Nice News Readers Raised Over $26K in 2024

Most of the time, Nice News reports on the positive goings-on around the world. But sometimes, we make those positive stories happen ourselves. That’s the case with the Cause of the Month initiative, which raised a whopping $26,104 in 2024, just from Nice News readers’ donations.

Each month this year, we gave our community the opportunity to donate to a different charitable organization. And month after month, you showed us the power of generosity — helping to feed the hungry, house the homeless, free the wrongfully imprisoned, protect our public lands, enrich the minds of the youth, and so much more. “Thank you” doesn’t even begin to cover how grateful we are!

Read on for a recap of each fundraiser, and consider donating to our last cause of 2024: Covenant House.

Feeding America: $1,425 | January

Our first Cause of the Month for this year was Feeding America — a charity that has become more essential than ever in the past several years. The need for food banks sharply increased at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and, nearly five years later, the rates of hunger remain high. According to the nonprofit, 1 in 7 people, including 1 in 5 children, live in food insecure households in the United States.

To help, Feeding America’s strategy is threefold: Ensuring everyone can access the food they need via a nationwide network of over 200 food banks and 60,000 meal programs; working with lawmakers and advocating for policies that improve food security for everyone; and partnering with other organizations to address the root causes of the issue, like high cost of living and lack of access to affordable housing.

Innocence Project: $2,969 | February

In the U.S., it’s estimated that roughly 1 in 20 criminal cases result in a wrongful conviction. And those wrongful convictions disproportionately affect Black people, who account for around 53% of exonerations. This past Black History Month, Nice News readers had the opportunity to support an organization at the forefront of creating change in the justice system: the Innocence Project.

Guided by science and anti-racism, the Innocence Project not only strives to free the innocent, but also works to prevent wrongful convictions and create a system that’s fair, compassionate, and equitable for everyone. Since its founding in 1992, the New York-based nonprofit has helped to exonerate 250 people, almost 60% of whom are Black.

YWCA: $881 | March

March is Women’s History Month, so Nice News’ Cause of the Month highlighted an organization that has been on a mission to support women for quite awhile.

In 1858, nearly 15 years after the YMCA was established, the YWCA came about. Since then, it’s been working toward the goals of eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for everyone through three main areas of focus: racial justice and civil rights; empowerment and economic advancement; and health and safety.

That last focus area is particularly essential: As the largest network of domestic violence service providers in the U.S., YWCA is committed to supporting survivors and reducing violence against women and girls. Nearly 1 million women and families participate in the nonprofit’s health and safety programs each year, which include everything from domestic violence and sexual assault services to physical fitness.

Trust for Public Land: $1,005 | April

Nice News firmly believes that everyone deserves access to green spaces, especially given the physical and mental health benefits of nature. So with Earth Day in April, we raised money for the Trust for Public Land, an organization working to ensure widespread access to the outdoors “for generations to come.”

The Trust for Public Land builds parks and protects public land in the communities where they’re needed most. Since 1972, the nonprofit has protected 4 million acres of land and created 5,420 outdoor spaces, connecting nearly 10 million people to the outdoors. Those spaces include expansions of national and local parks, new green schoolyards, trail systems, cultural sites, and more.

Think of Us: $2,610 | May

As of 2021, there were more than 391,000 children and youth in the U.S. foster care system. Unfortunately, too many of those young people face abuse and neglect and struggle with their mental health, physical health, and academic performance. Those are all signs of a broken system — and who better to fix a broken system than those who have been most affected by it?

Think of Us is working to disrupt and rebuild child welfare in America by centering the lived experiences of foster kids, which made it the perfect organization for Nice News to spotlight during National Foster Care Month in May.

Founded by former foster youth in 2016, Think of Us was initially structured as a technology nonprofit but later evolved into a research and design lab focused on transforming child welfare through collaborations with government agencies, lawmakers, providers, advocates, and foundations.

Free Mom Hugs: $1,278 | June

June is Pride Month, and Nice News supported the LGBTQ+ community by hosting a fundraiser for Free Mom Hugs. The nonprofit, founded by Sara Cunningham as she embarked on a journey to accept and celebrate her gay son, is dedicated to spreading love to people in the community who struggle to find acceptance from their parents or immediate family members.

“It’s not Free Mom Hugs’ intention or mission to replace anyone’s mother. … We are always hopeful that the parent will come around,” Cunningham told Nice News. “But until they do, we want to be that loving presence in the lives of those who need it the most.”

The organization has chapters in all 50 states and even some affiliated organizations overseas. Giving out hugs at pride parades is their bread and butter, but the chapters also support their local LGBTQ+ communities in any way they can, from sending out cards and care packages to hosting second chance proms.

