About 10 years ago, we started a contest of sorts that helped us give back to the community of Haddonfield.
In the contest, we ask residents of Haddonfield — which, at the time, was one of the only towns where we had a newspaper — to submit short essays telling the community why a local non-profit group deserved to receive a donation. We gathered all the nominating essays, published them and held a community-wide vote to see who was most deserving.
After we tallied the votes, we donated $500 to the organization that won, and we also gave $100 to the person who wrote that particular essay. For us, this contest — which we called The Ray of Hope — was a way for us to give back to the community in an extremely impactful way.
The smaller organizations that received nominations — such as a Cub Scout troop, a garden club, a senior citizens club or a book reading club — often do as much for the community as the larger, more well-known non-profits do, but they just don’t receive the same attention, or financial backing.
We’re not saying that the March of Dimes, Red Cross or other non-profits don’t support worthy causes or are not deserving of donations; we’re just saying the $500 we were donating had more of an impact on the local town organizations, since they operate with a much smaller budget.
Last year, as we celebrated our company’s 10th anniversary, with now 10 newspapers that we publish, we expanded on this idea by creating The Ray of Hope Fund — a part of the Community Foundation of South Jersey — to make similar micro-donations to community organizations that have a significant impact in the neighborhoods they serve.
We’ve been collecting tax-deductible donations over the last year, and are still collecting them online at http://elauw.it/rayofhopefund.
Now, we’re about ready to start distributing some of this money. But first, we need your input.
What organization in town do you think is deserving of a donation from The Ray of Hope Fund? Send your nominations to the email address at [email protected]. Your input is key in helping us help the community you live in, and the community we serve.
