Tag: Charity

At Least One Billionaire That Does Good

I admit it I am no fan of billionaires….why?  Most do nothing to help their fellow Americans they pay little to no tax and buy politicians to keep the billions flowing.

With that said I have great admiration for one of them, Mackenzie Scott, ex-wife of the tool Bezos…..she is donating millions upon millions to help the less fortunate in this country.

While billionaires have come under fire for not living up to their philanthropic promises, one person is rising from the rest: MacKenzie Scott. She’s pouring billions into education, public health, and the environment—and now, she just funneled some of her fortune to help feed and support millions of Americans.

Scott recently gave a $70 million unrestricted donation to Meals on Wheels America, a leadership organization that supports nationwide charities in providing meals, social connection, and safety checks to more than 2 million U.S. seniors and homebound people every year.

The organization announced Scott’s donation last Thursday, adding that her contribution comes at a time when one in three local Meals on Wheels America providers have a wait-list, with elderly citizens having to wait an average of four months for meals and services.

Scott’s $70 million donation is just a drop in the bucket of her $26 billion philanthropic streak since 2020. The early Amazon employee and ex-wife of Jeff Bezos worth $41.1 billion is rewriting the playbook of billionaire philanthropy.

Thanks to Scott’s latest investment, Meals on Wheels said it can focus more on opportunities to “strengthen the network’s capacity” in the long term and give more resources to local providers.

Meals on Wheels America currently supports more than 5,000 community-based programs related to senior hunger and isolation. Scott’s gift will make a real difference, the organization says, but it won’t completely bridge the country’s growing needs. It hopes her donation will inspire others to support.

“We will steward the investment thoughtfully and responsibly to help generate economies of scale and impact that strengthen the capacity of local providers so they can reach more older adults with meals, connection and care,” Kristine Templin, chief development and marketing officer at Meals on Wheels America, tells Fortune in a statement.

“Ultimately, success means more seniors are able to access the support they need to live more nourished, independent, and healthy lives.”

https://fortune.com/2026/04/13/billionaire-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott-donates-70-million-meals-on-wheels-america-feed-2-million-people/

I say bully for her at least she deserves praise for the work is doing….how many others can you say that about?

(I’ll wait while you Google it)

I love this woman and If anyone deserves a medal of freedom it is she.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Goodwill Hunting

My daughter and I use to enjoy a day of hitting the retro places especially those that were non-profits trying to find the amazing ‘old’ stuff….one of our favorites was Goodwill that had some amazing stuff and at reasonable prices.

All that has changed last visit to a Goodwill store found there were few bargains and the feel of the store was that of a corporate profit chasing entity.

Then I read an article that I want to share….especially if you think you are doing good work by supporting this business.

Donating used items to Goodwill is a common practice for those looking to declutter while helping others. However, there are several reasons to reconsider this donation choice. Here are ten reasons why you might want to stop giving your used items to Goodwill and explore other options instead.

1. Questionable Business Practices

Goodwill is often perceived as a charity dedicated to helping those in need, but its business practices have come under scrutiny. Despite its nonprofit status, Goodwill operates more like a for-profit business. Executives at some Goodwill organizations earn very high six-figure salaries. For example in 2024, the Chief Executive Officers of the 12 largest Goodwill organizations were compensated between $405,215 – $960,943 annually.  The average was $670,000.

There have been reports of the organization historically paying workers with disabilities significantly less than minimum wage under the special exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act (per CNBC).  While many states are phasing out this loophole, understanding where your donations go can prompt you to consider alternatives that better align with your values.

2. Low Direct Impact on Local Communities

While Goodwill does provide job training and employment opportunities, the direct impact on local communities can be limited. According to the Seattle Times, donations to Goodwill are often sold in bulk or shipped overseas, where they may not benefit your local area.

Donating to smaller, community-focused organizations or shelters can ensure your items directly support those in need within your neighborhood.

2. Low Direct Impact on Local Communities

While Goodwill does provide job training and employment opportunities, the direct impact on local communities can be limited. According to the Seattle Times, donations to Goodwill are often sold in bulk or shipped overseas, where they may not benefit your local area.

Donating to smaller, community-focused organizations or shelters can ensure your items directly support those in need within your neighborhood.

Please read on….especially if you visit Goodwill stores)

https://www.savingadvice.com/articles/2026/03/07/10139410_rethinking-donations-to-goodwill.html

Another ‘charity’ has fallen to the profit god.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

When The Going Gets Tough The Tough Go Shopping

No secret that I feel that the US is pissing money away by sending billions to Ukraine….and the US is not alone.

