The Giving Game 2022
It’s a wrap!
A much anticipated and beloved tradition at Brighton Jones, the Giving Game has once again made a splash with our clients, colleagues, and community members alike.
On Tuesday, November 15, over 250 audience members tuned in from across the country to hear 10 Brighton Jones clients share about their favorite nonprofit organizations.
Brighton Jones was proud to donate a total of $15,000 to the organizations that were represented at the event. And what’s more, the excitement we heard and felt during the event let’s us know that we’ve seeded new connections and amplified the work of these fantastic nonprofit organizations. More connection leads to more participation, through the sharing of attention, skills and resources, ultimately leading to more change and wellbeing around the world. We are confident that Giving Game attendees were inspired to connect with the organizations they learned about, getting personally involved in causes that are near and dear to their hearts.
We’re grateful to those who gathered your families around the computer screens to kick off the giving season with us. Thank you to all of our outstanding presenters who raised your hands to share your impassioned stories. And thank you to all of the nonprofit organizations’ staff members who dedicate their work to promoting justice and equity for our global community.
If you missed the Giving Game this year, you can watch the recording here. Read on to learn about each of the participating organizations.
WaterStrong
The WaterStrong mission is to save lives and destroy barriers. Barriers to water access, swimming lessons, tools and skills for water safety, safe swimming areas, clean water, healthy environments, and education. Barriers rooted in racism, classism, the race toward “progress”. Those barriers exist even in our own backyards, and they directly impact all of us.
With more than 370,000 drowning deaths every year, drowning is the third leading cause of accidental injury in the world. The WaterStrong curriculum delivers an integrated approach to building life-saving skills in the water to build confidence and understanding the water to build connection with the world.
When a child feels safe and confident in the water, they feel connected to the water, and naturally care for the health and safety of the water.
Swim! Learn! Thrive!
Website | Donate | Get Involved | Newsletter
Alaska SeaLife Center
The Alaska SeaLife Center generates and shares scientific knowledge to promote understanding and stewardship of Alaska’s marine ecosystems. It is the only facility in Alaska that combines a public aquarium with marine research, education, and wildlife response.
With a mission of bringing visitors in close contact with cutting-edge marine research, the Alaska SeaLife Center’s design includes exhibit tanks for displaying research animals as well as other North Pacific mammals, birds, fish, and invertebrates. The facility also features a full veterinary suite with quarantine pools for orphaned, diseased, or injured wild animals brought to the Center for rehabilitation, and for resident animals that need medical treatment.
As our world, and more specifically the North Pacific, faces dramatic changes caused by environmental factors and human components, the Alaska SeaLife Center will continue to be instrumental in understanding and developing ways to maintain marine ecosystems.
Website | Donate | Get Involved | Newsletter
Awake Tomorrow
Illegal and deceitful use of synthetic opioids like fentanyl is the leading cause of drug overdose deaths in the U.S., skyrocketing past all other substances in 2015 and exceeding the next closest by nearly four times.
Launched in 2021, Awake Tomorrow was founded to stop the rise of fentanyl overdoses by distributing free fentanyl test strips and spreading awareness of this growing crisis to a very targeted audience. The organization aims to provide recreational drug users with the information and tools they need to stay safe and “normalizing” testing drugs before use.
To date, Awake Tomorrow has distributed more than 45,000 testing strips, participated in 43 events, and deputized 48 brand ambassadors to address the deadly trend of deceptive fentanyl use.
Website | Donate | Get Involved | Instagram
BLFA
When Miriam Sevy visited a pediatric cancer ward in Kenya in 2009, she was saddened to see children with cancer being treated only with pain medication. By 2010, she founded the Burkitt’s Lymphoma Fund for Africa (BLFA) to fund programs in East Africa focusing on the medical, logistical, and social support families need to have their children complete curative cancer treatment.
Many childhood cancers are highly treatable with a cure rate of up to 80% in high income countries, compared to 20% or less in lower-income countries. Today, BLFA works to shift the paradigm and close the care gap by educating families and communities, improving diagnosis speed and accuracy, and reducing treatment abandonment by providing access solutions such as transportation, housing, and social support.
BLFA believes that where you live shouldn’t determine if you live.
