by Anna Beth Adcock | Apr 2, 2024 | April 2024, Buzz
Cooper Charitable Foundation is now providing housing stability grants to Raleighites in need.
“There is housing around us. It’s just not always affordable.” So says John Cooper, founder of the Cooper Charitable Foundation, a recently debuted nonprofit with a mission to provide support to locals who need help to secure housing or remain in their homes via housing stability grants.
The foundation’s operations will be overseen by longtime affordable housing advocate Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin, who is positioned to further her passion for positive change via her recently instated role as executive director. “This spoke to me because of the mission,” shares Baldwin. “I’ve been working on affordable housing, housing choice and providing more housing—that’s been my top priority since I’ve served on the city council and as mayor—so this seemed to be a natural progression. And I have to say, I’m really excited.”
The grants—poised to provide more immediate housing assistance—will operate as a means of bridging the gap for those working to meet their expenses but unable to keep up. Essentially, if someone can afford a rent payment of $600 per month and applicable housing options cost $900, the housing stability grant provides that $300 difference. Note: The grants run between one to six months, with each amount given dependent on the situation at hand.
Cooper, also the president of Cooper Tacia General Contracting, has a personal stake in the cause that led to the founding of this benevolent endeavor. Growing up, his mother worked multiple jobs and struggled to get by while experiencing domestic violence, and his grandmother lived on a meager fixed income. And, so, when his grandmother passed, Cooper sought a way to memorialize her, landing on the cause for housing assistance due to the steadiness she offered him during his youth.
“She provided a lot of stability for me in a childhood that was often chaotic,” he recalls. “That was the foundation of me going to college, starting a company and pretty much every achievement I’ve ever had.”
Truly paying kindness forward, Cooper is now funneling a personal contribution to the cause by making the first $100,000 donation—plus covering all overhead expenses—with the foundation’s first public fundraising event slated to take place June 12 at Mulino.
What’s more, the Cooper Charitable Foundation is teaming up with a trio of local nonprofit organizations: Wake Tech’s Fostering Bright Futures program, Oak City Cares and Healing Transitions to assist with verifying circumstances, identifying locals in need and connecting them in a process positioned to fulfill grant requests fast.
“These organizations are working with the people needing the grants—and they know them,” says Cooper. Adds Baldwin: “We are looking to get this streamlined and simple [in partnership with] organizations that do this all the time.”
Fueled by the mission to spark positive generational change in families, Cooper’s inspiration stems from a desire to show those in need there are people out there who care. “To put your hand out and tell someone, ‘You matter’—that’s a lot of encouragement to folks.” Clearly, caring about your community carries power indeed.
by Heidi Reid | Feb 26, 2024 | Eat, March 2024
APATT is hitting the road thanks to a sizable check from The Kelly Clarkson Show.
A Place at the Table has gone viral—again. And this time, the buzz comes with plans for a new food truck launching later this year expanding the uberpopular pay-what-you-can-cafe’s reach. Literally.
The meals on wheels are thanks to the contribution of an unexpected donor: singer-songwriter Kelly Clarkson (!). On a third The Kelly Clarkson Show appearance in January, APATT Executive Director Maggie Kane received a surprise $100,000 check to expand the nonprofit—which Clarkson had also already dubbed one of her 12 Good Neighbor of the Year nominees early last year.
With the surging demand for its brick-and-mortar, Kane sees the food truck as a natural next step. “We’ve been dreaming of what’s next for A Place at the Table, and at West Hargett Street we are at capacity,” she says of the 200 to 300 people the cafe feeds per day. “We’re serving more and more people every single day than we ever thought was possible—but, at the same time, there are communities who can’t get to A Place At The Table, so how do we reach those communities?”
Answering the call for its benevolent biscuit sandwiches and quick-service food, the truck hopes to extend its reach to many communities all over, says Kane, with the capability of feeding an additional 200 people a day. And partnerships with organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club will further help APATT increase revenue and expand into the catering market.
Clearly, the communal cafe’s reach speaks for itself. Its big win didn’t come through an application or lottery—but was found and selected by The Kelly Clarkson Show and nabbed the final win thanks to community votes. And Kane didn’t learn of the recognition until the show “randomly reached out” to MIX 101.5 to break the news.