It seems the EU has gathered up donations for Ukraine to help them through the winter and Mrs. Zelensky goes to Paris to gratefully accept the donations for her country and a quick shopping spree as well.

This report is from some Conservative website….

Ukraine is in a horrible war with Russia at the moment. It’s costing lives and destroying the county. This county was in the middle of the war between Germany and Russia during World War II, then was under Soviet control until the early 1990’s when the ‘Iron Curtain’ fell.

Yesterday in Paris, it was reported that Ukraine had obtained another $1.1 billion in emergency aid to help the country over the winter months.

Ukraine’s Western allies pledged an additional one billion euros ($1.1 billion) in emergency winter aid on Tuesday, responding to pleas from President Volodymyr Zelensky to help the country withstand Russia’s onslaught against its energy grid.

Around 70 countries and international organizations gathered in Paris for a meeting aimed at enabling Ukrainians “to get through this winter”, said French President Emmanuel Macron.

In a video message, Zelensky said Ukraine needed assistance worth around 800 million euros in the short term for its battered energy sector.

“Of course it is a very high amount, but the cost is less than the cost of a potential blackout,” Zelensky told the conference via video link.

It’s now being reported that she took some time off yesterday to go on a quick shopping spree for herself while in the city.  The Conservative Treehouse reports:

Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, traveled to Paris France for a three-day visit December 12-14.  As reported by Le Monde, “Members of the Ukrainian government will also come, including Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, and several ministers in charge of reconstruction, including Yulia Svyrydenko (economy), Oleksandr Kubrakov (infrastructure) and German Galushchenko (energy).”

However, social media has erupted today after a “reliable store clerk” working on the ritzy Avenue Montaigne, has reported that Olena Zelenska went on a Christmas shopping spree spending €40,000 euros in an hour. (citation) Previously President Zelenskyy’s wife was received by French first lady Bridget Macron.

If the reporting is accurate, the spending spree comes at a bad time optically, as Mrs. Zelenska’s husband Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is simultaneously asking the European Union to provide more financial support for the embattled country.

(gatewaypundit.com)

Interesting, eh?

If this is an accurate report then ask…..

Where did this cash come from?

Is it US taxpayer dollars that funded this shopping spree?

Maybe it was from the EU funds.

Someone needs to find some sort of accountability….I do not want my tax dollars used for Paris shopping sprees….how about you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–15Mar21

No secret that I am a dog person……some of my best friends have been canine…..I try to support the local humane society…I seldom donate to a national organization simply because I do not trust them to use my donation wisely….I have read horror stories that tell of about 70% of donation go to admin salaries and such….they get nothing from me….nothing at all!

What prompted me to write this post was something I read about a Dog Rescue Charity…..seems this one is funneling money to Donald the Orange……

A dog rescue charity with links to Lara Trump has spent as much as $1.9 million at former President Donald Trump’s properties over the last seven years and will drop an additional quarter-million at his Mar-a-Lago country club this weekend.

According to a permit filed with the town of Palm Beach, Florida, Big Dog Ranch Rescue estimates it will spend $225,000 at the club where Donald Trump has taken up full-time residence since leaving the White House. All the profit from that spending winds up in his pocket.

Internal Revenue Service filings show that the group has spent as much as $1,883,160 on fundraising costs at Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s golf course 18 miles north in Jupiter starting in 2014. Lara Trump, the wife of Eric Trump, started being listed as a chairwoman for charity events in 2018, and the group’s president, Lauren Simmons, visited the White House in 2019 for the signing of a bill addressing animal cruelty.

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/lara-trump-mar-a-lago-dog-rescue-charity-232906971.html

Now you see why I do not trust most so-called charities….

This is pathetic that people would support a charity that profits a person not the animal that it was chartered to do.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–02Oct19

When my father was alive he was a big donr to the animal funds like Sierra Club and the WWF….I always admired his dedication to these organizations and their task of helping the wildlife of this planet.

Sp an article I read recently made me feel a little sick and then made me angry…….

This was a sensitive moment for one of the globe’s most prominent charities. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) had long helped fund and equip Chitwan’s forest rangers, who patrol the area in jeeps, boats, and on elephant backs alongside soldiers from the park’s in-house army battalion. Now WWF’s partners in the war against poaching stood accused of torturing a man to death.

WWF’s staff on the ground in Nepal leaped into action — not to demand justice, but to lobby for the charges to disappear. When the Nepalese government dropped the case months later, the charity declared it a victory in the fight against poaching. Then WWF Nepal continued to work closely with the rangers and fund the park as if nothing had happened.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tomwarren/wwf-world-wide-fund-nature-parks-torture-death

That was Part One….and the rest of the series is listed here…..

