Free Republic

As Britain announces that it is adopting the US concept of charity-funded houses for families of ill or wounded soldiers, the BBC's Joan Soley looks at how the Fisher House programme has helped American service personnel who have been scarred by war. As is often the case, great ideas are also simple. The impetus for the Fisher House Foundation stemmed from one family seeing an obvious problem and taking it upon themselves to find a solution. Any parent or spouse of a member of the military will tell you their biggest fear: receiving that phone call or that knock on...

Liberals not as charitable as heartless, unfeeling conservatives Posted on January 13, 2011 at 12:10 am by Ted Biondo Liberals are very generous when it comes to giving away someone else’s money to those causes they think are proper, but when it comes to giving their money, liberals are far less generous than the conservatives they accuse of being heartless people with little compassion for those less fortunate. Data from numerous studies show this is true, yet the false notion and stereotype that conservatives are harsh and do not care about others stubbornly persist. Surveys also show that opposition to...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle gave $10,772 of the $1.2 million they earned from 2000 through 2004 to charities, or less than 1 percent, according to tax returns for those years released today by his campaign. The Obamas increased the amount they gave to charity when their income rose in 2005 and 2006 after the Illinois senator published a bestselling book. The $137,622 they gave over those two years amounted to more than 5 percent of their $2.6 million income. Romney charitable contributions Tax year Taxable income Charitable donations Donations as % of income 2010 $21.7...

Neat infographic on Bill Gates from Frugal Dad. Since 2007 Gates has given away 48% of his net worth, or $28 billion, which has helped save 6 million lives. It takes a second for the graphic to load.(For more check out 10 ways Bill Gates is saving the world.)

Santorum Charity For The Poor Spent Most of Its Money On Management, Political Friends By Carol D. Leonnig and Dan Eggen, Published: January 13 As Republicans gathered for their national convention in Philadelphia a decade ago, Rick Santorum, who was then an up-and-coming senator from Pennsylvania, launched a charity he said would improve the lives of low-income residents in his home state. Though Santorum's old-fashioned, shoe-leather approach to campaigning paid off in Iowa, the question for him now is how far he can go from here, given his lack of resources and the need to ramp up a national organization....

In his first 2011 start as the Denver Broncos quarterback, Tim Tebow was in the glare of the national spotlight. During pregame activities before playing the Miami Dolphins on Oct. 23, though, Tebow focused not only on the football game ahead but also on 16-year-old Garrett Atwood. Garrett, a Winter Springs youth who has been treated for a life-threatening illness in Jacksonville, spent time with his hero, thanks to Tebow’s desire to help children and families, especially those in crisis. “I know there are more important things than winning a game; like Garrett … he’s more important. Putting a smile...

The world pledged some $12 billion after the earthquake. Two years later, little has been used to actually rebuild PORT-AU-PRINCE — To see where the enormous sums of humanitarian aid directed to Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake in 2010 went, a good place to start is the ocean harbor. That’s where the island’s shore meets the rest of the world. And the best place for that is here at the seaport in the nation’s capital: Port-au-Prince, near the earthquake’s epicenter. There, at this moment, a gigantic “supermaritime” cargo ship called the Sarine is off-loading more than five metric tons of...

GAINESVILLE, Ga. (BP) -- On a recent Saturday morning, I was waiting to pick up my son, John, from a musical practice at church, so I decided to walk around the building for some exercise. While walking, I encountered a man knocking on the front door of the building. Allow me to describe him to give you a better context of my experience. "Bill" (a pseudonym to protect his identity) is a healthy, white male about 50 years old. He was visibly angry, agitated and seemed ready to explode. Although I was a little frightened by his demeanor, I told...

Rush Limbaugh caused a bit of a stir recently when he asked the question: “What do you think has fed more mouths, greed or charity?” The question seemed particularly untoward given that Christmas was right around the corner. Who besides Gordon Gekko might ask such a ludicrous question? Rush, obviously… and it turns out that it’s not such a ludicrous question after all. Of course when he says greed, what he is really referring to – and he says as much – is self interest. Basically what he is arguing is that while giving charity to someone may make...

R.A. Dickey will go forward with his charitable plan to ascend Mount Kilimanjaro next week, despite the Mets' objections, multiple sources said Tuesday. A person close to Dickey confirmed the Mets sent a "procedural" letter to agent Bo McKinniss "just to cover themselves legally" over the summer, when the knuckleballer first began publicly discussing the excursion. Dickey is scheduled to earn $4.5 million in 2012 in the second year of a two-year $7.8 million deal. The letter stated the Mets reserve the right to void Dickey's contract if he is injured as a result of the climb. A Mets PR...

