Welcome to “Pay It Forward”
Here you can support a variety of organizations that are making positive contributions to our society.
I believe in giving back and helping our community. My 'Pay it Forward' page is an opportunity to do just that. This page showcases an array of causes I'm passionate about, from education, homelessness in LA, hunger, and DEI efforts. It's about supporting those who often lack the ability to support themselves.
As a Biracial Black woman from Los Angeles, supporting people of all colors, genders, and backgrounds is vital to me. Together, we can make a difference. Come join me to help create a positive change in our communities today!
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is an American philanthropic organization that provides scholarships, program support, and financial aid to African American students in the United States. It was founded in 1944 by a group of African American educators, led by Mary McLeod Bethune and Frederick D. Patterson. Its mission is to "provide a pathway to educational excellence, economic empowerment, and civil justice to all African American students."
The organization’s initial purpose was to raise money for the tuition fees for students enrolled at historically black colleges and universities. UNCF has since broadened its scope and now offers scholarships for all African American students, as well as grants and programmatic support to its member institutions.
Donations to UNCF help fund a variety of programs, from scholarships and internships, to study abroad trips and grants for research. Donors can also designate a contribution toward a specific program. All donations help ensure that African American students receive the education and financial support they need to reach their academic and career dreams.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an African American civil rights organization in the United States. It was founded in 1909, primarily by W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary White Ovington, to fight for racial equality and social justice. The organization seeks to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of minority groups and persons of color.
The NAACP was founded in response to the ongoing violence against Blacks around the country. It was also a response to the continued disenfranchisement of African Americans Voters in states where they had been historically disfranchised. One of its primary goals is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens and to eliminate race-based discrimination.
Donations to the NAACP are used to fund vital programs and initiatives that aim to end racial injustice and inequality. These include voter education and voter mobilization efforts, grassroots organizing, lobbying, legal advocacy, policy studies, and youth outreach programs. Donations also go towards the organization's educational initiatives, which provide a variety of cultural awareness, educational, and economic development activities for communities of color.
The HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Scholarship Fund was launched in 2020 to help financially support the educational mission of America’s HBCUs and their students. Donations to the HBCUs Scholarship Funds provide immediate financial support through scholarships to strengthen the unique, critical lifeline these campuses provide to African American and other minority students.
The HBCUs Scholarship Funds takes a holistic approach to scholarship allocation, with special consideration for supporting higher education progress for first-generation and non-traditional students, along with other pressing educational assistance challenges.
The founding of the HBCUs Scholarship Funds was prompted by a need to bridge funding gaps for African American and other minority students pursuing education at HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions. It is important because it provides assistance for college access and affordability while helping to build a financially sustainable pipeline of HBCU students as the educational opportunities these institutions offer remain invaluable resources to underserved students and their communities.
Donations to the HBCUs Scholarship Funds will help fund student scholarships, strengthen endowments, foster educational progress and initiatives, strengthen institutional infrastructure, and provide essential research support. These funds are a direct and immediate means of investing in the future of this vital community.
The Innocence Project is a non-profit organization that works to exonerate people who have been wrongfully convicted. It was started in 1992 by lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld who believed they could make a difference in the criminal justice system by using DNA testing on cases where the defendant may be innocent.
The Innocence Project seeks to identify and overturn wrongful convictions by using DNA testing, which is considered to be the most reliable form of evidence when used in criminal proceedings. To date, the organization has successfully helped exonerate innocent people who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes such as murder, sexual assault, and robbery.
Donations to the project help fund pro-bono representation of those innocent people who have been wrongfully convicted. Donations also support the work of law students and pro-bono attorneys who help investigate claims of innocence, research legal matters, and complete petition requests. Additionally, donations help fund the development and advancement of DNA technologies which are needed to identify those individuals who have been wrongfully convicted.
Homeboy Industries is an American non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1988 by Father Greg Boyle, this organization provides job training, education, tattoo removal, mental health services, and legal services to formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women in order to support them as they re-enter society and transition to a healthier and more hopeful life.
Homeboy Industries was started based on the premise that providing meaningful employment and an avenue for people to heal from life's wounds are key elements towards people leading productive and law-abiding lives. This has been corroborated by the organization's success; over the course of 30 years, Homeboy Industries has provided services to over 300,000 former gang members and at-risk youths, and their programs have helped countless participants turn their lives around.
Donations to Homeboy Industries help fund everything from job training and career development to tattoo removal and mental health services. With the funds from generous donors and supporters, Homeboy Industries can provide its many programs and services for free, so that everyone has a chance to transform their lives. This is especially important for the most at-risk and underserved members of the community, who are often unable to afford the financial cost of such interventions.
Boys and Girls Clubs of America
The Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a national organization dedicated to helping young people reach their full potential as productive, responsible, and caring citizens. Founded in 1860, BGCA provides a safe, positive, and encouraging environment for children and teens to develop essential skills, make lasting connections, and have fun. BGCA is open to all youth ages 6-18, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or religion.
The organization was founded in 1860 as the Boys Club of America by three women in Hartford, Connecticut. The organization’s mission – to enable disadvantaged boys to develop the qualities of citizenship, self-worth, leadership, and character – still guides its activities today.
Donations to the Boys & Girls Club of America fund a wide range of programming and mentorship opportunities. These include after-school activities, summer camps, college and workforce readiness, financial literacy education, and teen and family services. Donations also help fund mentorship programs, which provide critical guidance and personal relationships that help young people succeed in school and in life.
