AFP Music: #GivingTuesday
The turkey has been eaten, the in-laws have left, the traffic has settled and the flurry of the Thanksgiving has finally subsided. We were meant, during the holiday, to reflect and give thanks for all that we have in our lives, but those sentiments sometimes get lost in the craze surrounding Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday. We forget the “giving” part of Thanksgiving. To counteract this, “Giving Tuesday” was launched by organizations like 92nd Street Y, the United Nations Foundation, the website Mashable and the brand (RED). The day is meant to remind us to pause our consuming (figuratively. you can keep working on those leftovers if you want) and give back this holiday season. Here are five charitable organizations, both for the music and by the music, that you could give to this Tuesday:
The Dear Jack Foundation (DJF) was founded by Andrew McMahon of Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. While on tour with his first band, Something Corporate, McMahon was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). After undergoing treatment, he resolved to ‘initiate change and provide a voice for the generations of young adults who have been diagnosed with cancer.” With the specific aim of helping adolescents and young adults (AYA), DJF aims to support organizations, ‘which recognize the unique challenges the AYA community faces, during and post-treatment.” The programs that have benefited from DJF include the UCLA stem cell transplant program, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, First Descents, Cancer for College, Matt Cwiertny Memorial Foundation’s Matt’s Mixed Tape Project and the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation.
“To Write Love on Her Arms” (TWLOHA) was originally the title of a MySpace post by Jamie Tworkowski. The essay was written for Renee Yohe, a friend of Tworkowski’s, who was entering rehabilitation treatment for addiction, depression, and self-harm. After posting the essay and spreading Yohe’s story, Tworkowski began selling t-shirts to help cover the costs of her treatment. That action and the phrase ‘to write love on her arms” (which appears in the original essay) stuck. It sparked the creation of TWLOHA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ”presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide.”
Shaney jo Darden started Keep A Breast (KAB) in the late ‘90s after a friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. Originally a designer in the skateboard industry, Darden hoped to harness the creative energy around her in order to raise awareness about breast cancer. The result was KAB and the first breast casts. The casts were taken from female volunteers and painted to represent the challenges, both physical and emotional, that a breast cancer patient faces. They were showcased and eventually auctioned off to support various breast cancer charities. Today KAB still creates casts, but their efforts have also expanded. KAB now works to raise awareness through their “I Love Boobies!” merchandise, their Check Yourself self-exam cards, and their Ambassadors program, with proceeds funding The Keep A Breast Foundation’s programs.
New York Foundation for the Arts
The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) was established in 1971 with the goal of empowering artists and arts organizations. In the past few decades, NYFA has not only done that, but in 2009 expanded its reach to the international community. Before it reached this current scale, the NYFA started out with just four flagship programs: NYFA Classifieds, NYFA Source, NYFA Learning and the NYFA Artists Fellowship Program. Through these NYFA provided sponsorships, online resources, as well as awards and grants- all services that it continues to provide today.
VH1’s Save the Music Foundation was founded in 1997 with the aim of promoting music education by restoring music programs in America’s public schools. In its first three years, the Foundation managed to generate $25 million in support, created more than 350 music programs in 30 cities, and reached over 120,000 children with their efforts. For this, they won a Peabody Award in 1999. Today the Save the Music Foundation still aims to establish “strategic partnerships with school districts to build sustainable instrumental music programs by providing grants of brand-new musical instruments to public elementary and middle schools.” In doing so it has brought $52 million worth of new music instruments to 233 school districts and affected 2.6 million lives.
In addition to supporting these organizations, you can also support Art For Progress by donating directly or by doing your holiday shopping via Amazon Smile. For every purchase made a .5% donation will go to AFP.
-Zoe Marquedant