Insurer for Sandusky charity argues payoutsBy MARK SCOLFORO | AP – Fri, Dec 23, 2011 HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — An insurance company for a charity founded by Jerry Sandusky argued in a federal complaint Friday that it should not have to pay legal expenses or claims for the former Penn State assistant football coach now accused of molesting children. Federal Insurance Co. said it would be wrong for the company to have to cover Sandusky because he is accused of conduct that did not involve his position as an executive or employee of The Second Mile, a charity for at-risk...

This is the season of the year when Salvation Army volunteers are on the streets and outside stores ringing their bells to encourage donors to fill their red kettles with money for the poor. The longtime Christian organization provides food, shelter, elderly services, disaster relief, prisoner rehabilitation and many other forms of aid. But it also has adopted a position statement that is a step toward abortion, and pro-life leaders are expressing alarm at what they see developing. In its statement on abortion, the Salvation Army says: "A number of biblical and theological principles underpin The Salvation Army's position on...

The mittens are off! Verbal fists are flying in what is becoming tourism marketing fight of this century! Two states — boundaries formed millennia ago by natural forces and almost two centuries ago by politics — look a lot like the human hand in a mitten. Because of that, Wisconsin and Michigan were locked in mostly media-created hand-to-hand combat for the better part of a month over which looks more like the body part. The origins are pretty simple. Over the past year, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism has been using a campaign that stages various objects to look like...

Psst: Want to know a way to reduce our national debt by a quarter of a trillion dollars over the next decade, and remove an often abused and possibly unconstitutional section of the tax code? Are you sure you do? You may want to sit down. Get rid of the federal charitable-giving tax deduction. I know that statement will create a firestorm. I ran the California Community Foundation for 25 years, and the foundation — not to mention your alma mater, the Girl Scouts, the AARP and many other charities — think pretty highly of the tax deduction. It's a...

<p>Conservative correspondent Tucker Carlson has bid on and won a dinner with controversial Vietnam-era radical Bill Ayers in a fundraiser for the Illinois Humanities Council, the group confirmed today.</p> <p>As part of the auction item, Carlson, of Fox News and The Daily Caller, will have dinner with the former college professor who has written about helping with bombings at the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and other government sites.</p>

Excuse my lack of knowledge on this issue, but why do I keep seeing ads for charity for Israel.

More frightening than any particular beliefs or policies is an utter lack of any sense of a need to test those beliefs and policies against hard evidence. Mistakes can be corrected by those who pay attention to facts but dogmatism will not be corrected by those who are wedded to a vision. One of the most pervasive political visions of our time is the vision of liberals as compassionate and conservatives as less caring. It is liberals who advocate "forgiveness" of loans to Third World countries, a "living wage" for the poor and a "safety net" for all. But these...

Lawsuit Filed To Stop Sandusky Charity From DissolvingBy SportsDirect Lawyers are attempting to keep The Second Mile, the charity started by former Penn State assistant Jerry Sandusky, to stay solvent in order to help future victims file suits against Sandusky, who has been charged with multiple counts of child sexual abuse. A lawsuit filed by someone claiming to be a victim of Sandusky’s, is trying to stop the charity from dissolving its assets.

Through charity, Sandusky had access to vulnerableBy KEVIN BEGOS and MARK SCOLFORO Updated at 07:25 PM today **SNIP** Records from The Second Mile show that the organization asks staff members and volunteers to sign a statement affirming they have never been suspected of child abuse. They must also submit a criminal background check. Officials from the Second Mile didn't respond to a question about whether any such checks were ever done on Sandusky. The Second Mile said in a statement that it has done "everything in our power to cooperate with law-enforcement officials." But Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said...

If Magic Johnson had known just how well he could live with HIV, he wouldn't have retired from the Lakers on Nov. 7, 1991. Johnson would never change what he did for the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic when he publicly revealed his diagnosis to a stunned world. His courage that day, along with two subsequent decades of vibrant living, forever altered attitudes about the virus and its effects. Magic is simply glad the world knows such happy endings are possible with access to treatment and vigilance.

News Int'l - Dateline 11/7/11 - SLC Utah: Mormon Church Officials Release Extensive List Of Church Facilities Opening Their Doors for Thanksgiving Meals for Homeless and Needy... (Blank)............. (Blank)............. (Blank).............Blank).............(Blank).............(Blank).............(Blank).............(Blank).............(Blank).............(Blank).............(Blank).............

