Favorite Charities

[mmglobal]

It can be a mistake to allow solicitations on an internet forum. Many forums will not allow this. If you make such a post, you'll be warned about being banned if you do it again and the thread will be deleted. I have no quarrel with this policy. In a busy forum, someone will ultimately solicit donations for organizations that are a scam. Having said that, I believe that many of these solicitations are very worthwhile. When I discover a charity that I want to support, one of the ways I'll support it is to let others know about it.

I'm starting this thread hoping to keep these types of solicitations to a minimum and locating them in one thread. Non members are not welcome to come here solely for the purpose of soliciting donations. The only solicitations I'll allow will be ones coming from iSpine members who have a personal connection to the charity.

Thanks for your support. All the best,

Mark

[mmglobal]

I have recently heard from an dear friend from my early days in the internet spine patient community. Sadly, she lost her 25 year-old son late last year in a paragliding accident. I wish I had met Guy. He was not your average 25 year-old. He and I would have shared many adventurous interests like SCUBA, paragliding and more. I know that at 25, I was not working for charities. As Guy traveled the world, he adopted some charities and became passionate about them.

His family and friends have set up a charitible trust that will support one of Guy's causes. They have established The Guy Joseph Early Childhood Development Centre in Nepal. This organization will provide educational opportunities to poor children. Note that thisis a volunteer organization with only minimal administrative costs and the system used to collect donations takes only 4%. This is a charity that applies almost all of the donations to the cause. In too many charities, only a small percentage will actually support the stated cause. I feel honored to be invited to participate in this very worthy cause. Please donate if you can.

Thanks for reading this.

Mark

From http://www.facebook.com/GuysTrust:

October 2011 Guy Joseph was tragically killed in a paragliding accident. He was 25 years old and had a lifetime of plans.

Guy’s family and friends have established Guy’s Trust to honour his memory and support projects that reflect his interests, passions and personality.

Guy’s Trust will focus on creating educational opportunities for disadvantaged young people in developing countries, initially those countries Guy had a special connection with.

Our first project is to build a school in Nepal, a country Guy loved, which will offer education to disadvantaged children. We will also be supporting students to work on manta ray conservation in Indonesia, a cause which Guy was passionate about. The work that Guy’s Trust does will grow as far as your generosity allows.

Guy’s Trust will offer life-changing opportunities to young people and help them create the lives they deserve.

Guy’s Trust is run entirely by volunteers and there are only minimal administrative costs*.

* Our partner ActionAid takes 4% to cover the administrative costs of working with Guy’s Trust.

Sign up to our email list to receive information about projects and fundraising events by clicking here. Or send us an email titled ‘Email List Sign Up’ to info@guystrust.org

[mmglobal]

If you are on facebook and are so inclined, please 'like' the page;

http://www.facebook.com/GuysTrust:

and/or share a link to Guy's Trust on your wall.

Mark

PS... if you are making a donation, note that it will be in English Pounds. The exchange rate is just over $1.50 per Pound now, so a 20 pound donation will cost you approximately $31 plus whatever foreign currency fee is charged by your bank.