pursue alternative livelihoods. Activities such as raffia weaving, honey production and harvesting wild coffee are all ways that forest dwellers can earn the money they need to survive whilst protecting the forest that surrounds them. As an international NGO we have offices in London, Nairobi and Addis Ababa from where we run our programme of innovative work in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Southern Sudan. We are reliant on voluntary donations – so if you would like to support our innovative work then please click here. Source: http://www.farmafrica.org.uk/

Donate: justgive.org

What Makes JustGive Different?

JustGive has harnessed the power of the Internet to remove barriers to charitable giving. Our technology, combined with our vast nonprofit experience, allows us to provide unique services, programs and advantages. At JustGive, you can:

Find the charities you want to support.
JustGive's database contains nearly 1.5 million charities. How can you choose where to make your donation? The JustGive Guide includes 1,000 charities that have met stringent public requirements. The charities are grouped into19 categories to make your search easier and faster.

Discover everyday ways to support your causes.
Charity gift cards. Charity wedding registry. Charity gift collections, Memorials. Special event fundraising. You can do it all in one place at JustGive.org—the online destination for charitable giving™.

Track donations through your personal Giving History.
We make tax time less stressful. View all the donations you make through JustGive and take every deduction you're entitled to. JustGive provides a single tax receipt for all your donations throughout the year that you can view or print at anytime.

Make private, secure donations.
JustGive allows you to control the use of your name. Our secure server protects your financial information and safely transfers your credit card donation. We never sell, trade, or give your name to any other groups. And if you choose to donate anonymously, we'll protect your identity.

Become an informed, knowledgeable donor.
How much should you give? How often? Our Giving Wisely tools help make your generosity count, and our Giving Resources show you how to make a real difference in your life, in your community, and in the world.

Source: http://www.justgive.org/

Donate: All African People's Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP)

Thank you for your interest in the All African People's Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP), an organization of the African People's Socialist Party. One of the primary goals of AAPDEP is to use the collective energy, skill and expertise of Africans wherever they are located and to include others with skills who are willing to work under the guidelines of this project, to offer their skills for the development of Africa and African communities throughout the world.

The most important features of this project that distinguish it from other approaches are:

• It is spearheaded by Africans for Africans - true self determination.
• It is organized by the highly trained and skilled sector of the African population who would otherwise use their skills to advance development in their respective countries that often times are engaged in the exploitation of Africa.
• It is NOT charity – the most popular and accepted way of dealing with the objective conditions in Africa - as this approach demoralizes Africans everywhere, the recipients as well as other African people who witness it. AAPDEP is designed to train, develop and empower the Africans who participate in the projects to duplicate and run the programs we develop. It is a revolutionary strategy aimed at transforming the dismal reality of Africans everywhere and forwarding true self-determination for African people.

Current AAPDEP projects focus on renewable energy electrification, rainwater harvesting, well- building, water purification, ecological sanitation, farming and community health workers training.

Why is AAPDEP necessary?

With an abundance of agricultural, mineral, oil and other wealth, Africa is the richest continent on Earth! Nevertheless, African people world wide - from Brooklyn to Brazil, Guinea to Guyana - are forced to live in abject poverty. This imposed poverty is rooted in an attack on Africa that manifested itself as the forced dispersal and enslavement of African people, colonialism and current day neo-colonialism. As a result of this attack, African people everywhere have been separated from our resources and each other while our land, labor and vast natural wealth are being used to build Europe, the US and other imperialist nations.

Self-Determination, Not Charity!

The future of African people everywhere is tied to our ability to unite our resources with our skills.

The All African People's Development and Empowerment Project was developed by the African People's Socialist Party (www.apspuhuru.org) as part of a strategy to win true and lasting self-determination for African people worldwide. We understand that the underlying cause for the crisis that exists in the African world is due to the imperialist exploitation and purposeful underdevelopment of Africa and African communities everywhere by the US and Europe who effectively control our resources (wealth).

Source: http://developmentforafrica.org/

Ludacris's Charity Work

Charity biography

Chris “Ludacris” Bridges created the Ludacris Foundation to inspire youth and foster community economic development.

Causes supported

AIDS, At-Risk/Disadvantaged Youths, Children, Economic/Business Support, Education, Environment, Literacy, Miscellaneous

Contacting Ludacris

You may be able to contact Ludacris using the Contact Any Celebrity service.

Our advice on how to contact celebrities »

Charities supported

Ludacris has supported the following charities:

• 46664
• Charity Folks

• Live Earth
• Ludacris Foundation

Other supporters of the same charities

Al Gore Alan Carr Alicia Keys Anastacia Angélique Kidjo Annie Lennox Anthony Kiedis Beastie Boys Corinne Bailey Rae Katie Melua Magic Johnson Naomi Campbell Razorlight Soweto Gospel Choir Yusuf

Source: http://www.looktothestars.org/

Donate: WorldVision.org

Who We Are - World Vision

Focusing on children since 1950

Thank you for your interest in the charitable work of World Vision!

Who we are

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.

Who we serve

We serve close to 100 million people in nearly 100 countries around the world. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.

Why we serve

Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, we serve alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people.

Reflecting Christ in each community

Wherever we work, our prayer is that our efforts will be used by God to heal and strengthen people’s relationships with Him and with one another. We do this by demonstrating God’s unconditional love for all people through our service to the poor — which includes providing for daily needs, working to build peace and promote justice, and partnering with churches and individuals to encourage spiritual transformation.

Reaching around the globe

World Vision is a global organization with offices in approximately 100 countries. These interdependent national offices are bound together by a Covenant of Partnership, a biblically based agreement that enables us to work together in a unified and complementary way as we walk alongside those we serve.