I desire to see My Bride dressed in all the beauty I have adorned her in "That is ME" ! So Come ! Play and abide in the garden for I delight in you yes ! But I desire earnestly for you to walk and dance in the fruit of My Tree of Life but not just one fruit or leaf but in the fullness of ALL I have for you . So come and abide with Me and devour and drink drink Me in for I AM this Fullness. Refresh your WellSpring in My River and pant no more...

Steve Jobs passed away earlier this month with an estimated fortune of $8 billion. I have yet to see a single report about one single dollar that he gave away to charity. How is it possible that a person who was lucky enough to be born and grow up in the United States and take advantage of our laws, schools, infrastructure and patent protections could be so selfish? Compare his lack of philanthropic giving with that of other similarly rich types, past and present. Andrew Carnegie gave away virtually his entire fortune, over $350 million dollars during his lifetime...

Every night before he goes to sleep, the president of the United States reads 10 letters from the pile of 20,000 sent to him by Americans every day. Sometimes, he writes back. He's even, on occasion, included a check. "It's not something I should advertise, but it has happened," President Barack Obama told reporter Eli Saslow, author of the new book, "Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President." Saslow has spent a year poring over the presidential mail, sent from Americans weathering the desperate economic climate. There's Natoma Canfield, the cleaning woman battling cancer who can't afford to pay...

Please Vote For Quail Surgical Center, Reno, NV. It is a very small surgery center in Reno, NV that is participating in a dance competition for Breast Cancer Awareness Week. They are only 200 votes behind the biggest corporate medical monstrosity in Northern Nevada. If they win the competition they get $10,000 for cancer research. If you have a facebook account you can go to http://pinkglove.co/105 and vote for Quail Surgical Center. Thank you all.

This event is a fundraiser for a very worthwhile and VERY NEEDY non-profit Christian school in the Houston area who is facing closure. A sellout for this event would save the school... literally. Please help spread the word. School's website for the event. Join Baptist Minister, Former Arkansas Governor, 2008 Presidential Candidate and the host of the number one rated weekend hit “HUCKABEE” on the Fox News Channel, MIKE HUCKABEE, for a discussion on Lessons in Christian Leadership, including a Q&A session. Also, JONATHAN CHURCHILL-SANDYS, great grandson of Sir Winston Churchill who wil…l be discussing the state of education in...

Focus on the Family on Friday announced the layoff of 49 more employees due to decreased donations, bringing down the number of employees to less than half it had in 2002. his new 7 percent staff reduction in the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based pro-family group brought the employee number to 650, down from a 2002 peak of 1,400 people, according to The Denver Post. “God has never promised us a certain budget number. We’re sad today but not distraught about the future,” FOTF Vice President Gary Schneeberger was quoted as saying. “Even in these bad economic times people who care about...

AKELAND - Two and half months is a long time to be stuck in the hospital, especially if you don't really have to be there. Yvonne Gallimore has been living at Lakeland Regional Medical Center because she had no place else to go. Now, she finally does. Gallimore just moved into a duplex provided by the Lakeland Housing Authority. It's a big improvement, but not easy living yet. It has big, French doors, so she can get out quickly in case of an emergency. "I was glad to get out of there," she said on Monday. When emergency workers took...

Kelvin Quinnine has shivered through more San Francisco nights than he can count, fog biting through whatever worn-out sleeping bag he pitched onto the sidewalk. He stood last week on Ellis Street with his latest bag wrapped around him. When a young woman wearing a bizarrely baggy coat walked up to him, he cocked his gray-bearded head sideways.

Earlier this month at a charity hockey event in Faribault, Minn., 11-year-old Nate Smith made an 89-foot shot from center ice to win $50,000. The problem was that Nate's twin brother, Nick, was the one who purchased the winning raffle ticket. When the time came to attempt the shot, Nick was outside of the arena unaware he had won, so in stepped Nate to score the miraculous goal. After the boys' father, Pat, came forward the next day and admitted to event organizers about the twins' switch, Odds on Promotions, the company that insured the event, held up awarding the...

Woodstock First Baptist Church teamed with Georgia Mission of Mercy to begin a two-day FREE, dental clinic for low- or no-income adults who cannot pay for dental care. Thousands of people waited in line overnight at Woodstock First Baptist Church for free dental care. The two-day clinic at First Baptist Church of Woodstock on Hwy. 92 is being sponsored by the Georgia Dental Association and its Foundation for Oral Health. "The line went around the building, all the way through the parking lot and around a warehouse," said Dr. Richard Smith, who practices in Atlanta. He estimated the line at...

