The Change 4 Children’s Foundation is a non-profit organization that distributes coin jars and virtual/electronic “jars” to collect money for the benefit of Innovation Programs and Child Life Services at children’s hospitals across the country. We ask people to take a jar, fill it up and change a life®. For the past few years we have had numerous schools, businesses, organizations and individuals participate in a campaign for a specific period of time (e.g., the month of September to coincide with childhood cancer awareness month) or on an ongoing basis.
We supply physical jars into which change and dollars can be deposited and set up the virtual/electronic “jars”. We assist with education, publicity and the check-out and check-in of the jars.
Some schools have held “challenges” and given awards to the grade or class that raised the most money. Businesses tend to distribute our jars around their premises or make us the recipient of their employees’ charitable outreach efforts. Some have also put “virtual jars” on their website and social media.
Hospitals have sought us out to facilitate a campaign for their benefit or to design a customized program for them. Organizations have used us to fulfil required “give-back” hours or to be a team-building exercise. Foundations have donated to us and issued grants for challenges or for a specific purpose.
Individuals have taken jars and reached into their personal network of family and friends to fill them. Often this is a chance for former patients to do something good for the hospital in which they received treatment.
Jars that are filled and virtual jars are deposited into a segregated account at Bank of America. People can return jars directly to the bank or to the person that is in charge of the campaign.
In all of these instances, we work with the applicable hospital to ensure that as many funds as possible are donated directly to the specific area of the hospital that the campaign was intended to support. We then report back on the results.
If you are interested in learning more about how you can participate, please contact us at info@change4childrens.org.