Feeding America is the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization and a leader in the movement to end hunger. It is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs that provide food and services to more than 46 million people each year.
Feeding America was founded in 1979 as a result of grassroots efforts by America's Second Harvest, a non-profit organization dedicated to alleviating hunger in the United States.
Feeding America is important because it helps to address food insecurity in the United States and provides assistance to people in need. It provides food and other essential products to more than 46 million people in need each year.
Feeding America donations help fund its food banks, food pantries, and meal programs. They also provide funds for transportation, storage space, and other needs. With the donations, Feeding America is able to serve more people in need and provide better quality food at a lower cost.
PATH (People Assisting the Homeless) is a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to helping homeless individuals and families find resources and access permanent housing. Founded in 1984, PATH was originally created to help the growing numbers of homeless people in Los Angeles find permanent homes. Since then, PATH has become the largest nonprofit provider of permanent supportive housing, which combines resources and clinical services to help people find and maintain stable housing.
PATH also works to build a unified approach across public and private sectors to address homelessness, stopping it where it starts by providing community-based outreach services, employment, and housing support.
Donations help PATH fund its housing and services, which focus on helping the neediest in their care. Funds provide food, clothing, rent assistance, and counseling for individuals and families, as well as supportive housing. This enables PATH to find housing and raise the funds to pay for it, helping people break the cycle of homelessness. Other donations help fund job training, support services, and emergency supplies.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was founded in 1920 as an effort of progressive activists who worked to ensure that the promises of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights were extended to all citizens. The ACLU is especially important today as it diligently works to protect and defend the rights of people across the country.
ACLU donations are used to fund legal battles, public education, and advocacy work. This includes a variety of vital civil rights and civil liberties cases and campaigns, which include protecting voting rights, promoting racial justice, combating discrimination, advocating for immigrants' rights, and defending the right to privacy. It works with both grassroots activists and legislators to secure necessary changes in the law.
Donations to the ACLU help support projects such as those focusing on criminal justice reform, LGBTQ & women's rights, freedom of speech and religion, workers' rights, privacy and technology, immigrants' rights, and national security. Donations also help the organization with its crucial efforts to protect our democracy, end mass incarceration, and combat discrimination in all forms.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is a mentoring organization founded in 1904 in New York, USA, that strives to match children with responsible adult mentors. These mentoring relationships help to develop the children’s social and cognitive skills, improve academic performance and behavior, and increase their chances of success later in life.
It began in 1904, when a New York City businesswoman, lady Florence B Dibble, visited Protestant mission homes and found delinquent boys with no respite care or program of mentorship. She decided to create a formal mentoring organization that would provide such care and guidance to young boys.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is important because it gives children a chance to foster connections with other individuals. Through the guidance of their adult mentor, they receive advice, emotional support, and most importantly, a chance to have a trusted adult in their lives.
Donations to the organization are used to provide opportunities for volunteer mentors to invest in the lives of children by providing guidance, advice, and support. Furthermore, these funds help the organization to provide development programs, access resources, provide support, build strong partnerships with their community members, and develop better strategies to help young people.
Operation Smile is a charitable organization that provides free surgical operations, medical care, and post-operative care for children and young adults in countries around the world who are born with cleft lips, cleft palates, and other facial deformities.
Since 1982, Operation Smile has served over 250,000 children and has helped to reshape the lives of thousands more. Operation Smile was founded by Dr. William and Kathy Magee in 1982. After learning of the plight of children suffering from cleft lip and cleft palate deformities in the Philippines, the Magees organized a volunteer surgical team to provide free reconstructive surgery.
Donations to Operation Smile help fund medical professionals and volunteer teams from around the world, supplies, medication, and postoperative care. These donations also assist in covering the costs of medical training for local healthcare providers, improve hospital infrastructure, and provide transportation and emotional support for patients and their families.
National Black Women’s Justice Institute
The National Black Women’s Justice Institute (NBWJI) is an Oakland-based research and advocacy organization that is focused exclusively on the unique issues facing Black women in the justice system. The organization was founded in 2007 and is committed to increasing public awareness, changing policies and practices, transforming systems, and achieving broad-based organizational and community change to reduce and eliminate racial and gender inequalities in the US criminal justice system.
Donations to NBWJI help fund research initiatives, support advocacy campaigns, provide technical assistance to organizations in the field, and provide capacity building for organizations. The organization works to increase public awareness of the unique risks and experiences that Black women face in the criminal justice system and develops interventions and strategies to promote equitable treatment and prevention.
NBWJI also provides direct support and training to justice-involved Black women and their families to promote the development of successful re-entry strategies. NBWJI's work is important as Black women face disproportionately higher rates of arrest, incarceration, and confinement to detention facilities than their white counterparts, despite similar criminal activity rates. In addition, NBWJI's research sheds light on the existing disparities within the US justice system, reflecting the need for deeper change within the system to ensure true justice and equitable treatment.
Color of Change is a social justice organization founded by Van Jones and James Rucker in 2005. It is designed to help people organize for economic and racial justice. It focuses on issues like police brutality, voting rights, criminal justice reform, economic justice, and immigration reform.
The organization was started after Hurricane Katrina in an effort to help rebuild the Gulf Coast region and use the city's devastation to help people organize for racial and economic justice. It is important because it helps to create a platform for people to use their voices to affect change and challenge systems of oppression in the country.
Donations to Color of Change help fund projects to educate people and build their capacity to fight back against systems of oppression and create a more equitable future. They also provide research, resources, and campaigns to create power for people of color all around the country.