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/

DECLARATION OF FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT

TODAY IS THE DAY I TAKE CONTROL OF MY FINANCIAL DESTINY. DECLARATION OF FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT



In order to attain a measure of success, power and wealth, I shall uphold the principles of saving and investing as well as controlled spending and disciplined consumerism. I vow to fully participate in the capital markets and make a solid commitment to a program of wealth accumulation. Determination and consistency will serve as my guides, and I shall not allow external or internal forces to keep me from reaching my goals. By adjusting my course and embracing a new mandate that stresses planning, education and fortitude, I lay a strong, unbreakable foundation for the preservation and enrichment of my family, children and children's children.



I, _______________________,from this day forward, declare my vigilant and life-long commitment to financial empowerment. I pledge the following:



1. To use homeownership to build wealth



2. To save and invest 10% to 15% of my after-tax income



3. To commit to a program of retirement planning and investing



4. To engage in sound budget, credit, and tax management practices



5. To measure my personal wealth by net worth, not income



6. To be proactive and knowledgeable about investing, money management, and consumer issues



7. To provide access to programs that will educate my children about business and finance



8. To support the creation and growth of profitable, competitive black-owned enterprises



9. To use a portion of my wealth to strengthen my community



10. To ensure that my wealth is passed on to future generations

I have committed to this unwavering, personal covenant as a means of bolstering myself, my family and my community. In adopting this resolution, I intend to use all available resources, wisdom and power to gain my share of the American Dream.


Agreed and signed: _____________________ Date:______

Printable Version: Declaration of Financial Empowerment

Source: http://www.blackenterprise.com/Investing/20.htm

NAACP Special Contribution Fund

Focused on protecting and advancing civil rights by eliminating the disparity within target areas: criminal justice, education, employment, emergency relief, health advocacy, housing, legal assistance.

4805 Mount Hope Drive Baltimore, MD 21215 Phone: (410) 580-5777 Fax: (410) 602-9310 EIN/Tax ID: 13-1998814 http://www.naacp.org/

Detailed Description of NAACP Special Contribution Fund

The Programs of the NAACP are designed to provide help and hope for anyone in need! Education - The NAACP continues its focus on education issues working to ensure equal access and quality, integrated education opportunities. Back-To-School/ Stay-in-School programs are geared towards drop-out prevention and the NAACP ACT-SO program (Academic, Cultural, Technical and Scientific Olympics), promotes artistic and academic excellence for minority high school students. Youth Outreach - Future leaders must be trained today and through 500 youth units across the nation with over 67,000 youth, we provide guidance, counsel and assistance. Economic Empowerment- The NAACP continues to promote the growth of minority entrepreneurship, equal employment opportunities in both the public and private sectors, and housing options for all socio-economic levels. Health - Education programs, counseling for seniors; health fairs and screenings provide a guide to healthy living. Civil Rights and Civil Liberties - Legal assistance by NAACP lawyers seeking justice through the courts. The NAACP also sponsors a variety of ongoing programs including Armed Services and Veterans Affairs assistance, Emergency/ Disaster Relief, Housing assistance and Prison Outreach. The NAACP provides help across the nation and overseas. Within the 50 states, we are as near as your telephone. Please write or call for further information.

Source: https://www.charities.org/memberdir/index.cfm?fa=MembrInfo&id=1907

Hopkins and an even tougher fighter

You won’t find Shaun Negler’s name in the FightFax database, the official record-keeping service of professional boxing.

There are no tapes of any of his memorable wins or stories of epic triumphs left behind. That’s because they don’t exist. He was robbed of a career in the sport he loved.

But none other than Bernard Hopkins, one of the greatest fighters of this or any generation, will tell you that he hasn’t met a tougher, or more courageous, fighter than Shaun Negler.

The improbable friendship between the long-time middleweight champion and the 18-year-old who worshipped him officially ended at 12:15 p.m. EDT on Oct. 23, 2008, when Negler could fight no more and succumbed to a 2½ year battle with cancer.

But Hopkins, who first met Negler in 2006 when he learned that the then-16-year-old had a deadly form of cancer, isn’t ready to accept that his friend is gone.

“This kid’s soul is still with us,” said Hopkins, who served as a pall bearer at Negler’s funeral in Philadelphia on Oct. 29. “His spirit lives inside of me and inside a lot of the people I met over these last couple of years.”

---

Negler’s mother, Renee, remembered sitting in a doctor’s office. It seemed as if she were watching the world on a black-and-white television. Everything seemed so dark.

Several weeks earlier, in a Philadelphia gym in May 2006, her youngest son injured his left ankle as he was preparing for his first fight.

Shaun Negler greatly touched the life of Bernard Hopkins. “He was a winner his whole life and I think he’s still a winner,” Hopkins said.