Part 2: Leaked Report Shows WWF Was Warned Years Ago Of “Frightening” Abuses
Part 3: WWF Says Indigenous People Want This Park — But An Internal Report Reveals Fears Of Ranger “Repression.”
Part 4: WWF-Backed Guards Raped Pregnant Women And Tortured Villagers At A Wildlife Park Funded By The US Government
Part 5: WWF Is Investigating Two More Alleged Murders At A Park Where Rangers Are Accused Of Rape And Torture
Part 6: The US Government Spent Millions Funding WWF-Backed Forces Accused Of Torture and Murder

This is disgusting and one reason why all my charities are local ones that I can check on to be sure they are doing what they say they are doing.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

“I Read, I Wrote and now You Know”

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Screw The Elderly!

Closing Thought–05Sep19

When I was forced to retire I was fortunate that I had a good pension and Medicare but too many seniors must depend on others for some of the necessities like FOOD.

When I was working for the State I saw just how good such programs as Meals On Wheels were….but that successful program has run into monetary problems thanx to the GOP and their cuts to programs like Meals On Wheels……to the point that many seniors are going hungry.

And government relief falls short. One of the main federal programs helping seniors is starved for money. The Older Americans Act — passed more than half a century ago as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society reforms — was amended in 1972 to provide for home-delivered and group meals, along with other services, for anyone 60 and older. But its funding has lagged far behind senior population growth, as well as economic inflation.

The biggest chunk of the act’s budget, nutrition services, dropped by 8% over the past 18 years when adjusted for inflation, an AARP report found in February. Home-delivered and group meals have decreased by nearly 21 million since 2005. Only a fraction of those facing food insecurity get any meal services under the act; a U.S. Government Accountability Office report examining 2013 data found 83% got none.

https://truthout.org/articles/meals-on-wheels-is-starved-for-cash-leaving-many-seniors-hungry/

This should be unacceptable to ALL Americans.

I feel certain that somewhere some mental midget will try and blame this on immigrants…..as they always do to hide their racism……but this would not be a problem if diverted funds were used where they were needed……a wall is not that spot.

By the way….China built a wall to stop “immigrants” and it stopped nothing…..money pissed away just as the US is doing today.

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–16Aug19

Special operations has had its problems and its bad news in the last year or two….but there is one thing that continues the Special Operations Warrior Foundation….

Special Operations Warrior Foundation SOWF

The Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) is a non-profit organization located in Tampa, Florida. The SOWF exists to care for the families of fallen and wounded special operations forces.

The SOWF was founded in 1980 after the attempt to rescue 53 American hostages in Iran. The operation resulted in the loss of eight special operations servicemen who left behind 17 children.

Since then, the Special Operations Warrior Foundation has assisted hundreds of children of fallen special operators with financial assistance in their pursuit of a post-secondary education. In addition, the SOWF has assisted countless wounded and injured special operations warriors.

The SOWF has two principle missions. It provides financial assistance for post-secondary education (college, university, or trade schools) to the surviving children of special operations personnel who lose their lives in the line-of-duty. In addition, it provides immediate financial grants to severely combat-wounded and hospitalized special operations personnel and their families.

Visit and check them out…..Special Operations Warrior Foundation

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy weekend….

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–14May19

I remember a couple of years ago WalMart caught some grief because they threw away coats in dumpsters in some big cities….cities that have a large homeless population that could have used some warmth from the coats in the harsh winters.

I said then that it should be unacceptable to Americans to see a corporation care so little when they could have done the right thing and donated the coats marked for the trash bin…..

And now AmazonGo has been caught being a douche with food…….

Seattle resident Nathan Gregg was at a waste facility, about 15 minutes south of the city’s downtown area, dumping construction materials at around 3:30 p.m. Thursday when he discovered a nearly 6-foot-high pile of prepared meals still in their Amazon Go packaging. Amazon Go is the e-commerce giant’s cashierless convenience store concept.

Photos provided by Gregg showed various wraps, salads, and sandwiches encased in their original sealed plastic containers alongside packaged hot dogs, mushrooms, loose bell peppers, and other grocery items. The discarded food was found at South Transfer Station. There are four Amazon Go stores located in Seattle, and eight other locations across San Francisco, Chicago, and New York.

After Gregg reported the incident, Seattle Public Utilities told him that the Amazon Go waste is being investigated, and the items would be removed from the landfill.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/amazon-go-waste-food-packaging

This is disgusting but something I expect from corporation…..

I am sure that Seattle food pantries/churches/charities could have put that food to good use….feed the hungry something apparently Amazon could care little about…..

