Festival of Children Foundation Awards $50,000 in Grants to Children’s Charities Across the U.S. in Honor of National Child Awareness Month. Charities Participated in National Online Video Challenge in September with Top Videos Securing Winning Grants Ranging from $25,000 to $1,000
COSTA MESA, Calif. (Oct. 31, 2018) – Festival of Children Foundation (FOCF), a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that serves and supports nearly 500 U.S. children’s charities, has granted $50,000 to 10 children’s charities across the country as part of its annual National Child Awareness Month Video Challenge. Now in its 11th year, U.S. Senate-designated National Child Awareness Month (NCAM) was created by FOCF to inspire diverse charitable organizations to come together during September for the common goal of improving the lives of all children in America.
The NCAM Challenge, https://indi.com/2018ncamchallenge, was launched in 2016 as a fun and relevant way for the public to raise awareness for their favorite children’s charity. Since inception, $202,500 of grants has been awarded to 19 children’s charities. This year, grants were awarded to the charities that received the most online visibility and social media impact. A judging panel consisting of philanthropic community leaders chose the official grant winners based on the inspiration behind the story, the charity’s community impact, and the creativity of the video.
“It is always such a pleasure to watch the creative videos that children’s charities across the country submit for the annual NCAM Challenge, yet it is most rewarding to learn more about all the important ways that these charities are helping improve the lives of all children in America,” said Sandy Segerstrom Daniels, founder and executive director, Festival of Children Foundation. “We are eternally grateful to our donors and partners that provide the necessary funding for this initiative each year.”
The top grant of $25,000 was awarded to Best Day Foundation, www.bestdayfoundation.org, of Watsonville, California, a non-profit organization that enables children and young adults with special needs to build confidence and self-esteem through adventure activities which stretch their limits, expand their true potential, reinforce their achievement, and connect them with diverse populations in their community.
“We are grateful and humbled to have been selected as the winner of this years Festival of Children NCAM video challenge, especially since there were so many worthy organizations supporting children as part of this challenge,” said Brooks Lambert, founder, Best Day Foundation. “We are planning to utilize a portion of these funds to create a series of training videos to improve our programs. This is something we’ve been wanting to do for a few years but just couldn’t carve out enough for our budget, and now we can!”
Four, $5,000 grants were awarded to:
- Grace Centers of Hope, Pontiac, Michigan
- Operation Warm, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
- Kulture City, Birmingham, Alabama
- Make-a-Wish Orange County & Inland Empire, Irvine, California
Five, $1,000 grants were also awarded to:
- Global Collaboration Laboratory Network, Washington, D.C.
- CASA of Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California
- 4 Paws for Ability, Xenia, Ohio
- Youth Consultation Service, Newark, New Jersey
- Connecting Hands OC, Placentia, California
About National Child Awareness Month
National Child Awareness Month (NCAM) began in 2002 as a grassroots effort in Orange County, California, by Festival of Children Foundation Founder Sandy Segerstrom Daniels, who wanted to refocus critical attention on improving the lives of all children in America. The effort soon blossomed into a state and then national initiative. In 2008, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed its first resolution designating September as National Child Awareness Month, which it has done every year since. The resolution’s sponsors include U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who has sponsored the resolution each year, Senator James Lankford (R-OK), and Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), and several additional Senate co-sponsors.
About Festival of Children Foundation
Festival of Children Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that serves to bring together and coordinate the efforts of charities, companies and individuals who work to improve the lives of children. 100% of the administrative costs are covered by designated funding, allowing donations to go further in direct support of programs and services that improve the lives of children nationwide.
Contact: Cassady Taylor
Festival of Children Foundation
(714) 438 – 3205
ctaylor@festivalofchildren.org