(Images courtesy Negler family)

The injury didn’t respond to treatment. An MRI was done and on May 30, Shaun and his parents were sitting in a doctor’s office, waiting to hear why this ankle was taking so long to heal.

“I just remember it being such a dark room and now, looking back on it, it seems so surreal,” said Renee Negler, a 41-year-old loan manager. “There were two doctors there and they came in and seemed to have very solemn looks on their faces. I was looking at Shaunie and he was looking at me. It was the doctors, my husband and Shaunie and I. They said, ‘We need to take him to Children’s Hospital right away. We found a large mass in his leg.’ There was no crying and Shaunie was like, ‘OK. No problem. Let’s come up with a plan.’ He wanted to figure a way to live right away.”

He had Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of cancer which seems mainly to attack teenaged males. Once the cancer begins to metastasize, the survival rate is around 10 percent.

It wasn’t good, and everyone in the family, including Shaun, knew it. But no one would cry or moan about his fate, because Shaun would have none of it. He planned a lot of things, including becoming rich and famous. A horrible, grisly death at 18 was not part of the plan.

“This was a guy who was facing death every day but he didn’t talk about dying or feel sorry for himself or ask you, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ ” Hopkins said. “I was in camp getting ready to fight [Kelly] Pavlik and I was getting all these text messages from him, encouraging me and pushing me. And this was a guy who had so many problems, that whoever wins or loses a fight should be the last thing he is thinking about.”

---

As death hovered on his doorstep, though, Negler, was, indeed, thinking about a fight. He was fighting to live, but he was also fighting to stay alive to see Hopkins box one last time. A little more than five months earlier, the Negler family attended Hopkins’ split decision loss to Joe Calzaghe at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on April 19, 2008.

It was an excruciatingly tight match and the Neglers, who by that point had all grown close with Hopkins, had felt he’d won. But after the fight, they were anxious to go out and see the town.

This was Las Vegas, after all, and they didn’t get this opportunity often.

All of them, that is, but one were hoping to go.

“They announced the decision and we all knew Bernard had won that fight. There was no doubt,” said Shaun’s father, Mike Negler, a 42-year-old Philadelphia police officer. “As the fight was going on, Shaun was pointing out how Calzaghe was throwing a lot of punches, but how they weren’t landing and he was showing us how good Bernard’s defense really was. When they announced the score, Shaun was absolutely miserable. He was just as upset and as angry as you can imagine.

“He said, ‘Oh no, they took it from him. They stole it from him.’ And then he didn’t want to do anything else. Here we are in Las Vegas. How many people would do anything to be in Vegas like we were and get to go out on a Saturday night and have a good time? And Shaun said, ‘Take me to the room.’ He wouldn’t do anything else. He was so upset.”

Hopkins signed to fight Pavlik, the unbeaten middleweight champion, in a bout Oct. 18 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. Shaun talked of being at the fight, but his condition had long since worsened to the point where that kind of travel, an hour or so from his home, was not possible.

“You have to understand, they gave this kid two, three weeks to live, and it’s 12 weeks and he’s still here saying, ‘I want to see you beat Kelly Pavlik,’ ” Hopkins said. “This kid was just amazing. He had a will to live like I’ve never seen.”

Before Hopkins left to begin his training camp, the family had a reunion of sorts. All the family and friends were invited over for what was a chance to essentially say goodbye to Shaun.

He was on borrowed time and was expected to live only for a matter of a few days, if not a couple of weeks. Hopkins, who knew of Shaun’s love of cars, attended the outing and brought over his $150,000 Bentley.

But he didn’t just park it. He grabbed Shaun, brought him to the car and put him in the front seat. Then he closed the door and turned on the engine.

Shaun Negler named his pit bull puppy “Champ,” a name suggested by Bernard Hopkins.

(Images courtesy Negler family)

The two were sitting there, the 43-year-old finely tuned athlete and the 18-year-old whose body was ravaged by cancer, blind in one eye, with a leg amputated because of his disease.

“What the hell you doing?” Hopkins said in mock indignation. “Drive!”

And so Negler began to drive.

“I thought he’d take it down to the bottom of the driveway, turn around and come back,” Mike Negler said.

Hopkins, though, knew that wouldn’t fulfill the kid’s dream. He wanted to take the car onto the road. So, again, Hopkins urged him to drive. Shaun hit the accelerator, believing the car to be in drive.

It was in reverse, however, and landed up on a curb, damaging Hopkins’ rims. To this day, the rims are not fixed on the otherwise pristine car, Hopkins’ memory of his now-departed friend.

Soon after, Hopkins left for camp and Negler’s condition worsened by the hour. But he wanted to see the fight so badly and he talked about it incessantly with his family.

