1,100 Signs Planted; $115K Raised to Help COVID-19 Impacted, LOVE RYE’s Last Call
There are only 75 left and 24 hours to claim one.
Ask and you shall receive. Just a week ago, the three Rye Moms behind the “LOVE RYE” campaign were wondering out loud if they would cross the $100K mark.
The Yankees and Mets are not playing baseball but these women have been busy hitting it out of the park.
As of Thursday mid-day, the LOVE RYE effort has raised $115,000 and planted over 1,100 bright red signs on lawns across our town. “It’s really amazing,” organizer Lisa Hogan told MyRye.com. “I love driving around (town) and seeing all these signs.”
There are only 75 signs remaining for purchase before the fundraiser declares victory and closes the end of Friday.
Hogan is expecting the group to distribute funds to these recipient groups as soon as the end of next week:
- Over 125 local Rye mom & pop shops – to help with things like rent, utilities and maintaining staff;
- Bread of Life to provide food & essentials to those in need including food-insecure children, single parents and home-bound seniors;
- Caritas of Port Chester to deliver food to those in need in Port Chester and the surrounding community via a soup kitchen and food pantry.
You can make a donation online. A one hundred dollar donation will get you one of the remaining 75 bright shinny “LOVE RYE” signs planted in your front lawn.
Hurry!
Bread of Life is a recipient of cash donations? When donating cash to a charity, please be sure you understand how donor funds are being spent. The Bread of Life hasn’t historically provided financial information. It’s not listed in Charity Navigator. Just last week, however, they had a pie chart on their website of how funds are spent. When I tried to talk about the pie chart on a FB page, the pie chart disappeared from the Bread of Life website and I was blocked from the FB page. The pie chart which Bread of Life removed from its website said 33% of funds go to Home Expenses/Mortgage. It said another 22% and 7% went to Operational and Administrative Expenses. It said 38% went to Food Recovery and Distribution. Giving to Bread of Life isn’t the best way to ensure Rye donor funds are used as represented. Feeding Westchester is a better alternative with 86% of expenses representing programs and services, that’s a big difference.
It looks like Bread of Life did have some financial detail in its 2018 filing. Here’s a link:
https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/464633078_201812_990EZ_2019112216880529.pdf
Program Spend as a percentage of Total Expenses in 2018 was 22%. Feeding Westchester was much higher/better for the same year at 86%. The disappearing pie chart referenced in my previous comment may be for filing year 2019. We’ll have to stay tuned. The question is: Do you want 86 cents on the dollar to feed the hungry or 22 cents on the dollar? And, from charitynavigator.com: “We believe that those spending less than a third of their budget on program expenses are simply not living up to their missions.”