Donating to causes | June 2022

Seeing positive impact

Every couple of months, we follow up with the organizations we’ve donated to in the past to see how they are getting along – how the funds are being used, what stories they’ve shared, and to see what we can learn from them. A couple highlights are below.

The Frontera Fund continues to share resources that make access to reproductive rights easier. They spent $13,283.07 in practical support for callers in April of 2022, including air/ground travel, hotel stays, gas money, food vouchers, childcare vouchers, ride shares, and companion travel for minors.

The Asian Mental Health Collective shared an interview series called Advancing Asian Mental Health, which highlights “individuals and organizations who are striving to make a difference among Asian communities around the world”.

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Tweaking the process

2022 so far: we purchased our first office building, grew our team by 3 people, reworked our volunteer and pro-bono project practices, and are working to revamp our equity practices. We’ve taken on quite a few projects this year, and the timing isn’t always perfect—and is often exacerbated by our tendency to bite off a little more than we can chew. That’s always served us well, but it does upend (or at least shake up) our best laid plans from time to time.

Each month we evaluate if there’s room in our budget for philanthropy – it’s high on our list, but it does come after paying for rent and payroll. We were frustrated to find that we had multiple months this year where we didn’t operate with enough profit to donate each month. So, in lieu of direct donations earlier this year, we ramped up our volunteering/pro-bono efforts this year. Now, we’re experimenting with changing our approach to volunteering (are we being inefficient by donating $1,000 to a cause then passing on a volunteer opportunity so we can make the money to afford the donation? What was the value of the volunteer opportunity; could we have provided more value with our time instead of our dollars?). We’re still working on this.

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Support

Over the past few months, we shared our support in the areas of mental health, reproductive rights, and gun violence prevention. Click on the links below to explore the important work these organizations are doing.

• Asian Mental Health Collective – An organization dedicated to normalizing and de-stigmatizing mental health within the Asian community.
• Frontera Fund – Abortion rights group that provides financial support and a sense of community for those seeking abortions in the Rio Grande Valley.
• EveryTown for Gun Safety – Gun violence prevention organization that works to educate populace on gun safety, register voters, and lobby for gun restrictions.
• Revive Life House – Addiction recovery support organization in Lexington.

See our full list of donations here. As always, if there’s a cause or organization that you’re passionate about, we’d love to hear about it!