“Shaun was a diehard fan of all the Philadelphia teams,” Mike Negler said. “He just was in love with all of them, but Bernard, he fell 1,000 percent for Bernard. He loved boxing and then here’s this great fighter from Philadelphia with this incredible story.”

Hopkins trained in Miami knowing each day he might get the call he would dread receiving.

On Oct. 18, the day of the bout he was literally staving off death to see, Negler was in excruciating pain – “bone pain,” as his mother calls it.

A few months earlier, on the first day he got his prosthesis, he had the therapists put it on and he began walking without any physical therapy. He didn’t want it adjusted and demanded that he be driven to his mother’s place of work in Delaware.

Normally, it takes weeks of grueling rehabilitative work for someone who had an amputation to be able to walk. On the first day, Negler, whose left leg was amputated at the knee, was driven to his mother’s office, walked down the aisle and ambled up to her desk.

“There was something in his body and his spirit made him hang around so he could see me that one last time.”

– Bernard Hopkins
on Shaun Negler.

“It took my breath away when I saw him,” she said. “He had this big grin on his face and I couldn’t breathe.”

But now, hours before his friend and idol was to climb into the ring for the fight he so desperately wanted to watch, Negler’s pain was so bad, he took the prosthesis off. He was given more drugs to ease the pain.

When the pay-per-view broadcast on HBO began at 9 p.m., he was helped out of bed and literally crawled downstairs on his hands and knees to sit in front of the television.

But he was only able to stay awake for short periods of time.

“At that point, it was like 10, maybe 15 minutes at most,” Renee Negler said.

He demanded they wake him up when Hopkins came to the ring. Hopkins’ bout began near midnight Eastern time. As Hopkins made his ring walk, the family roused Shaun, who instantly became as alert as he had been at any time in days.

“There was something in his body and his spirit made him hang around so he could see me that one last time,” Hopkins said. “As a human being, can you imagine how that makes me feel?”

There were about 20 or 30 people in the house watching the fight. As Hopkins was being introduced, Renee Negler turned toward her son, who had a wan smile across his face and had formed an “X” with his arms, a tribute to Hopkins, whose nickname is “The Executioner.”

Hopkins went on to win in a rout in the performance of his life. For one night, he was better than he had ever been. And Shaun Negler, who had been able only to stay awake for 10 minutes at a time, was suddenly alive and vibrant as the fight went on.

He was shouting at the television as Hopkins pounded Pavlik with powerful punches, cheering his hero on to victory.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Renee Negler had turned on a video camera on her son and captured his reaction during the fight.

He was gleeful throughout as Hopkins performed brilliantly. When the fight ended, Negler needed to go back to sleep.

He turned to his pit bull puppy, whom Hopkins had suggested he named “Champ,” and kissed it on the head. He crawled back upstairs and was helped into bed. A few minutes later, he lapsed into unconsciousness and never opened his eyes again.

---

He died a few days later, in his home. Hopkins, who served a stint in the Pennsylvania penal system on a strong-armed robbery conviction, was torn apart.

“There was a bond between the two of them despite all the differences between them and they loved each other,” said Renee Negler, Shaun’s mother, on her son and boxer Bernard Hopkins.

(Images courtesy Negler family)

But because of his time in prison, he learned to control his emotions. He never cried publicly because of what he learned while he was in prison.

Hopkins was, however, stung by the loss of someone he considered more than just a friend. He not only served as a pall bearer, he spent hours with the Negler family that day and put the gloves he wore the night he defeated Pavlik into the casket with Shaun.

“It’s breathtaking the kindness that is in this man’s heart, because it would have been easy for him to meet Shaun, say the right things and move on,” Renee Negler said. “But what he did, he did because he cared. And he did because Shaunie and he had some kind of a connection. There was a bond between the two of them despite all the differences between them and they loved each other.”

Hopkins said that for as much as he may have given to Shaun and the Neglers, he received much more in return.

“This was a kid who had every reason to feel sorry for himself, who had every reason to give up, and he never once would give in and he never once looked at the dark side of anything,” Hopkins said. “He looked at death and said, ‘I want to live. And I’m going to make the most of what I have.’ And that’s what we have to do while we’re here on this Earth. Take what you have and do the best you can with it. Look at what this kid was dealt and look what he did with it.

“Cancer did not beat him. He beat cancer, because cancer needed his body to live. He’s probably smiling somewhere saying, ‘You know, Bernard, I did it. I beat cancer.’ This kid wasn’t a loser. He was a winner his whole life and I think he’s still a winner.”

By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=An5smQlN6L6AL7ou_RO347k5nYcB?slug=ki-negler110208

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.

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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/

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Fights for equality, access to education, employment, health care, housing, environmental justice, voting rights, criminal justice. Provides scholarships to promising African-American undergraduates and law students.

