The car dealership has been selecting a handful of charities each month, then allowing Facebook fans to vote on their favorite charity. The charity with the most votes at the end of the month will receive a $1,000 donation. Fans can vote once per day.

“I can’t  believe we have been invited to participate because our project was kinda little compared to all the other charities that have been competing, but we are also the first New Tampa charity to compete,” Patricia Murphy, of the woman’s club, wrote to New Tampa Patch when she learned Books For Troops would be included. “I seriously can’t contain my excitement.”

Murphy said the Books For Troops project began Oct. 1 and has collected more books than it had anticipated. While the girls underestimated the support from the community, there is not enough money to ship all of the books to U.S. troops serving overseas.

Read the full article here.

The X Factor girl group Rhythmix are to change their name, following a threat of legal action by a Brighton charity with the same name.

The charity uses music to help disadvantaged youngsters and claims Simon Cowell’s production company Syco had initially failed to enter into a discussion about the name clash.

It said that having a band with the same name would affect its future work.

The X Factor said the girls would announce a new name “in due course”.

Producers at X Factor said they knew the charity existed, although the band had originally settled on the name without being aware it was used elsewhere.

Read the full article here.

The Buoniconti Fund’s aim find a cure for paralysis resulting from spinal cord injuries. The fund was founded by football legend Nick Buoniconti after his son Marc suffered a spinal cord injury during a college football game.

Each year, The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis holds the Great Sports Legends Dinner honoring sports figures and philanthropic heroes in order to bring awareness and support to the fund.

This year’s 26th Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York raised more than $10 million for paralysis research. One of the standout sports honorees was Kerrigan and Cause Celeb was lucky enough to speak with her about the event.

Read the full article and interview here.

Something I never really thought about before but since no one really writes cheques anymore and instead everyone used online payments and debit/credit cards, what will happen in the future for charities that have always depended on cheques?  Luckily there are program like ours that encourage people to use other methods of supporting charities.

The future of cheques remains in the balance with definite plans needed to restore the public’s faith in the payment option, it has been warned.

Despite plans to abolish cheques being shelved back in July, Age UK said it had received growing numbers of complaints from the public about retailers refusing to accept them.

The charity had staunchly opposed proposals that would have seen cheques become obsolete in 2018, with the Payments Council eventually agreeing that the payment method will remain for ‘as long as they are needed’.

However, despite the success of its lobbying, Age UK has admitted to having mounting concerns that cheques are still in jeopardy.

Because of its fears, Age UK has written to the UK’s major banks and building societies asking them to set out
the steps they are taking to ensure that cheques continue to be widely accepted and easily available.

Ready the full article here.

Here is a great little graph from blackbaud.com’s Benchmarking report.

Around 1,000 people helped make the Ian Jenkins charity hockey game a success and helped launch the Big E Foundation at Compuware Sports Arena in Plymouth Township.

Ian (Big E) Jenkins, considered one of the best 15-year-old goaltenders in the U.S., died last Monday, after suffering a head injury on May 19 after falling out of the bed of a pickup truck and onto pavement in Milan. Jenkins was recently drafted in the second round by the London Knights in the 2011 Ontario Hockey League draft and was supposed to play there next season.

Read the full article here.

Hop on your bike and help make a difference! The New Jersey Metro Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society is challenging bike riders to join the 20th Annual Bike MS “Coast the Coast” ride, and experience the ride of a lifetime.

As one of New Jersey’s premier cycling events, Bike MS “Coast the Coast” participants will pedal through coastal towns, while enjoying all of the sights and sounds of the Jersey Shore. While cyclists ride for many different reasons – camaraderie with other riders, exercise, the challenge, an organized tour, or fundraising – their efforts cumulatively aid in contributing toward the creation of a world free of multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the central nervous system.

On May 21 and 22, Bike MS “Coast the Coast” will kick off the summer, providing a great biking experience for novice through expert cyclists. Community members are invited to be part of this yearly tradition that continues to provide fun and goals for family teams and competitive cyclist teams alike. From the family fun 25-mile ride, to the endurance challenge of the 170-mile ride, the Bike MS “Coast the Coast” ride truly offers a weekend of enjoyment and fitness for everyone.

As individual and team cyclists pedal segments or the full distance from West Long Branch to Cape May, they will witness some of the most beautiful scenery that the Jersey coastline has to offer, all while enjoying a fully supported and inspirational event. The events have refreshment stations, bike repair support crews, first aid professionals, and support vans to aid riders on the courses.  Great event and well worth attending!

Here is some feel-good news from across the globe, it seems some 80 percent of the people in Taiwan have made monetary donations to charity in the past year, with each person making an average of six donations totaling NT$3,716 (US$127.83), according to the results of a survey released recently.

Nearly 30 percent of the donors made donations in the last two months, according to the survey conducted by the United Way of Taiwan, a local charity group.

However, regular donations are the main source of income for the charity, which shows local residents’ long-term support for social welfare, according to the results.

About 35 percent of the donors said they are highly likely to make more donations in the coming year, said the charity’s secretary-general, Chou Wen-chen.

Those who said they had not donated cited either tight budget or concern over how their donations would be used, the survey results show. The survey, conducted Jan. 7-12, collected 600 valid samples.  They say a people can be measured by how they treat those less fortunate in their society and the Taiwanese seem to be doing very well!

How generous are you and your fellow country-persons?  Australia and New Zealand shared first place, and the United States tied for fifth, in a first-of-its kind survey ranking 153 nations on the willingness of their citizens to donate time and money to charity.

China ranked near the bottom, barely higher than last-place Madagascar.

The report, released Wednesday by the British-based Charities Aid Foundation, showed striking variations in charitable behavior around the world.

For example, it found that only 4 percent of Lithuanians gave money to charity, compared with 83 percent of people in Malta; 61 percent of people in Turkmenistan did volunteer work, compared with 2 percent of Cambodians.

The overall rankings were a composite of three categories — the percentage of people who donated money, donated time and helped a stranger in the month prior to being surveyed.  Europeans Denmark and Germany rank quite low, which was surprising for me.

How embarrassing, I wonder if this was an inside job done purposely?  NFL fans never know what to expect from Chad Ochocinco but even they were probably surprised when dialing a number from a charity cereal box featuring the attention-seeking Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver and getting a phone-sex line.

A typo on the cereal box sent callers to a seductive-sounding woman instead of Feed The Children, a charity that benefits from Ochocinco’s limited edition toasted oats cereal, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on its website.

“You must be 18 or older to get into this party, baby,” the woman said before asking for a credit card number.

Callers should have dialed an 888 number instead of an 800 number, the newspaper said.

“I really do apologize,” Ochocinco told the Enquirer on Thursday. “Some people got a laugh out of it, others are upset.”

A spokesman for Feed The Children said the charity appeared to be at fault.

Ochocinco’s agent stressed the flamboyant receiver was in no way involved in the mistake.

A Cincinnati grocery chain began pulling the cereal boxes from its shelves on Thursday.

The cereal, which sells for $5 a box, can be found on the website www.plbsports.com.

“All boxes will be shipped with a corrected 800# on them,” a statement on the website said in capital letters.  No matter what this a great charity and we support them!