National Alliance on Mental Illness: $540 | July

Nice News writes a lot about mental health, and in July we gave readers the opportunity to support an organization at the forefront of building better lives for Americans affected by mental illness. As the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, better known as NAMI, is made up of more than 600 local affiliates working within communities to raise awareness and provide support and education.

Given that July is Disability Pride Month, we also wanted to highlight the connection between disability and mental health: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. adults with disabilities report experiencing frequent mental distress nearly five times as often as adults without disabilities. Mental illness is also among the most commonly reported disabilities in the country.

NAMI has resources for those experiencing the intersection of disability and mental illness, as well as myriad other tools for anyone to use, including tips for caregivers, support groups, a helpline, information on the warning signs of mental illness, and so much more. Through public policy advocacy, education programs, and public awareness events, the organization is actively shaping a better world for us all.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library: $1,070 | August

With back-to-school season heading into full swing in August, we had education on the mind. So Nice News’ Cause of the Month was Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a literacy initiative that has distributed nearly 245 million books (and counting) to children age 5 and under in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, and Ireland.

Founded by the Queen of Country in 1995, the Imagination Library was inspired by Parton’s father, who couldn’t read. The organization launched in her home county in east Tennessee and has since spread far and wide, with over 3.1 million children registered as of June.

Here’s how the book gifting program works: Each month, the Imagination Library collaborates with local affiliates and partners to mail a high-quality, age-appropriate book to all registered children, at no cost to the child’s family and regardless of income. You can register a child from the day they’re born, and they’ll continue receiving books up until age 5.

Stop Soldier Suicide: $3,303 | September

Suicide can be difficult to talk about, but talking about it is the first step to ending it. With September being National Suicide Awareness Month, Nice News’ Cause of the Month beneficiary was Stop Soldier Suicide — the only national nonprofit focused solely on solving the issue of suicide among U.S. veterans and service members.

Military suicide has claimed more lives than most major conflicts — including World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Global War on Terror — and the veteran suicide rate is 72% higher than the U.S. average. Stop Soldier Suicide has set an aggressive goal to change things, aiming to reduce the military suicide rate by 40% no later than 2030.

The nonprofit has several programs that will help it achieve that goal, like ROGER, a wellness service that includes confidential and personalized virtual mental health counseling, crisis intervention, and safety planning. There’s also the Black Box Project, which analyzes trends by processing devices of those who have died by suicide, and a firearm safety program.

The results speak for themselves: Nearly half of Stop Soldier Suicide clients said that it helped prevent an attempt in their life in 2022.

Warrior Women Project: $2,668 | October

Renowned folklorist Henry Glassie famously called history “a map of the past, drawn from a particular point of view, to be useful to the modern traveler.” And our October Cause of the Month — the Warrior Women Project — is in pursuit of making that map more complete.

The nonprofit recovers and shares the stories of the women who fought for Indigenous self-determination and cultural survival during the Red Power Movement, which took place from the 1960s-1980s. Those stories are documented in oral histories, activist archives, community-accountable research, and media production, and made available to the public to help us all learn.

Feeding the Carolinas: $5,930 | November

Months after Hurricane Helene made landfall, the devastating effects of the natural disaster are still being felt in the American Southeast, with the Carolinas bearing much of the brunt of it. As such, food banks are continuing to work overtime to keep communities fed and hydrated, despite also having experienced significant storm damage.

That’s why we gave readers the opportunity to donate to Feeding the Carolinas, a network that unites the 10 Feeding America Food Banks serving North and South Carolina, in November. As of mid-October, the network was back to serving all 146 counties in the two states and implementing new supply drops weekly in all Helene-impacted counties.

This fundraiser truly blew us away: Readers crushed our initial goal of $2,000, nearly tripling it in the end.

Covenant House: $2,425 | December

Last but not least, we have Covenant House. Each year in America, millions of young people experience homelessness, but Covenant House is working to change that.

With locations in 34 cities across Canada, Latin America, and the U.S., the nonprofit opens its doors to unhoused youth and survivors of human trafficking, offering a warm bed, food, health and wellness services, and a case manager — “and, most important of all, unconditional love and absolute respect.”

This year alone, Covenant House programs reached more than 57,000 young people in five countries. That translates to 1.8 million meals served, 862,000 nights of housing provided, and 19,000 on-site medical visits. Now that the holidays are upon us, your support is needed even more, as Covenant House works to continue providing essential services to homeless youth and help them enjoy the festivities of the season through its annual holiday celebrations. Donate here.