99 Hudson Street 16th Floor New York, NY 10013 Phone: (212) 965-2200 Fax: (212) 219-1595 EIN/Tax ID: 13-1655255 www.naacpldf.org

Detailed Description of NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Who We Are: The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) is one of America's leading civil rights legal organizations and is devoted to securing equal justice for all. LDF was founded in 1940 under the direction of Thurgood Marshall, who later became Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. LDF, under Thurgood Marshall's leadership, argued and won the landmark 1954 Supreme court decision Brown v. Board of Education, the school desegregation case that put an end to the 'separate but equal' doctrine of government discrimination. What We Do: LDF helps create laws that protect racial minorities, women, and others from bigotry, and we put teeth in the law by prosecuting those who discriminate. LDF has been involved in more cases before the U.S. Supreme Court than any group other than the U.S. government. Many of those cases have established important precedents for safeguarding the rights of people of color, women, and the poor. While litigation remains our primary focus, LDF also works outside the courtroom, helping to shape government policies, inform the public about civil rights issues, and strengthening coalitions with other concerned organizations. LDF is helping to prepare the next generation of leaders through out highly competitive scholarship programs: the Herbert Lehman Educational Fund for undergraduates and the Earl Warren Legal Training Program for law students. LDF works with dozens of cooperating attorneys across the U.S., who volunteer their services. This network helps us to identify plaintiffs who might otherwise be without help or hope. Very often these locally generated cases turn out to be critical tests of civil rights law.

Source: https://www.charities.org/memberdir/index.cfm?fa=MembrInfo&id=1906

National Black Child Development Institute

Exists to improve and protect the quality of life of children and families through educational programs, tutoring, training, public education, and other community outreach programs.

1313 L Street, NW Suite 110 Washington, DC 20005 Phone: (202) 833-2220 Fax: (202) 833-8222 EIN/Tax ID: 52-0908178 www.nbcdi.org

Detailed Description of National Black Child Development Institute

Founded in 1970, the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) is a national, nonprofit, charitable organization dedicated to improving and protecting the lives of African American children and youth on the national and local levels. NBCDI focuses on the areas of health, child welfare, education and child care/early childhood education by: Training professionals to work more effectively with children; Providing children with tools to enhance academic achievement; Working side by side with communities and schools to provide high quality early learning for young children; Providing families with effective methods on helping their children cope with crises; Researching issues and producing resources to aid parent and human ---resource providers; and Serving the needs of community leaders dedicated to informing the public about local and national issues affecting children. NBCDI's affiliate network provides direct services to children and youth such as conducting Entering the College Zone to help middle school children and their parents prepare for college, helping homeless children find adoptive families, and sponsoring cultural heritage programs. NBCDI also publishes periodic reports and two quarterly newsletters on critical issues affecting children as well as convenes an annual conference and other public education forums. Listed below are some of the benefits of the services provided by the national office and its affiliates:

1. Parents have become more effective in their child rearing efforts as a result of workshops and individualized instruction.

2. Providers of children's services have improved their skills through training at the Institute's Annual Conference, affiliate-sponsored workshops and publications thus enhancing their effectiveness.

3. Permanent homes have been found for more Black children as a result of several affiliates' efforts to recruit Black families for children awaiting adoption and their work with local adoption agencies.

4. Children's and youth's performance in school and on standardized tests have improved due to individualized tutorial programs conducted by volunteers.

5. School programs in several cities have been expanded to include materials and curricula reflecting the culture and history of African Americans and have increased children's self-esteem as a result of workshops and donated books.

6. Youth have broadened their horizons to pursue career opportunities and stay in school as a result mentoring programs, hands on experiences and career days.

7. Policies have been positively impacted to reflect the needs of Black children and youth as a result of several technical assistance and research-oriented publications.

Source: https://www.charities.org/memberdir/index.cfm?fa=MembrInfo&id=1913

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/

A Gift For Teaching

By transferring community surplus supplies at no cost the Free Store annually distributes millions of essential resources to teachers and classrooms.

6501 Magic Way, Bldg. 400C Orlando, FL 32809 Phone: (407) 345-0515 Fax: (407) 345-8454 EIN/Tax ID: 59-3515162 www.agiftforteaching.org

Detailed Description of A Gift For Teaching

Nearly half of the students in Central Florida cannot afford lunch let alone school supplies. A Gift For Teaching’s (AGFT) mission is to ensure that Central Florida children have the basic tools for learning by transferring, at no cost, the community’s surplus supplies and merchandise into the hands of teachers and school children in need. The concept is beautifully simple: surplus supplies from individuals and businesses are gathered and offered at no cost to area teachers who "shop" at a "Free Store" for items they need for their classrooms and poverty-stricken students -- things like books, backpacks, paper, crayons and even new socks and underwear.

