We are so very humbled by the efforts and donations from around the world to continue our cause into this year.
As we continue forward on what has been so generously provided so far we know we still have a continued effort to help us forward. Our goal of $10,000 we hoped to achieve by what would have been Avery’s 5th birthday, April 14th 2014.
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If you’re considering making a donation to Avery’s Angels Gastroschisis Foundation, visit our listing page http://www.gofundme.com/averysangels2014
Avery’s Angels (R) Gastroschisis Foundation is the only registered 501(c)3 in the US servicing the range of needs for gastroschisis. Because of the incredible efforts and outreach we had in 2013 we nearly doubled in size without major backing. Our resume in 2013 included Mother’s Day events to NICU’s nationally, provided global support to families in India to the Philippines, and that is just a small slice of what we accomplished! We’re happy to say our dollars have gone to promote research, awareness and support globally all year, however, our expenses continue to come in as we mount the effort to find corporate and grant funding. If you love what we do and what we’re able to do, won’t you help? $5 adds up! And likes and Shares help as well! We have to come up with the funds fast in order to continue to exist as a charity….to do the work we have been proud to do for our families and outreach to the medical and research world!
What do we need funding for now?
We need funding for all portions of our charity- from website, to pamphlet creation, to money to ship carepackages. In order to function as a legitimate charity we have to pay our insurance to continue and renewal our charitable licenses. We have been proud to keep our administrative costs low over the 5 years of our existence. Our database that matches our volunteers to families needing supporters, the pamphlets we put out to hospitals to reach new families, shipping to get carepackages to new families, loss families and extended stay families….all of this is our heartbeat. This does not include our outreach activities ranging from RMH dinners, ambassador trips to hospitals for one on one support, research and awareness campaigns and financial support for our families.
**PLEASE REMEMBER: Avery’s Angel Gastroschisis Foundation is a registered 501(c)3 and all contributions are Tax deductible!**
For a more detailed account of where our money goes here’s the run down:
AAGF is 100% volunteer driven. None of the money goes to any employee. It goes to our community outreach programs for example like our Easter program where we sent 100 Easter eggs to Kalamazoo Mi and Fort Worth TX, for St Patrick’s day we sent a Bucket of “gold” (chocolate) and bookmarks to a NICU in NC, we also put on global Mother’s Day programs, the UK, Georgia, NC, Texas, Colorado and Oregon where our hubs put on different events that day including food, massage, gifts and support to mothers in the NICUs there. We put on RMH dinners, we are hosting over 18 this year- all of our hubs are required to put one on from October to November. We do ambassador trips to hospitals not close to our hub leaders to provide support and cheer to our families, bringing meals and carepacakges. We close out our year sponsoring Warrior’s Christmas where we pick 5 2-18 year old long term care patients (transplant, short gut, kids who have spent around 50-70% of their lives receiving intravenous life saving medical care.) This year in place we did a Secret Santa exchnage and published our children’s book.
Of course we have our carepackages we send world wide, in 2013 AAGF sent out over 120 carepackages world wide! We also send out copies of our book for resource rooms in hospitals and financial assistance to families who have lost babies or those who are receiving extended care who need financial assistance.
AAGF helps to put on Awareness Day events globally on July 30th, help states, territories and countries petition and request governments to declare the 30th Gastroschisis Awareness Day.
This is just a portion of our outreach and support. Funds are necessary to maintain our databases, HIPAA and volunteer train our volunteers and develop hubs and volunteers, pamphlets, shipping, materials, insurance and legal filings.
So far as research, the studies we have through continued partnership with our affiliates in the NBDPN we had direct impact on allow research be accessible to our supporting and affected families. The links in August 2013 to articles have included links on our families and support are also a direct impact from our advocacy efforts annually at a number of conferences including NBDPN where we hold membership, the DIA and internationally as well. We have advocated for research in DC with the MOD. We have also contributed to research funds nationally, and we’re working on collecting the funds for our Symposium in 2014. We work closely with Marcia Feldkamp who has 20+ years in Gastroschisis research as well as other members of the CDC and US Departments of health.
We give back as we are able to organizations we have worked with such as Now I Lay me Down to Sleep, Beads of Courage and Icing Smiles.
This year we are also in the brave endeavor to put on the first Symposium for Gastroschisis in the US. In an effort to make the Symposium affordable for our families to attend we are hoping to raise as much funds as possible to keep the costs low to families.
AAGF is committed to fully engaging every cent and effort into directly impacting the world of gastroschisis and continues to honor and make proud the donations from our supporting families and fans.
If you love what we do, or support our efforts please consider passing this along or contributing. Keep us flying high!