Changing Our Community with a Giving Heart

In the United States alone, there are more than a million charitable organizations, and Americans give more than $300 billion annually to charitable causes (Giving USA Foundation). On November 15, we celebrated National Philanthropy Day®, the special day set aside to recognize and pay tribute to the great contributions that philanthropy—and those people active in the philanthropic community—have made to our lives, our communities and our world, as stated in the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ website.

Change the World with a Giving Heart, the theme of this year’s National Philanthropy Day, brings to light the goodness in each person and organization that contributes to vulnerable children and families like those served by Hillsides. Our donors, volunteers and child advocates, with their treasure, time or voice, help us continue to create safe places for children who have experienced traumatic childhoods and suffer from emotional and behavioral challenges. Families in need of Hillsides’ resources and professional mental health expertise are afforded these services because of our donors who give willingly to our mission. Transitional aged youth find a safe place, mentoring and mental health support at Hillsides Youth Moving On because of the combined efforts of many organizations, corporations and individuals who believe in former foster youth having an opportunity to journey through young adulthood successfully.

Last week several organizations that support our mission were recognized at the National Philanthropy Day Awards luncheon presented by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.  A hearty congratulation goes out to Print Interactive Radio and Television Education Society (PIRATES), Pasadena Independent Schools Foundation (PIS), and The Weingart Foundation for their commitment to serve nonprofits in Southern California. Both PIRATES and PISF are primarily volunteer-driven organizations themselves. Their commitment to serving nonprofits has been noticed and we recognize your dedication to the children and families we serve. Weingart Foundation was pivotal in our Youth Moving On’s capital campaign and continues to support our mission.

However, we continue to ask ourselves: What do the children need? What additional resources can we provide families? What does it take to help them? There is never enough that we can do for the children and families we serve. This year we raised $2.2 million to address all the needs of the children and families. That’s the kind of investment that donors, corporations, and foundations make alongside with volunteers and child advocates. The partnerships we make help us leverage the dollars that we have to provide for vulnerable children and families whose needs are tremendous.

We applaud Hillsides donors, corporations, foundations, volunteers and child advocates for changing our community with your giving heart. Together, we strive to create safe places for vulnerable children and families that need our love, stability, comfort, hope and resources to have brighter futures. Thanks for lighting their way and ours.