“It just speaks so highly of what this community has done and how it’s supported [us],” reflects Kane. “It’s really reaffirming overall that this community has our back and really values A Place at the Table—and loves this mission and the work we do.” Who knew an American Idol icon would play such a pivotal role in keeping Raleigh fed?! tableraleigh.org
by Carlee Nilphai | Dec 7, 2023 | Buzz, December 2023/January 2024
Queen’s Club latest event goes all in for local charities.
There’s no need to perfect your poker face when it comes to Queen’s Club. Win or lose, the women-only poker club is contributing to a great cause—with its latest event only upping the ante by giving back to the local community.
The group’s first annual All In Poker Tournament, Nov. 30, was structured so the first-, second- and third-place winners donated their pot to the charity of their choice. The benefiting charities included benevolent pay-what-can cafe A Place at the Table and Diaper Train, which provides access to diapers for Wake County families. By the end of the evening, the event raised a cool $14,000 pot (!).
“Our full dream finally came together through this inaugural tournament—and it was epic!” says co-founder Virgina Parker. “When you bring 70+ women together in one room to play poker with a purpose, it becomes quite the event.” And these ladies are all in.
Since 2016, Queen’s Club, boasting four clubs throughout NC, has been a safe and welcoming space for women to let their hair down and play poker—but the goal has always been beyond the deal. As a 501(c)(3) org, the club leverages the power of women through networking, connecting and playing poker to strengthen the Raleigh community—and the tournament only helps them to further that mission.
“Our intent is to host this tournament every year, along with our regular quarterly poker nights, and we would love to see the number of women coming together for their communities grow larger,” says Parker of the future of Queen’s Club. “The beauty of the women choosing their own nonprofits is it brings a very diverse collective of nonprofits to the table with the chance to win, in addition to the opportunity to be introduced for the first time to others in the club—whether that be a poker player or a dealer or a runner.”
So whether you’re a veteran poker player or just a beginner, you can bet an evening with Queen’s Club and its powerful group of women is going to make a difference. … Even if just for your poker face.
by Melissa Howsam | Oct 30, 2023 | Buzz, November 2023
There’s still time to make a difference!
What if you could change your city with just $5? Enter our Give Raleigh campaign, where that’s exactly what you can do—and double your impact. Until Nov. 10, every donation—whether $5, $10 or some larger amount you have to spare or want for a tax write-off—is being matched by our partners TowneBank/Towne Insurance, up to the first $10K donated.
Proving that “no act of kindness, no matter how small is ever wasted,” Give Raleigh allows each of us to truly impact the lives of people in Raleigh with as little as $5 or as much as you can contribute to a trio of significant local nonprofits making a daily difference: A Place at the Table, TLC (founded as Tammy Lynn Center) and Transitions LifeCare. Beyond the tangible effect these three altruistic endeavors makes locally, they share a common thread of imparting dignity by leveling the playing field—whether that’s via sustenance, empowerment or compassion.
Over the last eight years since our inception, Raleigh Magazine has donated, sponsored and supported many local charities in hopes of one day launching a project such as this one to create even greater positive change in the city we love. That day has come—and we implore you to help us make our first 40-day Give Raleigh campaign a grand-slam success. giveraleigh.com
A Place at the Table
We all deserve “a place at the table”—which is exactly what the so-named pay-what-you-can cafe has been serving Raleighites for almost six years. At A Place at the Table, just $10 donated dishes a dignified made-fresh-daily meal to a hungry Raleighite—meaning when you donate just $5 to Give Raleigh, when doubled, you are feeding one person and making a direct impact on Raleigh. By allowing patrons to pay it forward via the Table card, APATT empowers those in need of a meal to “pay” for their meal with a black card (read: acts like a credit card) that levels the playing field for all diners. While it can be hard to find a seat at APATT, the compassionate cafe is not just a “place” to grab a delicious breakfast or lunch. It’s “a place where everyone has dignity and choice”—where everyone and anyone can get a meal no matter how much money they have to their name. tableraleigh.org
How Your Support Helps:
• Provides meals to community members in need, addressing hunger and food insecurity in Raleigh
• Sustains the only pay-what-you-can cafe in Raleigh
• Helps cover rent, food costs and other operations of the cafe