In schools where 60 percent or more of the students are on the Free/Reduced lunch program, every teacher can shop monthly. All other schools may send one teacher to shop weekly to provide for their students in need.

When the organization first opened its doors in 1998, it served 30 schools. In just a little over seven years of operation, AGFT’s Free Store has grown significantly and experienced a 650 percent increase in teacher shopping visits. In all, the program has distributed over $30 million worth of school supplies to Central Florida’s low-income students.

The organization currently serves all 325 public schools in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, reaching out to more than 7,353 teachers and impacting more than 131,000 students each year. A Gift For Teaching also supports several other successful community-based programs: Since its creation in 1999, the "A Gift For Music" program has touched the lives of over 5,000 students and families in Central Florida by providing violins, violas, cellos and instruction free of charge to students who otherwise would never have the chance to play a stringed instrument. This highly successful program expands students’ knowledge of the world of music, awards them a productive outlet in which to express their creativity, and opens another door for them to shine.

Launched in November 2003, "Crafts with Conviction Florida" is an innovative partnership with the Florida Department of Corrections that gives prison inmates the chance to produce much-needed school supplies and educational tools, including flash cards, tote bags and writing journals using donated raw materials such as paper, fabric and cardboard. The items are then made available in the "Free Store" for teachers to take back to their classrooms. Inmates have already volunteered more than 50,000 hours in service to their community, producing over $1.5 million worth of valuable teaching and learning tools.

As the seemingly limitless need for A Gift For Teaching’s services grow, so will its needs to procure the pencils, crayons, glue, and paper that allow small classroom miracles to happen everyday. In response to this tremendous need, the organization will remain committed to its donors by transforming every $1 donated into $10 worth of high quality school supplies made available in its Free Store for teachers; by continuing to solidify and expand its wide variety of programs; and reaching out and supporting more teachers and students than ever by increasing A Gift For Teaching’s reach into the communities it serves.

Black Women's Health Imperative

The only organization devoted solely to advancing the health and well-being of the nation’s 19.5 million Black women and girls through advocacy, education and leadership development.

1420 K Street, NW Suite 1000 (10th Fl.) Washington, DC 20005 Phone: (202) 548-4000 Fax: (202) 543-9743 EIN/Tax ID: 58-1557556 www.BlackWomensHealth.org

Detailed Description of Black Women's Health Imperative

Who We Are
The Black Women’s Health Imperative (Imperative) is the only non-profit organization devoted solely to advancing the health and wellness of America’s 19.5 million Black women and girls through advocacy, education and leadership development. Founded as the National Black Women’s Health Project in 1983 by health activist and McArthur “genius” Byllye Y. Avery, the Imperative promotes optimal health for Black women across their lifespan – physically, mentally and spiritually.

For the Imperative, health is not merely the absence of illness but the active promotion of physical, spiritual, mental and emotional wellness. Since the Imperative’s beginning in Atlanta, Georgia, when it led the fight for a broader and more responsible reproductive health and rights agenda for women of color, it has become the leading force for the elimination of racial and gender-related health disparities for Black women.

What We Do
The Imperative seeks to improve the health and wellness of Black women by providing health resources and information and community health and wellness education; promoting advocacy and health policies; and interpreting and issuing reports on relevant research about the health status of America’s Black women. It provides its members with culturally appropriate tools and information to be informed, empowered health care consumers.

It is the aim of the Imperative to harness the collective power of Black women by bringing together individual women and affiliated women’s organizations together around a common health agenda. Utilizing its structure of affiliated organizations and members, the Imperative is well position to create new ways of working together to help establish a national agenda on health disparities for Black women. The Imperative’s goal is to create awareness among its key constituencies, work collaboratively in communities and build the capacity of Black women to advocate for and secure the preventive care and treatment they need.

What We Offer
The Imperative is committed to providing Black women with a wide range of health-related information, tools and resources as part of our ongoing efforts to support women in becoming informed health care consumers.

Web Site – www.BlackWomensHealth.ORG
• Ask the Expert
• Physician Locator Service
• Public Awareness Surveys and Polls
• Interactive Health Assessment Tools
• E-newsletters and Healthy Living Resources
• Fitness Demonstrations and Meal Plans

Community
• Public Education Campaigns and Forums
• Health Education Programs
• Training and Technical Assistance
• Self-Help SisterCircels™
• Walking for Wellness™

Membership
• Benefits that Improve Health and Wellness
• Growing Network of 100,000 Supporters Dedicated to the Improving Health and Wellness of Black Women
• Inclusion in Advocacy and Health Policy Projects
• Access to Member-Only Sections of the Web site, www.BlackWomensHealth.ORG
• Discounts of Imperative-sponsored Events
• Special Conversations with Byllye Y. Avery, founder of the Imperative
• Member-only Publications

Source: https://www.charities.org/memberdir/index.cfm?fa=MembrInfo&id=1914

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: Friends of New Orleans

Friends of New Orleans is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization that provides a vehicle for people in the US and abroad who care about this region, to declare their support and get involved.