Local schools, clubs and churches benefit -- and so may politicians doing the giving LAUDERDALE LAKES – This town is broke, but that didn't stop Commissioner Gloria Lewis from spending $1,440 in taxpayer funds in February for 140 T-shirts for fifth graders at Oriole Elementary School's spirit-boosting event coinciding with the FCAT exams. It was hardly an exception. Since January 2010, city records show, the mayor and the six city commissioners have used thousands of dollars from their city-funded expense accounts for charitable donations to which their names often are attached. Early this year, for example, Mayor Barrington Russell Sr....

On July 20, 12 Christian leaders met with President Obama at the White House to voice concerns about the prospect of budget cuts to government welfare. The group included Jim Wallis of the liberal social justice organization Sojourners and representatives from the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Salvation Army, and several humanitarian development agencies. Finally, as critics have rightly noted, some religious leaders speak as if only government entitlements and transfer payments count as legitimate expressions of Christian charity. These leaders therefore ignore the tendency for government welfare programs to foster among those in...

Don't you dare criticize the world's most perfect celebrity — or his charitable schemes.Wow. I make a living taking on corrupt unions and incompetent politicians, but I’ve never experienced the kind of vitriol like what I’ve received criticizing U2 lead singer Bono for his tireless and tiring political activism.The article in question, originally published in the Baltimore Sun, prompted representatives from Bono’s non-profit ONE campaign to pester the Sun, challenging me (unsuccessfully) on the facts. Now Maryland Senator Ben Cardin (D) is attacking me for daring to challenge St. Bono and the efficacy of ONE. Cardin accuses me of spreading...

Just before she headlined Saturday night's Japan disaster relief benefit concert, Lady Gaga was sued over the bracelets she's been selling for the same cause. According to the federal class action, the do-gooder pop star wasn't exactly being honest when her Web site claimed all the proceeds from sales of her "We Pray for Japan" wristbands would go to help victims of the March earthquake and tsunami. A Detroit-era legal network said in its complaint, filed Friday, that Gaga kept part of the $5 that every customer paid for a wristband and inflated shipping charges so she could pocket more....

Whalen escorted his group and three local media members to the Carl Vinson for their first operational and planning session on the flight deck, where the game is scheduled to be played shortly after 4 p.m. It could go off without a glitch. “For us, it’s fairly easy,” ESPN coordinating producer Dave Miller was saying. It is not a logistic nightmare, and those involved have complete cooperation from the Navy. A temporary stadium seating 7,000 (my understanding is the crowd will be invitation-only) will be constructed around the basketball floor put down on the flight deck. Plenty of room.

Richard Cornuelle coined the term “independent sector,” yet when he died on April 26, he was largely forgotten by that very sector. Better evidence of what’s wrong with the sector — and America in general – is hard to find. Cornuelle believed that ordinary people in ordinary places should have a large scope for action, whether they are raising their families, building their businesses, running local governments, or coming to the aid of their neighbors. The threat to such local independence comes from the “scientific,” centralized bureaucracies that from mid-twentieth century onward have grown ever more powerful – in government,...

... This week Gingrich also released his 24th book, with many of his upcoming campaign stops doubling as marketing events for his book and movies, raising more questions about the true intentions of the campaign. "If he's being driven by book sales, and movie openings and things like that, that doesn't fit into a traditional campaign," said Reed. Also raising questions from independent watchdog groups is the operation of a charity Gingrich founded, called Renewing American Leadership. Its website contained ads for Gingrich's books -- taken down after ABC News asked about them -- and posted his positions on political...

Everybody knows that libertarians are greedy capitalists who favor the maximization of profit above all else. “Taxation is theft!” they cry, but the exploitation of the working classes fails to elicit any similar moral outrage. Libertarians, everybody knows, care about the rich to the utter neglect of the poor and vulnerable. But everybody is wrong. The reason for the common misperception, of course, is that libertarians oppose many of the governmental policies that are commonly thought to benefit the poor and working classes. Libertarians oppose redistributive taxation, oppose the minimum wage, oppose workplace safety regulations, antitrust laws, and many other...

Every hour of every day, hundreds of people need essential human services - they are looking for training, employment, food pantries, help for an aging parent, addiction prevention programs for their teenage children, affordable housing options, support groups and ways of becoming part of their community. 2-1-1 allows people to give help and to get help. 2-1-1 is an easy to remember telephone number that, where available, connects people with important community services and volunteer opportunities. In 2010, 2-1-1 services in the United States answered more than 16.4 million calls. The implementation of 2-1-1 is spearheaded by United Ways and...

