The Four Diamonds Fund
Hands down, the cause closest to my heart is The Four Diamonds Fund. The Fund was started in 1976 by Charles and Irma Millard after their 14 year old son Christopher succombed to pediatric cancer. "The mission of The Four Diamonds Fund is to conquer childhood cancer by assisting children treated at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital and their families through superior care, comprehensive support, and innovative research." The Four Diamonds Fund eliminates the stress of worrying about finances so that families can focus solely on giving their child love and attention. To learn more about The Four Diamonds Fund and how to help, visit http://pennstatehershey.org/web/fourdiamonds/home
ASPCA
As a pescatarian and dedicated animal lover, I'm an avid supporter of ASPCA. While organizations such as PETA tend to take more extremist views, the ASPCA supports animal welfare as opposed to animal rights. The ASPCA was founded in 1866 and helps in the battle against animal cruelty. Their mission is “to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States.” To learn more about the ASPCA or to donate, visit http://www.aspca.org/about-us.aspx
The Hunger Site
The Hungers Site supports various causes, including world hunger, breast cancer research, animal rescue, veterans, child health, literacy, and saving the rainforest. This website provides a simple way to help - simply click once a day to donate food/money to each cause. To help even more, The Hunger Site offers a variety of products, from clothing to home & kitchen supplies, and the proceeds of each product go to charity. To learn more and to help these causes, visit http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1
Freerice.com
Similar to The Hunger Site, Freerice.com takes a more interactive approach to helping fight world hunger online. In order to help in the fight, simply play the word games provided by the website. For each answer you get right, Freerice.com will donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end world hunger. It may not seem like much, but every little bit counts. To play the game and help end world hunger, visit http://freerice.com/index.php
Gold: The New Pink
The Susan G. Komen Foundation has made breast cancer research a frontrunner in nonprofit causes, which is fantastic. However, because of the pink products found everywhere, other causes such as childhood cancer awareness/research have fallen to the wayside. Gold: The New Pink works to raise the stature of childhood cancer awareness to be equal to that of breast cancer awareness. To learn more and to take action, visit http://www.goldthenewpink.net/
