Susan's Note: I'm
incredibly choosy about the charities I support. I've spent
a long time finding charities that I can stand behind and
that provide advocacy and action on issues that matter to
me. These are the charities that I've chosen to support.
I donate 5% of all Business in Blue Jeans profits to them
and encourage you to donate and support these charities
as well.
Somaly
Mam Foundation
The Somaly Mam Foundation is
a nonprofit charity committed to ending modern day slavery
in North America and around the world.
Human trafficking, a multi-billion
dollar industry, is the fastest growing criminal enterprise
in the world. With over two million women and children sold
into sexual slavery each year, it is a global crisis that
must be stopped. More resources are critically needed to
support the rescue and rehabilitation of these young victims.
Kiva.org
Kiva is a non-profit that allows you to lend
as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur across
the globe.
You choose who to lend to - whether
a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer
in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq
- and as they repay their loan, you get your money back.
It's a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right
now to lift themselves out of poverty.
Breast
Cancer Action
Founded in 1990, Breast Cancer Action (BCA) was
started by women in a San Francisco breast cancer support
group who were frustrated by the lack of knowledge about
their disease. Led by the late Elenore Pred, they created
an organization that would help transform breast cancer
from a private medical crisis to a public health emergency.
BCA continues this work, and is now a national education
and activist organization that challenges assumptions and
inspires change to end the breast cancer epidemic. BCA advocates
for policy changes in three priority areas: shifting the
balance of power at the FDA from the pharmaceutical industry
towards the public interest; decreasing involuntary environmental
exposures; and creating awareness that it is not just genes,
but social injustices that lead to disparities in breast
cancer outcomes.
The
Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization
working around the world to protect ecologically important
lands and waters for nature and people. Since our founding
in 1951 we have protected more than 119 million acres of
land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide - and we operate
more than 100 marine conservation projects globally. We
have more than one million members. We work in all 50 states
and more than 30 countries - protecting habitats from grasslands
to coral reefs, from Australia to Alaska to Zambia. We address
threats to conservation involving climate change, fire,
fresh water, forests, invasive species, and marine ecosystems.
We use a science-based approach, aided by our more than
700 staff scientists, and we pursue non-confrontational,
pragmatic solutions to conservation challenges.
Other charities I believe
in and support personally:
The
National MS Society
American
Diabetes Association
Dizzy
Feet Foundation
VH1's
Save the Music Foundation