Transitions LifeCare
Endings can be—and should be—just as beautiful as beginnings, and that’s exactly what your $10 donation to Transitions LifeCare can deliver to a child or adult who deserves to die with dignity, and to a family making the most difficult decision of their lives. No one wants to die in a cold, lonely hospital room or care facility, nor do they want their parents, sibling, spouse or child to. Founded in 1979 as Hospice of Wake County, Transitions LifeCare answers that call by enabling everyone touched by a life-altering or terminal illness to “catch the joy and share the pain” via compassionate care—either at home or in the in-patient Hospice Home—and emotional and spiritual support for the patient and the family navigating end-of-life decisions, serving as the guidepost for transitioning Raleighites peacefully. transitionslifecare.org
How Your Support Helps:
• Provides compassionate care—either at home or in the in-patient Hospice Home—so no one spends their last days in pain or discomfort
• Covers cost of care for all seriously and terminally ill adult patients in need
• Gives grief support to patients, families and members of the community free of charge, providing the chance to hold their hands at a time when they are acknowledging the
need to heal
TLC
None of us would ever want to be denied our favorite cup of joe or the feeling of warm sunshine on our face. Ultimately, it’s life’s simplest pleasures that are our most essential needs. And those needs are precisely what you can meet by donating just $5 of TLC (tender loving care) to TLC (formerly Tammy Lynn Center). Born out of the desire to empower people with intellectual or developmental disabilities with the same opportunities as their able-bodied peers, TLC provides a vast roster of life-changing care for families—respite care, autism therapies and community living support, to name a few—to instill dignity, ignite hope and embrace possibility. And your donation is that difference-maker—the ability to change not just an individual’s life for the better, but an entire family’s. nctlc.org
How Your Support Helps:
• Provides educational-, residential-, therapy- and community-related support services
• Gives options for individuals in the areas of physical, nutritional, developmental and occupational therapy; speech-language pathology; and psychological supports
• Offers on-site residences with daylong care for children and adults with profound disabilities and complex medical needs
• Offers tailored care management
• Options for respite care and other supportive services
Donate: giveraleigh.com
by Kara Scott | Oct 12, 2023 | Eat, October 2023
Now Serving cooking up good via Oct. 21 F&B event
Let’s eat, drink and serve together! Now Serving, a Raleigh-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is brewing up an event to uplift the community and bridge the gap between food abundance and scarcity. Dubbed Now Serving Food + Wine, the culinary fest will take place Oct. 21 at Smoky Hollow, with a goal to continue bolstering the MO of the org: leveraging the power of food service to empower communities and bring solace to Raleigh neighbors in need.
“We think the restaurants and hospitality industries are really important, and at the same time we think that hunger is a problem that shouldn’t exist,” says Now Serving Executive Director Greg Lowenhagen. The nonprofit was founded as Sunday Supper in 2016, with its inaugural event gathering ~1,000 people on Fayetteville Street to raise $189,000 for the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund. The model adapted to “to directly support the most vulnerable among us.”
“The question is: How can we get our hospitality industry involved in a more efficient way to help fight that problem?” Lowenhagen adds. “We also want to help our partnered restaurants thrive in business. . … Our partnerships are a great way to tackle both things at once.”
Boiling up bunches of excitement, the Saturday soiree is slated to showcase a lineup of leading local chefs, restaurants and beverage brands from beloved spots such as Blackology Coffee Company, Hummingbird and Oak Steakhouse, to name but a few.
Attendees will also be treated to an outstanding selection of wines from distinguished wineries such as Donelan and Sangiacomo, among others. Craft beer lovers are in for a treat too, with offerings from R&D Brewing, while Tito’s Handmade Vodka and Young Hearts Distillery will be providing the spirits. And beyond the appetizing array of eats and drinks, fuel the fun-filled day with music and cooking demos to boot. With all the wonderful F&B collaborations, the celebration is sure to be a delicious one—but the cherry on top is that every ticket purchased directly supports meals for Now Serving’s six community agency partnerships: Brentwood Boys & Girls Club, Meals on Wheels Wake County, The Women’s Center, New Bethel Food Pantry, Lincoln Park Pantry and Solid Rock Ministry. Dining and drinking for a good cause never tasted so good!