Closing Thought–17Apr19

Fire has destroyed a cultural icon….Notre Dame and the world has pledged to have it rebuilt…..

“Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral went up in flames on Monday evening, a blaze that devastated the landmark, destroying its wooden-beamed roof and collapsing the iconic spire in a searing loss for Paris and France,” Reuters reports.

“President Emmanuel Macron pledged to rebuild the Gothic masterpiece, and within the first 24 hours after the fire began, tycoons, companies and local authorities stepped forward with large donations,” Reuters reports. “French billionaire businessman Bernard Arnault’s family and his LVMH luxury goods group said they would donate 200 million euros to help repair the cathedral.”

“French luxury and cosmetics group L’Oreal, along with the Bettencourt Meyer family and the Bettencourt Schueller foundation, will donate 200 million euros in total,” Reuters reports. “CEO Tim Cook said on Twitter Apple would donate an unspecified sum to rebuilding efforts.”

At the exact time that Notre Dame was burning so was the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem….has anyone stepped forward to offer help?

How about those black churches in Louisiana?

Fires that destroyed three predominantly black Baptist churches in St. Landry Parish in the last 10 days are “suspicious,” the state’s top fire investigator said Thursday, adding that they’ve discovered several “patterns” at the three crime scenes.

But it’s too soon to classify the fires as arson, State Fire Marshal Butch Browning said at a press conference, walking a tight line without actually linking the three blazes.

“There certainly is a commonality,” he said. “Whether that leads to a person or persons or groups, we just don’t know. And that’s not unusual for us not to know at this point.”

The fact that it is three black Baptist churches in the same parish is obviously a pattern. “And there are several other patterns,” Browning added.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/04/05/3-black-churches-10-days-burned-louisianas-st-landry-parish/3384344002/

Has Apple stepped forward to help in these reconstruction efforts?

What makes Notre Dame more important than al-Aqsa or the churches in Louisiana?  All are houses of worship none more important than the others.

Looks like Apple goes where they can get the most PR bang for their bucks….I was considering an Ipad but now Apple can…….. kiss my ass!

Enough said!

People have steeped up for the churches in Louisiana……

Less than 24 hours elapsed between President Macron’s call for donations to rebuild Notre Dame and nearly $1 billion being pledged, reports Time. In comparison, a nearly week-old campaign seeking funds to rebuild three historically black churches destroyed by arson in Louisiana within the last month had raised only $93,000 as of Tuesday morning, reports the New York Times. A day later, that number has skyrocketed to more than $1.1 million thanks to social media promotion from journalists, pro athletes, and politicians, including Hillary Clinton, reports the Hill. “As we hold Paris in our thoughts today, let’s also send some love to our neighbors in Louisiana,” Clinton tweeted alongside a link to the GoFundMe campaign from the Seventh District Baptist Association, which includes the three Baptist churches gutted in fires on March 26, April 2, and April 4.

More than 21,000 people have donated as of this writing, with funds to be split evenly between the churches in St. Landry Parish, each more than 100 years old. “It’s a total, complete loss at all three sites,” association president Freddie Jack tells the Times. Mount Pleasant Baptist in Opelousas fared best, but at St. Mary Baptist in Port Barre and Opelousas’ Greater Union Baptist Church—which had taken out a mortgage to cover a recent renovation—”all you see is charcoal.” The fund seeks $1.8 million total; Jack notes insurance coverage is limited and strict building codes have been put in place since Hurricane Katrina. The money raised so far is “a blessing,” Rev. Gerald Toussaint of Mount Pleasant Baptist tells CNN. “What the devil meant for bad, God’s going to turn it into something good.”

I am pleased to see that the money is helping but sad that it took the fire in Paris to start the wheels moving……

Doctors Without Borders

Or as they are known by most of the world, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)……..that great charity where medical types go around the world helping people that need their help and the rest of the world ignores…..places like Mali, South Sudan, etc.

But first I need to report that my medical procedure was a success…at least for now will know more next week when I go in for a follow-up….as long as I am writing about doctors……

Disturbing news has come to light about this charity……

Aid workers at charity Medecins Sans Frontieres used local prostitutes while working in Africa, whistleblowers have told the Victoria Derbyshire programme.

Female former employees said the behaviour was widespread.

One said a senior colleague said it was possible to barter medication in exchange for sex.

The charity said it does not tolerate “abuse, harassment or exploitation”. The use of prostitutes is banned by MSF under its strict code of conduct.

The women spoke anonymously for fear of being blacklisted by foreign aid agencies, among which there can be a large crossover of staff.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44523086

This is sad news……the UN has been plagued with similar problems……just sad that those there to help eventually take advantage of the people they are there to help.