Our mission is to:

• Advocate for New Orleans and its surrounding parishes;
• Inform people of those key issues that are shaping the national debate and decision making of the rebuilding effort;
• Link individuals who want to help with the communities in the devastated areas;
• Motivate people to take part in the rebuilding effort by: a) declaring their support for New Orleans and its surrounding parishes; b) donating money; c) volunteering; d) visiting and investing in the area; and e) partnering with communities and local organizations that are doing the work.

Source: http://www.friendsofneworleans.org

Give a Good Card

Buy a Good Card, receive a tax-deduction, and give the Good Card to a relative, friend, client or coworker for any occasion.

Charity Navigator is pleased to offer the Good Card, a gift card for charity where the recipients get to donate to their charity of choice. Your friends, family and colleagues all have their favorite charities and by purchasing a Good Card you can give them the perfect gift to celebrate the holidays, birthdays, graduations and other momentous occasions.

How it Works:

• You simply pick the amount and your recipient selects the charity (or charities) to receive the donation.
• You can order the Good Card online by clicking on the button to the right.
• You can choose to send it via email with a link back to Charity Navigator encouraging the recipient to do some research prior to selecting a charity. This ensures that the money you’ve contributed via the Good Card will go to a well-run, deserving charity. Email delivery is also perfect for last minute gifts.
• Alternatively, you can send it via regular mail as a plastic card. Keep in mind that with this option you will need to allow two weeks for printing and mail delivery. Plastic cards must be ordered by 12/15 in order to ensure that they are received by Christmas.
• When you purchase a Good Card it is tax-deductible for the buyer. When the recipient redeems a Good Card it is not tax-deductible for them.
• The Good Card expires 12 months after it was purchased.
• Charity Navigator is offering Good Cards through a partnership with Network for Good. For a detailed explanation of the terms and conditions, please visit Network for Good.

Source: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=699

2009 MLK Calendar Now Available!

2009 will be a year of new beginnings for this country.

History will be made when our first black president is sworn into office; just one day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a nation. Dr. King would be so very proud of how far we have come in the past 40 years.

Just as 2009 will be a momentous year for this country, we at the Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation would like to make our own history next year. We want 2009 to be the year we raise the final $18 million for Dr. King’s Memorial.

To help commemorate the year 2009, the Foundation has created a beautiful calendar dedicated to Dr. King. The 2009 Build the Dream Calendar is a celebration of Dr. King and the contributions he made toward securing equal rights. The calendar even notes special events in our nation’s black history and extraordinary days in Dr. King’s life.

When you donate only $15 to the Foundation today, I will happily send you this calendar as a token of my appreciation. Proudly display your calendar in your home or office. It will serve as a daily reminder of what Dr. King fought for and eventually achieved for America: equality, freedom and justice for all.

And now that we have entered the holiday season, I hope you might consider making a contribution of $15 and even giving the calendar as a gift to a loved one. Every dollar that you give will ultimately get us closer to actually “building the dream.”

As Dr. King preached, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” This holiday season, you can make a difference. By giving a gift of $15 today, you will be making an enormous difference towards the construction of the Memorial. But most of all, you will have the power to positively impact the millions of lives who visit Dr. King’s Memorial on the National Mall.

Sincerely,

Harry E. Johnson, Sr.
President & CEO

PS: If you’re thinking about shopping for your holiday gift list, skip the mall this year! In addition to the 2009 Build the Dream Calendar, we have many beautiful gifts that we will ship to you when you make a contribution to the Foundation. For your $50 donation, you’ll receive an official Commemorative Coin, embossed with a memorable quote from Dr. King. With your $150 gift, you’ll receive a limited-edition photograph of Dr. King and excerpt from one of his most powerful letters, suitable for framing. And if you’re able to send a $300 gift, we’ll send you an exquisite “Stone of Hope” crystal, etched with Dr. King’s poignant words that helped bring the promise of freedom to those who had been denied it for too long.

Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc.
401 F Street, NW, Suite 334, Washington, DC 20001 1.888.484.3373 www.BuildtheDream.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/

Feeding America

Feeding America is a Network
Our organization is made up of individuals, local food banks, national offices, as well as corporate and government partners. Together, we are bigger, better, stronger and more efficient than the sum of our parts. Working as a cohesive system is the only way we can truly solve the hunger crisis.

Securing Food
Feeding America works with large corporate donors to secure food and grocery products on a national level to distribute, as needed, to local food banks. The relationship that the Feeding America organization builds with larger corporations also helps facilitate a relationship between your local food bank and your local grocery store, for example.