Employing the best in every region

We are blessed with staff who are experts in a broad range of technical specialties, ranging from hydrology to microenterprise development to public health. And we are inspired by the ways in which they use their God-given abilities in conjunction with existing community resources. Of the more than 30,000 staff employed by World Vision, 97 percent work in their home countries or regions. Familiar with the culture and language, they bring to World Vision a deeply personal understanding of how best to assist local children and families.

Meeting diverse needs

The millions of people we serve include earthquake and hurricane survivors, abandoned and exploited children, survivors of famine and civil war, refugees, and children and families in communities devastated by AIDS in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Our extensive global infrastructure enables us to respond where the need is greatest, anywhere in the world.

Trusted worldwide

The excellence of World Vision’s work has earned the trust of nearly 4 million donors, supporters, and volunteers; more than half a million child sponsors; thousands of churches; hundreds of corporations; and government agencies in the United States and around the world. We are thankful to God that through these collaborative efforts, we are able to be a part of breaking the cycle of poverty for those in need in our world.

http://www.worldvision.org

Donate: AfricaAid.org

Africa Aid provides the foundation for innovative partnerships and intimate community-based relationships between developing African communities and their more established American counterparts. To create a sustainable and mutually beneficial community partnership, Africa Aid characterizes the problems of an African community and then integrates foreign aid projects into American university curriculum, allowing university students and faculty experts to design solutions to extreme poverty. Africa Aid implements the resulting university designed solutions in Africa, working alongside African communities to establish basic levels of Education, Health, Water, and Economic Empowerment.

Source: http://www.africaaid.org/

Targeting Poverty

Philanthropic organization aims to end extreme global poverty

by Anthony Calypso - June 24, 2008

tags: Jeffrey Sachs . Millennium Promise . poverty

It’s a promise being made to a part of the world where life and death can lie just a few inches from each other. It is a pledge to help end poverty, achieve universal education, reduce child mortality rates, and much more—all by 2015 in Africa and 2025 globally.

According to Millennium Promise, a nonprofit organization with a multi-pronged objective aimed at ending extreme global poverty, these are the cold, hard facts:

• More than one billion people around the world live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $1 a day.
• Every 10 seconds, an African child dies of malaria.
• Across the globe, more than 800 million people go to bed hungry every night.
• Every year more than 10 million children die before their fifth birthday from preventable diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia.
• Every day more than 20,000 people die because they are too poor to stay alive.

To help with its fight, Millennium Promise, co-founded by economist Jeffrey Sachs, has joined up with Malaria No More in working to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, to make inroads toward a solution to cut extreme poverty. The organization has implemented a number of poverty-fighting initiatives including Millennium Villages, a cluster of communities arranged in twelve groups stretching across 10 countries in Africa. These villages have been engineered to facilitate needs by offering solutions, which help to create and maintain a localized infrastructure. According to The Earth Institute at Columbia University, these solutions can come in the form of medicines and other resources such as drinking wells and materials to help construct schools and clinics. The initiative has reached approximately 400,000 people across 79 villages.

To help raise the public’s awareness to the Millennium Promise’s cause, several well-known jazz musicians recently come together to lend their talents to a CD called “Promises Made,” which will be sold at major retailers as a fundraising effort. With musical direction led by saxophonist Kirk Whalum and pianist Takana Miyamoto, featuring George Duke, Take 6, and others, the 11-track project is set to be released by Koch Records in September.

“It was very organic to [get] involved in a philanthropic effort,” says Whalum, an artist-in-residence at the Stax Music Academy in Memphis, Tennessee. “By virtue of this recording…we’re creating music with a specific and profound purpose…If we work together, according to Jeffrey Sachs’ calculations, we can actually end extreme poverty.” The 11 music selections are covers of popular, social commentary-driven songs from the ’60s and ’70s by artists such as Ben E. King, Curtis Mayfield, and Marvin Gaye.

“When I say extreme poverty,” Whalum adds, “we’re talking about people who are not on the ladder of economic growth at all…These are people who worry about today…If we end poverty by 2025, it’s going to be because of what we’re doing now.”

All net proceeds from the CD’s sales will go to Millennium Promise in its mission to end poverty, says Norbert Simmons, an investment banker and philanthropist who came up with the idea and funded the effort.

Simmons became involved with the organization about four years ago, after he heard Sachs give a talk to a group of investment bankers about the impending humanitarian crisis facing the world. “Some 7 [million] to 10 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa will die in the next seven to 10 years, absent a massive humanitarian intervention,” says Simmons, citing data from scientists, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.N. “Most of the [victims] are children, and they die from opportunistic diseases coming from malnutrition as well as starvation, malaria, and dehydration…The level of human suffering outside of the United States is just staggering…The question was: How many of those people do we have the will to save?"

Simmons says there aren’t as many black people involved in the cause and cites a lack of knowledge of the organization and its efforts as a factor. “The CD [was] designed primarily to raise money, but also to raise awareness of Millennium Promise and what the [organization] is doing for a group of people who are not a part of the gifting demographic.” Simmons, who also works with the nonprofit organization Care for Haiti (www.careforhaiti.org), stresses that the moment to begin giving is now, despite turbulent economic times.

“[If] times get harder for us,” Simmons says, “[then] times are getting absolutely miserable for the poor, and beyond misery for the poorest of the poor, and that’s the group we’re trying to help. This is not cliché: Fifty dollars will buy 10 bed nets to protect children and a family from malaria. Fifty dollars has the ability to save five human lives. With that type of trade-off, how do you say that $50 dollars is too much?”

Source: http://www.blackenterprise.com