Website | Donate | Get Involved | Instagram
Mona Foundation
Mona Foundation believes that when girls are given equal access to education, families and communities see greater positive transformation. Better educated women tend to be more informed about nutrition and healthcare, have fewer and healthier children, and marry at a later age. They are also more likely to earn higher incomes and put that money back into their families and communities. All these factors combined can help lift households, communities, and countries out of poverty.
Mona Foundation is a global community of individuals and organizations who believe that the key to alleviating poverty and achieving sustained community transformation lies in education and gender equality.
To date, Mona Foundation has educated over 800,000 students, trained over 138,000 teachers and 60,000 parents, and served over 1,032 schools in 14 countries.
Website | Donate | Get Involved | Instagram
The Rafiki Village Project
In 2016, David Newman visited Tanzania and connected with the warmth and hospitality of the people he met. He was also struck by the dark and overcrowded classrooms that were in need of basic supplies such as books and paper.
David founded the Rafiki Village Project to improve health, increase literacy, and promote economic prosperity in Tanzania by financing specific community projects in Tanzanian villages.
Through strategic partnerships with local communities, the Rafiki Village Project funds locally-supported projects, such as constructing infrastructure for supplying clean drinking water, building classrooms and school kitchens, and installing renewable energy projects. The Rafiki Village Project also supports community savings programs, which are member-owned cooperatives who save together and take small loans as needed to seed projects and generate economic activity.
The Rafiki Village Project’s combination of radical listening, trust, humility and compassion helps communities unleash their potential.
Website | Donate | Get Involved | Instagram
RaiseAChild
With so many children and teens in need of a safe and secure home, RaiseAChild is confident that building loving families for children in foster care is just within reach.
Based in California, RaiseAChild recruits, educates, and nurtures supportive relationships with all prospective foster families across the country. Building on a 10-year history of promoting inclusivity and diversity, the organization pledges to continue to build a more equitable and just world in which every child, family, community, and culture is welcomed to RaiseAChild and partner agencies.
RaiseAChild works by contracting with a network of regional and national foster family agencies and organizations to improve the process of advancing foster children to safe, loving, and permanent homes.
Since 2011, RaiseAChild has recruited 11,000+ resource parents for its agency partners in L.A. County and another 3,000+ prospects nationally.
Website | Donate | Get Involved | FAQ
Sparkle Foundation
Sparkle Foundation’s founding director, Samantha Tradelius, grew up hearing stories of her grandmother’s grit and determination as she raised three children as a single mother in the 1950’s. Samantha used this influence to launch her effort to make sure women and children have what they need to maintain the “sparkle” in their eyes.
Through events, like their Holiday Gift Drive, Sparkle Foundation provides gifts to women and children in need, providing not just life’s necessities but the delights, as well. Through a program called SparkleBiz, single mothers receive micro-loans and mentorship to help start and grow their businesses.
The organization is 100% volunteer-run and 100% of every dollar goes directly to help a single mother and her children sparkle.
Website | Donate | Get Involved | Newsletter
Student Movement Against Cancer
Student Movement Against Cancer, or SMAC, was started by a group of high school students supporting a friend who was diagnosed with testicular cancer. The group of friends rallied around him, raising funds and showing their solidarity, ultimately launching the student-run foundation.
The goal of SMAC is to raise awareness of cancer-related issues, assist in volunteer needs for cancer-related issues, and to serve as a support organization for people who have cancer themselves or are experiencing cancer in their families. SMAC empowers students across America to be the next generation of cancer fighters.
SMAC now has chapters in 16 schools and is continuing to grow. Students have collectively raised more than $2 million, which has supported local hospitals, national cancer research and awareness organizations, as well as a scholarship fund.
Website | Donate | Get Involved | Newsletter
Water1st International
It can take up to 5 hours each day to collect water for a household in many countries around the world. With water available at the turn of a tap, women and girls living in Water1st International project communities have gained 100 million more hours for school, earning more income, food production, and spending time with friends and family.
Water 1st is committed to true equity in water access, working to ensure homes, schools, clinics and community gathering places have 24/6 access to safe water, a toilet, and a shower.
The mission of Water1st is to enable the world’s poorest people to implement and sustain community-managed projects integrating clean water supply, toilets, and hygiene education. Water1st unites people to fight the global water and sanitation crisis, rooted in the belief that the solution will come through community-organized action.
Website | Donate | Get Involved | Instagram
If you would like to be considered for participation in an upcoming edition of the Giving Game, or have any questions for our team, please reach out to us at philanthropy@brightonjones.com.