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THE MOTLEY FOOL CHARITY FUND
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Charity Drive Update
12/11/98
I don't know about you, but I don't know anyone who's against giving to charities. We might disagree on which charities are worthy of our gifts, but, for the most part, we all try to help others in our own way whenever we can. Being against charities is like being against peace, or clean air, or a cure for cancer.
So the question isn't why we should give, but why we should give to this particular organization, Share Our Strength? What the heck is Share Our Strength anyway?
Well, Share Our Strength (SOS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting hunger and poverty. OK, so far so good. No one's in favor of being unfed or poor. But how good is SOS at tackling this noble endeavor?
When SOS was founded in 1994, it began by organizing a handful of chefs to cook for fundraisers. Today it works with thousands of volunteers to host dinners, teach cooking and nutrition to low-income families, and sponsor benefit readings. To date, it has distributed more than $50 million to more than 1,000 local, state, national, and international organizations working to prevent hunger and poverty.
What really sets SOS apart is it knows that it takes more than food to fight hunger. So it invests in short-term solutions -- supporting food assistance and treating malnutrition -- as well as long-term solutions -- promoting economic independence. In fact, SOS's long-term goal is not that different from the Fool's own mission to foster Foolish Financial Independence.
SOS supports more than 100 job training programs, 12 micro-enterprise programs, 30 super pantries, and nearly 90 multi-service organizations. In one year alone, the group's funds helped local anti-hunger organizations serve more than 350 million meals. Its nutrition education and food budgeting program, Operation Frontline, has graduated more than 4,600 adults from its cooking classes since 1993.
Perhaps most importantly and most Foolishly, SOS is financially responsible and efficiently run -- 89.5% of the funds it raises goes directly to anti-hunger and anti-poverty programs. That's 89 1/2 cents on the dollar. Very Foolish.
Finally, the name Share Our Strength stresses that it takes each and every one of us, sharing our strength, to make a difference. So take a few minutes today to share your strength by contributing to the Motley Fool Charity Fund.
Here's where we are in terms of contributions:
Total Number of Generous Fools: 428
Total Contributions: $34,512 (not including "Here's My Two Cents" message board posts)
Total From Message Board Posts: $674.18
Grand Total: $35,186.18
Thanks to everyone who has donated money to a very worthy cause.
-- Yi-Hsin Chang (TMF Puck)