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The Good People Fund

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SPIRIT Club Foundation

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There’s a fitness club in Maryland that’s not your usual corner gym. At SPIRIT Club, individuals with physical and developmental challenges are lifting weights, doing aerobics, and working with personal trainers in a space that embraces diversity and inclusion.

SPIRIT (Social-Physical-Interactive-Respectful-Integrated-Teamwork) Club Founder Jared Ciner merged his fitness background and experience working with people with special needs to open SPIRIT Club in 2013. He later established SPIRIT Club Foundation to ensure that physical health and socialization is accessible to members of a too-often marginalized population, and to advocate for their visibility and accommodation.

“We have to understand that every person is an equal human being who deserves the same respect and opportunity as anyone else,” Jared says.

Our grant funds scholarships for a swimming program, and for technology allowing virtual participation in fitness classes during the pandemic and beyond.

Caravan to Class

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Nine young women in Mali, a country perhaps better known for its military takeovers, are now on the road to new lives filled with untold possibilities. Recipients of Caravan to Class’s Bourse Jackie scholarships, each woman completes an intensive English course as well as attends university, with some graduating this year and already promised jobs.

Barry Hoffner began Caravan to Class after attending Mali’s famous desert music festival. Upon learning about the dearth of educational opportunities available to Mali children, Barry began to build schools in local villages. As Barry noted, “Imagine a world … where no matter where a child lives, the fundamental right of education is assured.” To ensure that those children break the cycle of illiteracy that had plagued their ancestors for years, Caravan to Class has constructed 15 schools with a 16th planned for late 2021.

Our funds are used to underwrite university scholarships.

Hope and Comfort

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“GPF made me a better leader.”

The Good People Fund consistently pushed me to think strategically, to find better ways to raise awareness, and to use all of the resources available to us, including the wonderful GPF network. That confidence in me — and what we were doing — was incredibly reassuring and humbling given the amazing organizations that were and continue to remain part of the GPF portfolio.

Needless to say, the financial support that we have received over the years was critical, allowing us to scale our impact to help more children and families in need, whether by purchasing items at or below wholesale costs, or helping us find better ways to track and measure our impact.

But on top of the monetary support, the regular conversations that I’ve had with Executive Director Naomi Eisenberger have been invaluable in helping us think more wisely about chapters along the way — including key hires, ways to share resources across mission-aligned organizations, and the role of the Board, just to name a few. The advice has made me a better leader and our organization more impactful and efficient.

— Jeff Feingold, Founder and President, Hope & Comfort

Breaking the Chain Through Education

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It could be the biggest social studies project ever, beginning in a Metuchen (NJ) High School classroom and reaching 5,000 miles west to Africa.

In 2006, teacher Evan Robbins read about child enslavement in Ghana and brought the story to his students. Together, they dived into the issue and committed to act. Breaking the Chain Through Education grew as successive classes of Evan’s built community and global partnerships to increase awareness, raise funds, rescue Ghanaian children, and put them on a path to long-term success and independence.

BTCTE helped build a school in the Lake Volta region and is currently helping to support 90 formerly trafficked children to end cycles of poverty that lead to child slavery.

Our funds help underwrite the organization’s minimal overhead.

Necha Malka

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In Israel, Shira Gilor, a resident of Hashmonaim, thought she knew her neighbors well until the day she was approached by a local mother. The woman confided that she did not have enough food for her children. Quietly, Shira delivered a package to the family, an event which became a personal turning point, as she pondered the food waste she witnessed around her.

Shira knew that this woman’s situation was not an exception, and so began her grassroots, neighborhood operation to secure food and discreetly feed her hungry neighbors. Necha Malka (named for the mother of a generous community member who wanted to help Shira) serves 24 families vetted by local social workers.

Volunteers facilitate the work and supermarket scrip (which we help underwrite) makes possible the purchase of any food that is not donated.

One Can Help

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Paying for a swimsuit helps a boy enjoy summer, but also helps a mom rebuild a relationship with her son returning home from foster care. Paying for cell phone minutes helps a foster care child speak to her dad. When attorney Anne Bader-Martin’s organization makes modest payments like these, filling in where resources are lacking, they stop a cycle that usually deteriorates even further — and secure positive outcomes for vulnerable families. One attorney shares, “Twenty-five dollars [for an ID] might seem like a small way to help someone, but for my client it made all the difference. … She is now employed again for the first time in more than six months!”

Needs increased 40% during the pandemic. OCH served 3,000 children and families, providing emergency assistance in the form of supermarket cards, laptops, rent assistance and more. Our funds are used for a new computer operating system.