Ceisler Media team members Julia Shreiber, Keegan Gibson, Courtney Accurti and Bruce Kaplan enjoyed a day of volunteering at MANNA.
During this holiday season, the Ceisler Media community is reflecting upon the many ways to give back. Here are some highlights of our client’s initiatives to improve the lives of those in need. Many offer a way for you to get involved.
MANNA’s mission is to deliver nutrition services to those who face life-threatening illnesses including cancer, renal disease and HIV/AIDS. MANNA empowers more than 7,000 volunteers who collectively donate over 50,000 hours of time per year. In this way, the organization successfully delivers three meals per day, seven days a week to those in need of nourishment, hope and healing.
MANNA originated in Philadelphia in 1990 and now serves as a model for organizations nationwide to employ a scientific way toward improving nutrition and education to increase overall health. Love is as central to the organization’s work as it is to its home city’s name. The results are clear: improved health and well-being at lower cost for those who need it most. A study revealed that monthly healthcare expenses were 31 percent less and hospitalizations reduced by 50 percent among those who MANNA reached. The average cost savings amounts to $13,000 per month.
You can support MANNA through donations; corporate sponsorships; hosting events; matching gifts; ordering baked goods, kitchen tiles or merchandise, or connecting with Young Friends of MANNA.
Philadelphia Children’s Alliance
The PCA provides an environment that allows abused children to tell their story just once to PCA professionals. Historically, child sexual abuse victims had to relive the pain and shame they experienced by recounting their trauma repeatedly to police officers, district attorneys, social workers and others. This year, we amplified PCA’s mission on Instagram on Giving Tuesday as part of an annual tradition of educating the public and growing financial support for the work of nonprofit organizations.
You can help PCA by donating, through sponsorships, holding a benefit event or by spreading the word about PCA’s work. You can also make a donation to PCA through United Way.
Each year, Comcast organizes Comcast Cares Day to uplift communities around the country. On Comcast Cares Day, over 100,000 employees carry out good works in at least 1,200 project sites. In 2018, Comcast helped rebuild a school in the devastated, fire-torn town of Paradise, California. To further its contribution to California’s recovery from wildfires, Comcast has opened 51,000 Xfinity WiFi hotspots for fire-impacted areas of Northern California. This past year, over 15,000 Comcast employees worked on community service projects across Florida. Projects included school beautification, helping children and families, disaster recovery efforts and environmental restoration.
In addition to this tradition, Comcast supports educational initiatives to boost computer literacy. Such work prepares students to compete for the jobs in the technology age. More than 1.6 million students have learned coding through a Grinch-themed online game. Locally, Philadelphia’s Opportunities Industrialization Center provides a computer lab that’s open to the public with coaches available to train low income job searchers in resume preparation, searching for work online, and computer basics.
FS Foundation supports the FS Financial Scholars program, which funds financial literacy education in 14 schools. The foundation recognized that economic inequality has increased, rendering the nation unprepared for retirement and growing student debt. In this context, FS Investments sought to build something that would empower people to succeed. The result was a program that brings together the University of Pennsylvania and Bridges to Wealth to offer tools to allow people to grow multigenerational wealth and achieve financial empowerment.
The FS Financial Scholars program launched in 2016 at Boys’ Latin in Philadelphia, where a 40-student class showed significantly improved financial knowledge and competency after going through the program. A year later, the program opened an application process, which garnered an enthusiastic response. Seeing the success, FS Investments doubled its commitment to FS Financial Scholars, funding programming at multiple schools, including two that were part of the Mayor’s Community Schools Initiative.
The Ceisler Media community wishes everyone a happy and healthy holiday season and a wonderful New Year. As you enjoy time with friends and family, we hope you will consider the many ways you can give back to the community by assisting those in need of assistance.
David Huppert is an Associate in Ceisler Media’s Philadelphia Office.