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that 275,000 organizations have lost their tax-exempt status because they failed to file required annual reports for three straight years. The tax agency said it believed that the vast majority of those groups are no longer in existence, but it said it was setting up procedures to help those companies that sought reinstatement. The IRS posted a list of the organizations on its website: http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=240099,00.html

DONATIONS???? As you open your pockets For the next natural disaster, Keep these facts in mind: The American Red Cross President and CEO Marsha J. Evans salary for the year was $651,957 plus expenses The United Way President Brian Gallagher receives a $375,000 base salary along with numerous expense benefits. They give to illegals I will not give to them. UNICEF CEO Caryl M. Stern receives $1,200,000 per year (100k per month) plus all expenses including a ROLLS ROYCE . Less than 5 cents of your donated dollar goes to the cause The Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a...

Lavish aid to Africa is turning the continent into a ‘spoilt child’, according to the head of a charity backed by Nelson Mandela. Mike Kendrick, founder of the respected Mineseeker Foundation, warned that aid often increased the hardship faced by the world’s poorest people. In a devastating verdict, he told the Daily Mail last night: ‘I sometimes use the analogy of a spoilt child. We have all seen rich parents give their child everything they need, without earning it.

Remember the laughs -- and gasps -- that greeted Princess Beatrice when she showed up for the royal wedding wearing that, well, unusual hat? Well now the young royal is getting the last laugh. Beatrice, 22, put the blush-colored "fascinator" up for auction on eBay, and it's now been snapped up by an anonymous bidder -- for $130,000! According to People, the princess is donating the cash to two charities: UNICEF and Children in Crisis, the later of which was started by Beatrice's mother Sarah Ferguson (a.k.a. "Fergie," the Duchess of York) to provide education to children in some of...

One of the aspects of Catholic culture that drives most Americans insane, Catholic and not, is the super formal way the clergy communicate. They go out of their way not to offend unnecessarily and think of all sides of a situation before completing their thought or publishing an instruction (at least, that’s what they are supposed to do. We all know at one time or another it just doesn’t happen that way) – even when they disagree. It’s particularly painful when there is a statement in a larger letter that is not specific, as such communications are known to invite...

This past Saturday, my 86-year old dad got up in the wee hours of the night and, along with a group of other men his age, flew from Fort Myers, Florida, to Washington D.C., courtesy of Honor Flight, the Southwest Florida branch. If you’re not familiar with Honor Flight (I wasn’t until he was selected to participate), it is a volunteer organization that raises money and attempts to take as many remaining World War II veterans to D.C. to visit the memorials there that honor their service. Their first stop was the WWII memorial, then they went to the Korean...

Los Angeles, CA --- May 13, 2011 ... The Rochelle and Richard Maize Foundation has announced that they will be providing free financial aid to over 60-year-olds who are unemployed, US citizens, veterans, have no source of income and are seeking to start a new business. The financial aid will cover part of the legal and Internet marketing costs. "One of the hardest hit groups of people with the least potential of securing work even if and when the US economy improves are the 60 year-old plus citizens," said Richard Maize. "As such, I have decided to provide free financial...

LONDON — The eye-popping hat worn by Princess Beatrice at Britain's royal wedding is to be auctioned to raise money for charity, Buckingham Palace said Thursday. The famous creation — which some said looked like antlers— will be sold on eBay with the proceeds to go to the charities UNICEF and Children in Crisis. The hat was the handiwork of Britain's leading milliner, Philip Treacy, who designed many of the ladies' hats worn at the April 29 nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton, now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The unusual design of the beige hat...

Ï€ Raspberry Pi Foundation The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity (Registration Number 1129409) which exists to promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing. We plan to develop, manufacture and distribute an ultra-low-cost computer, for use in teaching computer programming to children. We expect this computer to have many other applications both in the developed and the developing world. Our first product is about the size of a USB key, and is designed to plug into a TV or be combined with a...

The recent 60 Minutes expose on Greg Mortenson, the author of the bestselling Three Cups of Tea, has prompted me to reflect on the question: why was this guy a household name and international hero? Over the last few years, a Montana nurse named Greg Mortenson has been building an international reputation as a world-class hero and future Nobel Peace Prize winner for having built scores of schools, mostly for girls, in war-torn Afghanistan. At this writing, his 2006 book Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time has been on the New York...