Providing Funds
Through a grant process, Feeding America provides national funding to local food banks. It’s easier and more efficient for a single, larger charity to procure grants, than it would be for many local food banks to compete for a limited amount of funds. The grants that our organization receives are most often created to fund innovation at the local level, so that food banks can test new and better ways to secure and distribute food.

Standardizing Care
Because we’re a national organization, we can work toward ensuring that all food bank members across the country are equally and properly trained. We also help set standards for food safety, financial systems and record keeping as well as transportation and donor relations.

Advocating
Because we are a national group, it’s easier for us to give a voice to those who aren’t heard. Because of our strong relationship with the U.S. government, Feeding America is the primary recipient of government commodities, such as those from the Emergency Food Assistance Program. As a charity with national reach, we can engage the public and raise awareness of this critical issue on a national and local level.
Food Distribution
At times of natural disaster, or simply in everyday business, working as a national organization helps us to see where needs are strongest. One local food bank may receive an excess of a certain commodity, while another is feeling a need for that product. Moving food and employees where they are needed most is a strategic advantage in the fight against hunger.

Source: http://feedingamerica.org/

Artist: Ansel Pitcairn - Featured Book

AISHA’S CROWNING GLORY The artist’s colorful and bright illustrations in this book tell the story of Aisha, a young girl making her first trip to the neighborhood hair salon. Learning about Kwanzaa, African Matriarchs and historical events are just a few of her experiences that occur when Miss Ada, the salon owner sits Aisha down and tells her to close her eyes and relax… AISHA’S CROWNING GLORY will be available online at Amazon.com in December, 2006, or you can order directly from the author For more information about how to order Aisha’s Crowning Glory, contact Eloise Prescott (elprescott1@yahoo.com) at 267-240-5109. To encourage self-esteem in young girls and to establish goal setting guidelines, a supplement with activities is included with the book for teachers and parents. The book can be purchased for $15. Purchase Online Now Source: http://www.anselpitcairn.com/

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

Oprah Tops Celebrity Philanthropy A-List

A list of the 30 largest public donations made by celebrities in the past year puts Oprah in the top spot.

The Giving Back Fund, which encourages and advises on celebrity philanthropy, compiles its list each year. President Marc Pollick said, “Encouragement-by-example is the main reason for the Giving Back 30 list.”

Oprah gave $58.3 million to Oprah’s Angel Network and her recently-opened Leadership Academy.

Of the other celebrities high on the list, Barbra Streisand was in fourth spot, having given $11.75 million through her Streisand Foundation.

Tiger Woods took fifth place, giving $9.5 million to organisations including the Tiger Woods Learning Center funded by the Tiger Woods Foundation.

Giving Back’s Marc Pollick praised an increasing trend in celebrity donations, saying, “Ten years ago when Slate magazine first published the Slate 60 reporting on the most generous American philanthropists, the last donor on their list gave $5 million. This year the last donor donated $30 million to charity. This is the type of growth we are hoping to inspire within the sports and entertainment community. One cannot help but be influenced by the generosity of his or her peers.”

The full list and information about how it was compiled can be found at givingback.org. This site has previously reported on many of the list’s featured celebrities and their donations; a comprehensively linked version of the list appears below:

