It’s hard to believe that (with your help) we are funding speech therapy services for over 100 children in 25 states. Now, before we start congratulating ourselves, we have a serious problem.
In our last Orange Effect Foundation (OEF) board meeting, we granted just over $50,000 in speech therapy services to children and families. While this is great, it was about 50% of what we needed to deliver.
Simply put, we just don’t have enough funding to meet our growing demand.
Families Choose Food Over Speech Therapy
I’ve never understood why, but there are very few organizations in the United States that grant funds to children and families who cannot afford consistent speech therapy services. Consistent speech therapy services for children with speech disorders is CRITICAL for children to be…well…whatever they want to be when they grow up.
I’ve seen this first hand with my son Joshua (now 17 years old). Without aggressive speech and play therapy from age two to six, Joshua would not be in regular school (like he is today). We are actually looking at colleges now. It’s hard to think where we would be without speech therapy. Our family had the financial funds to afford those services. Unfortunately, thousands of others do not.
For these families, many of whom who have trouble putting food on the table, OEF is all they have. Without OEF services, they will choose buying food and housing over speech therapy for their child (and you’d be surprised how often insurance does NOT cover speech therapy services).
Using simple math, OEF needs $430,000 in funding to meet the (minimum) current demand for 2019.
Here’s the Plan
To meet this growing demand in 2019, we are running two programs.
OEF Birthday Program
The first is our birthday program. It’s super easy. Instead of birthday gifts, ask for donations to help children with speech disorders.
It’s simple – just pledge to donate your birthday and then share your pledge with your friends to let them know you’re serious. At this time, we are asking that you do this using your Facebook account.
We’ve tested this out already with about 10 wonderful people, and the results have been tremendous. The average person raises about $750.
Sign up here to commit your birthday to raising funds for speech therapy services.
Corporate Partner Program
OEF is partnering with a number of wonderful companies who have decided to adopt OEF as one of their charities of choice. All a corporate partner needs to do is assist with some funding and spread the word to their employees about our birthday program.
You can see a full list of our partners here. We are working mostly with companies in the marketing, media and communications industry (but of course, we work with companies of all flavors and sizes).
If your company is interested, please contact me immediately (I’m joe@theorangeeffect.org).
I’m fully aware how many charitable causes people are inundated with. My hope is that OEF becomes one of the few that you and your organization supports. I’m not above telling you that we truly need the help.
All the Best,
Joe
