11 charities spreading warmth now and all year round
If you want to help spread love and joy this holiday season, giving back is a great way to do it! These 11 organizations support our friends and neighbors everywhere, with many ways for you to show your support.
1. Inside Out Youth Services
Although the holidays are often thought of as a time of love and togetherness, there are many LGBTQ+ youth that won’t be shown such kindness this season. Inside Out Youth Services, a Colorado Springs, CO non-profit, works year-round to support LGBTQ+ youth ages 13 to 24 through leadership, advocacy, community-building, education, and peer support.
Inside Out Youth Services is currently gathering donations to support Club Q victims and their families. To help support Inside Out Youth Services this holiday season, you can volunteer or offer a financial donation.
2. One Simple Wish
One Simple Wish is an organization based in Trenton, N.J. dedicated to supporting the 500,000 children who face abuse and traumatic experiences in the foster care system each year. The group shares the wishes of children nationwide in hopes that generous spirits everywhere will help make those wishes come true. In addition to making a child’s wish come true this holiday season, you can also support scholarship funds, volunteer at a Wish Party, or support the One Simple Wish with a financial donation.
3. 40 Tons Foundation
Although cannabis prohibition has come to an end in many states and many will even receive cannabis products as a gift this season, thousands remain incarcerated for non-violent cannabis charges while thousands more still struggle to re-enter society after their release.
40 Tons is a Los Angeles-based social cannabis brand and foundation dedicated to supporting currently and previously incarcerated people convicted of cannabis charges. The brand sells cannabis products and apparel (that make great holiday gifts!) and directs resources to efforts in establishing restorative justice and education around the War on Drugs. Support 40 Tons this holiday season by shopping for their products, volunteering, or donating to the foundation.
4. Operation Blessing
Giving during the holiday season doesn’t always have to be about gifts. Operation Blessing is a Virginia Beach, VA organization that delivers clean water, disaster relief, medical care, and food security to people in need around the world. Currently, Operation Blessing is supporting Ukrainian refugees, feeding families in Peru, providing healthcare services in India, and delivering clean water in Kenya, in addition to the rest of its ongoing international operations. To give beyond U.S. borders this year and spread the holiday spirit worldwide, consider volunteering or donating financially.
5. Robin Hood Foundation
While the holidays often evoke piles of gifts and bountiful feasts, the reality is many families don’t have the resources to bring these visions to life. The Robin Hood Foundation is a New York City organization dedicated to tackling poverty throughout the five boroughs. The foundation partners with more than 250 non-profit organizations to support New Yorkers by offering a range of services, including support food, housing, education, legal services, workforce development. Help Robin Hood Foundation in its mission to lift New Yorkers out of poverty this season by getting involved or donating.
6. The Tender Foundation
Based in Atlanta, The Tender Foundation helps low-income single mothers in the greater Atlanta area with financial assistance and other resources. According to the foundation, 38% of single mothers in Atlanta live below the poverty line. To ease the financial burden, The Tender Foundation aims to provide a safety net to these single moms, so they can better have their needs met while they focus on raising their children.
7. Worth Rises
Incarcerated people don’t have the luxury of going home for the holidays. It’s a proposition even more disheartening when people are still in prison for cannabis while the legal industry grows. Worth Rises is a New York City organization dedicated to dismantling the prison industry through education, fact-finding, and lobbying elected officials for prison system reform. Its campaigns include making communication between incarcerated people and their families free, ending prison profiteering by corporations and investment funds, and the adoption of an “Abolition Amendment” to end involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime.
8. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Some households aren’t safe places where holiday cheer is a given. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence supports victims of domestic violence year-round by collaborating with other organizations to promote legislation and policies that protect victims and survivors of domestic violence, as well as creating educational opportunities to change the narrative surrounding domestic violence. Recently, the organization joined with the National Domestic Violence Hotline to launch Project Opal, a 24/7 hotline that connects victims of domestic violence with local, state, and national resources that can provide help.
9. Project Linus
Project Linus is a Belton, MO organization that aims to spread warmth by providing a sense of security and comfort to children who are seriously ill, have experienced traumatic events, or who are otherwise in need. Their core service provides handmade blankets created by a dedicated team of more than 80,000 volunteers nationwide. To help support Project Linus this holiday season, get involved with a local chapter or make a donation of your own blankets in good condition or materials volunteers can use to create blankets.
10. Pay Away
The holiday season is a time for cheer and gift giving, but for some families, the cost of making the season bright can be too much to bear. Pay Away (previously known as Pay Away The Layaway) is an Orange County, N.Y. organization that helps donors and volunteers support these families, eliminating layaway tabs for gifts and household essentials, including games, toys, books, backpacks, coats and clothes. To help brighten a family’s holiday season and support them in the new year, consider donating to Pay Away, creating a social media fundraiser, or launching a workplace giving campaign.
11. Covenant House
During the holidays and throughout the winter, millions of unhoused people won’t have a warm place to lay their heads. Covenant House offers unhoused youth much-needed shelter, and since 1972, the group has helped connect more than 1.5 million people with a place to stay. Covenant House meets immediate needs for food, clothing, safety, and medical and mental health care and never turns away a guest without providing a needed service. The organization provides immediate care in short-term housing, as well as long-term support through its Transitional Living and Rights of Passage programs.
Want to give all year? Consider joining Floret Coalition
We encourage cannabis industry professionals to consider joining Floret Coalition as a way to give back to communities harmed by the War on Drugs all year round. The group prioritizes the needs of Black, Latine, and Indigenous communities, raising funds and donating directly to a different organization each month. Since its formation in September 2020, the group has collected and distributed more than $270,000. More than 100 businesses, including CannaContent, donate to Floret Coalition.
Holiday cheers to you and the spirit of giving!
Giving back at the holidays is a great way to celebrate, but you can support any of these organizations year-round, too. Whether you volunteer your time or pledge financial support, these great nonprofits and social brands are able to continue their work because of people like you. So, from all of us at CannaContent, thank you for giving what you can and we wish you a very happy holiday season.