Our Impact
The Open Hearts Foundation is responsible for the careful stewardship of our donors’ donations. Here are just a few stories from our charity partners where the impact of every donation is improving services, <br>changing lives, and offering care to the most vulnerable.
Mending Kids
Funded: 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
Mending Kids gives sick kids life-saving surgical care while advancing education and training towards medical sufficiency in their communities. Since 2005, they have mended thousands of children in over 66 countries, including the US.
The Foundation provided grants to Mending Kids to support their work and, in 2019, our grant supported their Hometown Mission Los Angeles. 14 children received life changing surgical care who are battling conditions such as Hairy Nevus, Hemangioma moles, Deviated Septum, and Keloids.
A New Way of Life
Funded: 2018, 2019, 2020
In 2019, A New Way of Life Reentry Project provided shelter in their supportive safe sober living homes for 73 women who were mothers of 45 minor and 85 adult children. The Project also provided self-advocacy/leadership development training for all women and legal assistance when needed. The mothers were supported as they navigated dependency court and reunification with their children. Because of the training and support that was provided, these mothers were able to reconnect and/or reunify with 102 of those children. http://anewwayoflife.org/
Project Glimmer
Funded: 2018, 2019
Project Glimmer served 126,249 girls and women in 2018 (+19% from 2017) through Gift Giving and Day of Empowerment Programs. 233 foster youth and at-risk teenage girls found their magic within through five Work Your Magic, A Day of Empowerment events hosted at Google, Sephora, Select World, YearUp and Redken. https://www.projectglimmer.org/:
Alliance for
Children’s Rights
Funded: 2018, 2021
The Alliance for Children’s Rights trains court, agency, school, and community partners to help them better provide for young people in foster care. Their clients gain timely intervention and education services to help them overcome obstacles, learn, and build a brighter future. Their work provides a safety net for children who may otherwise slip through the cracks.
In November 2018, the Young Hearts volunteerism program organized and created a fun interactive environment for foster youth and their families on National Adoption Day. https://kids-alliance.org/
Exceptional Minds
Funded: 2017, 2018
Between 2017 and 2020, Exceptional Minds has successfully continued their mission to maximize the talents of young artists on the autism spectrum, preparing them for employment in the fields of digital arts and animation. Over the past three fiscal years, Exceptional Minds has sought expanded capacity, increasing employment achievement, increased contracts for their in-house professional visual effects and animation studios, and program offerings growth. They now serve 250 students/year and are happy to report that employment success has steadily grown. With each graduating class, their skill at effectively training/placing digital artists with autism improves. With each new entertainment industry contract, Exceptional Minds studios’ reputation as top-quality visual effects/animation vendors shines—inspiring new production companies/studios to recognize the value of including employees with autism. https://www.exceptionalmindsstudio.org/
Kind Campaign
Funded: 2014
The Kind Campaign greatly appreciated the grant that Open Hearts Foundation made to Kind Campaign. It went directly to their Free to be Kind initiative, which allows them to provide free programming to schools across the globe and ultimately impact and change the lives of hundreds of thousands of girls. The donation went directly to impacting young girls and creating significant change in their lives! In 2014 and 2015, the Kind Campaign co-founders spoke in 30 Title One schools with their Founders Assembly free of charge and gave away 350 free Kind Campaign Assemblies to schools worldwide. https://www.kindcampaign.com/
Molly’s Fund Fighting Lupus
(now Kaleidoscope
Fighting Lupus)
Funded: 2014
With the grant, Kaleidoscope Fighting Lupus was able to fund their Emergency Client Assistance Program (ECAP) and provide necessary emergency assistance to 36 individuals and families in their community living with the effects of lupus. A lupus flare or other changes in medical condition can create a ripple effect on all aspects of a lupus patient’s financial well-being. Their ability to give assistance at the right time can prevent more serious problems that can occur later, such as unemployment, homelessness or the need to drop out of school. Their ECAP program provides direct emergency financial assistance in the form of mini-grants to those medically diagnosed with lupus with low-income and who are experiencing a temporary financial crisis. No one else in their area or on the entire West Coast provides this level of assistance, which can be applied to rent, utility bills, groceries, pharmaceuticals, transportation issues or other emergent needs. Up to now, their service area is largely in the Portland area and surrounding counties, but their hope is to expand this to the entire State of Oregon and beyond. https://kaleidoscopefightinglupus.org/
Strong Women
Strong Girls
Funded: 2014
Strong Women Strong Girls introduced “Learning to Give” service curriculum in partnership with the Open Hearts Foundation using a skills based approach to service – helping the girls understand what qualities they must possess in order to serve others and make service a part of their everyday lives. Each week, the girls learned about a different skill through the lens of local and national female role models who have transformed adversity into opportunity. The skills the girls learned will all be reinforced by a semester-long project benefiting the Ronald McDonald House Charities in both Pittsburgh, PA and Boston, MA. https://swsg.org/
Children’s Lifesaving
Foundation
Funded: 2013, 2020, 2021
The Children’s Lifesaving Foundation has served over 85,000 at-risk youth and homeless parents across Los Angeles county since 1993. The CLF has awarded over 60 college scholarships to deserving, at-risk teens all across Los Angeles. The CLF's Camp for All Program combines a unique way of allowing homeless families and very at-risk and low-income LAUSD students to breathe life back into their everyday existence. The CLF has moved and transitioned 50 homeless and highly at- risk families into new homes. Thousands of at-risk and very low-income families in LA County have been transformed through crucial financial assistance, in-kind donations and free domestic, educational and enriching services. https://www.childrenslifesaving.org/
The Andréa Rizzo Foundation
Funded: 2011
In 2011, Susan Rizzo Vincent, President of the Andréa Rizzo Foundation and Andréa’s mother, was honored with a $10,000 grant from the Open Hearts Foundation to support Dréa’s Dream pediatric dance therapy programs in hospitals and schools nationwide. This gift made it possible for expansion of dance therapy hours for in-patients at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as well Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA. The grant also impacted several of the other existing Dréa’s Dream programs nationwide that were in need of financial support. These included, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC, Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, in St. Louis, MO, Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Rhode Island, Ronald MacDonald House in NYC and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. The $10,000 grant we received from the Open Hearts Foundation made it possible for 500 fragile children to learn new ways to use dance and movement to cope with their pain, anxiety and fear while undergoing treatment for cancer. During their Dréa’s Dream dance therapy sessions their families were also able to participate and learn new ways to relate and interact with their child while they are hospitalized. Since 2011, the Andréa Rizzo Foundation has expanded and added five new sites where Dréa’s Dream pediatric dance therapy is offered under the supervision of Registered and Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapists. https://www.dreasdream.org/
Life Rolls On
Funded: 2011
Life Rolls On is very grateful for the grant that we received from the Open Hearts Foundation. We were able to purchase beach wheelchairs and adapted surfboards to help our participants with various disabilities surf. Our quality of life programs They Will Surf Again and They Will Skate Again brings so much hope and inspiration to so many people. Check out this video to see the proof https://vimeo.com/365310680