Position	Celebrity	Donation	Cause(s)
1	Oprah Winfrey	$58,300,000	Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, Oprah’s Angel Network, and other groups
2	Geoffrey Beene	$44,000,000 (bequest)	Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
3	Jack and Marie Lord	$40,000,000 (bequest)	Hawaii Community Foundation
4	Barbra Streisand	$11,750,000	Streisand Foundation, numerous civil liberties, environmental, and civil rights organizations “dedicated to democratic values”
5	Tiger Woods	$9,500,000	Tiger Woods Learning Center, Earl D. Woods Sr. Scholarship Fund, and other Tiger Woods Foundation programs
6	Rosie O’Donnell	$5,700,000	Katrina Relief efforts including Renaissance Village (a temporary shelter for Katrina victims), day care centers, a rehabilitation center in San Antonio, and a Habitat For Humanity sub division in Baton Rouge
7	Martha Stewart	$5,000,000	New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital for a center on healthy aging
8	Carmelo Anthony	$4,282,000	CAF Youth Center in Baltimore, AAU Basketball, Syracuse University Recreational Center, and other charities
9	Pat Boone & Shirley Boone	$3,000,000	Pepperdine University for the Graduate School of Education and Psychology Center for the Family
9	LeRoy Neiman	$3,000,000	The School of the Art Institute of Chicago to support a Master’s class in figure drawing
11	Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt	$2,415,000	School and Community Center in Swakopmund in Namibia, Daniel Pearl Foundation, Namibian hospitals, Doctors Without Borders, Global Action for Children and others
12	Nicolas Cage	$2,000,000	Amnesty International for a fund to help child soldiers
12	Dwayne Johnson (“The Rock”) and Dany Garcia Johnson	$2,000,000	University of Miami to name new Alumni Center living room
12	Paul McCartney	$2,000,000	Adopt-A-Minefield
12	Arnold Palmer	$2,000,000	Pledged to the Arnold Palmer Foundation ultimately to benefit the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
16	David Geffen	$1,600,000	David Geffen Foundation
17	Susan Saint James and Dick Ebersol	$1,300,000	The Gunnery to help pay for a new dormitory in memory of their son Teddy killed in a plane crash
18	Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg	$1,250,000	Boston University to renovate facilities
19	Andre Agassi	$1,070,000	Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation
20	Tiki and Ronde Barber and family	$1,000,000	University of Virginia to support the McIntire School of Commerce, the Virginia Athletics Foundation, Childrens Hospital, a scholarship fund for African-American students, the Young Alumni Council, and to challenge young alumni to participate in the capital campaign
20	Bob Barker	$1,000,000	Georgetown University to endow a fund at its law school that will focus on the study of animal rights
20	Gloria Estefan	$1,000,000	Miami Paralysis Project
20	Dr. Phil McGraw & Robin McGraw	$1,000,000	Dr. Phil Foundation
20	George Steinbrenner & family	$1,000,000	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for Boshamer Stadium for baseball
20	Tony Stewart	$1,000,000	Victory Junction Gang Camp
20	Denzel Washington	$1,000,000	Save Africa’s Children
27	Mike Sexton	$560,000	Special Olympics, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, Children, Inc., Wounded Warrior Project, Ohio State University, and other charities
28	Lance Armstrong	$500,000	Lance Armstrong Foundation
28	Dolly Parton	$500,000	Fort Sanders Medical Center
28	Elizabeth Taylor	$500,000	New Orleans AIDS Task Force to purchase mobile medical unit for AIDS sufferers in New Orleans

BLACK HISTORY SPOTLIGHT: DR. ALEXA CANADY

BLACK HISTORY SPOTLIGHT: DR. ALEXA CANADY
Thursday, November 27, 2008

DR. ALEXA I. CANADY (1950-) is the first black female neurosurgeon.

Canady was born November 7, 1950, to Clinton and Elizabeth Canady. Her father was a dentist, and her mother served as president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, in addition to other civic affairs. The family lived just outside Lansing, Michigan. Canady and her brother were the only two black students in their entire school.

Canady was an exceptional student and named a National Achievement Scholar in 1967. She attended the University of Michigan, earning her bachelor’s in zoology in 1971, although she had almost dropped out of college. She explains, “The summer after my junior year, I worked in Dr. Bloom’s lab in genetics and attended a genetic counseling clinic. I fell in love with medicine.”

She continued her studies at the University of Michigan Medical School, earning her M.D. in 1975, graduating cum laude. Following graduation, Canady interned at Yale’s New Haven Hospital for a year. She was appointed the first female and first black person to a residency in neurosurgery. On her first day, as she began making her rounds, a hospital administrator referred to her as “the new equal-opportunity package.” Despite the remark, Dr. Canady viewed her accomplishment as a double achievement for not only herself, but also her race and gender.

In 1976, Canady went to work at the University of Minnesota in its neurosurgery department until 1981. She then worked at the University of Pennsylvania Children’s Hospital in pediatric neurosurgery for a year. In 1982, she began working at the Children’s Hospital in Detroit, and in 1987, Canady became director of neurosurgery there. She held this position until her retirement in June 2001.

Despite her work load, Canady would make time when mentor programs asked her to take a high school student around for the day. In a Free Press interview, she explained, “I do it because it’s important. If you want to be something, you have to perceive that something is possible. You do a disservice to children if you paint it as too rosy. They hit a bump and feel like a failure. Well, everybody fails at some time or another. But no one talks about it.”

Dr. Canady holds two honorary degrees: a doctorate of humane letters from the University of Detroit-Mercy, awarded in 1997, and a doctor of science degree from the University of Southern Connecticut, awarded in 1999. She received the Children’s Hospital of Michigan’s Teacher of the Year award in 1984, and was inducted into the Michigan Woman’s Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1993, she received the American Medical Women’s Association President’s Award and in 1994 the Distinguished Service Award from Wayne State University Medical School. In 2002, the Detroit News named her Michiganer of the Year.

Now that she’s retired, Dr. Canady has more time to work to change the perspective of how blacks both as patients and physicians are being presumed and perceived. She claims the major medical problem for blacks stems from the scarcity of research targeting their specific health concerns and needs. She enjoys playing video games and having more time to spend with her husband, George Davis, a retired Navy recruiter.