Charities ideas....

Big Brothers Big Sisters receives 75% of our funding from private donations. Support from individuals like you is vital to provide mentors for children in your community.

And we know they need them. It isn’t easy being a kid these days. In these complex and confusing times, children need a caring adult to be a mentor and a friend " someone they can talk to, have fun with, and learn from.

Research shows that our mentoring works. Kids with a Big Brother or Big Sister show real differences in their personal and academic lives. They are:

More confident in their schoolwork performance
Able to get along better with their families
52% less likely to skip school.

92.2% of every dollar you give goes directly to making and supporting matches. The remainder covers overall program administration. Charity Navigator, the country’s premier independent charity evaluator, has awarded Big Brothers Big Sisters of America a 4-star “exceptional” rating for outstanding fiscal management for the fifth consecutive year.

Donating will help to:

Help recruit new Big Brother and Big Sister volunteers
Cover the costs of background checks and insurance, while ensuring trained professionals match children to caring and responsible Bigs
Offer one-on-one, ongoing supervision and support for every match
Provide cultural and social activities to enrich the opportunities for children
Your donation goes to your community. When you donate online to Big Brothers Big Sisters, you directly support children in your community.

No matter how much you give, donating will improve the lives of young people in your community. Your donation will help them meet the challenges of growing up into happy, confident young adults.

t. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a leading pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children's catastrophic diseases. It is located in Memphis, Tennessee. It is a nonprofit medical corporation chartered as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization under IRS regulations.

In 1996, Peter C. Doherty, Ph.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, was corecipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work related to how the immune system kills virus-infected cells.

St. Jude was founded by entertainer Danny Thomas on the premise that "no child should die in the dawn of life." Thomas named the hospital for Saint Jude Thaddeus, the Catholic patron saint of hospitals, desperate cases and lost causes. Thomas was a struggling young entertainer when he knelt in a Detroit church before a statue of St. Jude Thaddeus and asked the saint to "show me my way in life and I will build you a shrine." [1] Thomas's prayer was answered, and he soon moved his family to Chicago to pursue career offers. In 1957, Thomas founded the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC), which helped him realize his dream. ALSAC is the fundraising organization of St. Jude. Since St. Jude opened its doors in 1962, ALSAC has had the responsibility of raising the necessary funds to keep the hospital open.

Discoveries at St. Jude have completely changed how doctors treat children with cancer and other catastrophic illnesses. Since St. Jude was established, the survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common type of childhood cancer, has increased from 4 percent in 1962 to 94 percent today. St. Jude has treated children from across the United States and from more than 70 countries. Doctors across the world consult with St. Jude on their toughest cases, in which there is no cure for or is a severe case of it. Also, St. Jude has an International Outreach Program to improve the survival rates of children with catastrophic illnesses worldwide through the transfer of knowledge, technology and organizational skills.

All medically eligible patients who are accepted for treatment at St. Jude are treated without regard to the family's ability to pay. St. Jude is the only pediatric research center in the United States where families never pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. In addition to providing medical services to eligible patients, St. Jude also assists families with transportation, lodging, and meals. Three separate specially-designed patient housing facilities"Grizzly House for short-term (up to two weeks), Ronald McDonald House for medium-term (two weeks to 3 months), and Target House for long-term (3 months or more)"provide housing for patients and up to three family members, with no cost to the patient. These policies, along with research expenses and other costs, cause the hospital to incur more than $1.5 million in operating costs each day. Around $180,000 is covered by patient insurance, the remaining $1.34M/day is funded by charitable contributions.[2]