UtahValleyMarathon.com
The Utah Valley Marathon is a Charitable Marathon
The Utah Valley Marathon, Half Marathon& 5K allocates 100% of their proceeds directly to two foundations that have big impacts on children’s lives. One charity we donate to is the Children with Cancer Christmas Foundation. This foundation donates 100% of their received money to help children with cancer. These children are located mainly in Utah Valley. Last year 90 children and their families were supported through this charity. The other charity we donate to is Deseret International. They help children in financially oppressed nations with corrective surgeries. We like being a charitable marathon, and we hope you will support us and our charitable cause.
The History of the Children with Cancer Christmas Foundation
The Foundation was organized in 1998 by a cancer survivor who saw the needs of a family with a child battling cancer around the Christmas Season. His desire to assist this family has blossomed into the opportunity to work with many other families in the same situation.
This assistance comes during the Christmas Season with gifts for the whole family and other items, and also throughout the entire year providing support to the families as well as the fun and memories created at their annual events. For the past nine years the Foundation has teamed up with the BYU basketball team. For news articles on this please see links below.
Children with Cancer Christmas Foundation Mission Statement
Children with Cancer Christmas Foundation is organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes, more specifically:
- To bring cheer, encouragement and goodwill to children with cancer
- To collect and distribute gifts and funds for children with cancer and to their families
- To lighten the burdens the children and their families bear
Children with Cancer Christmas Foundation is a Utah nonprofit corporation operated exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. To learn more, visit their website at www.childrenccf.com
News Links about the Children with Cancer Christmas Foundation
- KSL - The Cougars Volunteer For Children With Cancer Christmas Foundation
- BYU Cougars - Fans Can Help Children with Cancer
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How Deseret International Does so Much with so Little
Deseret International Mission Statement: We work with local resources to create permanent, year-round, charitable programs for specifically identified and surgically correctable problems.
Unlike other NGOs, we are a Charity, not a business, allowing us to facilitate major, life-changing (often life-saving) surgeries for about $25 per procedure. Consider the following:
- Deseret insists on working with qualified local physicians and surgical facilities (the best available, often training centers); our program is designed to move quickly and to take advantage of windows of opportunity.
Results: Year-round programs, simplified follow-up procedures, minimal problems with language and customs, and local doctors are trained new medical procedures they can continue to perform throughout their careers. Deseret is welcomed by local colleagues and government agencies, avoiding the “Ugly American” image. - Deseret establishes permanent programs for charitable care, usually where none existed before.
- We organize and register a local Deseret board within each partner country, then we rely on these local legal, business, and medical personnel to keep the program running and active—and to report back to us.
Results: A local sense of ownership and control, help in securing local funding, effective means of importing and distributing supplies, and the constancy of local program management. - Deseret concentrates on specific surgical problems in each country (i.e., cleft lips, cataracts, club feet, crossed eyes, dental pain, below knee amputees). We select carefully the areas where we offer assistance and become experts in each offered medical procedure.
Results: Our cases are predictable in cost, procedure, and outcome. Most of our work requires only a single procedure, and each patient we help experiences a major change in their quality of life. - With few exceptions, Deseret works strictly with volunteers in all phases of our programs. Like the beehive in our logo, we work efficiently by encouraging each partner to do what he or she does best to facilitate our work.
Results: We attract dedicate people who are caring and internally motivated. Our overhead is a fraction of the usual, with all donations going towards patient care. We are able to maintain the true ideals of a charity. - Deseret sends U.S. volunteers to visit programs regularly, but they travel at their own expense. When volunteers are needed to teach, they are sent only at the request of our local partners.
Results: More productive teaching seminars, easy methods for assessing progress, and little administrative time or expense spent as a "travel agent." Our local partners are only responsible to host volunteers they have invited; similarly, when building projects are proposed, we rely on the local economy and host country’s experts. - Deseret actively recognizes and applauds the skills and expertise of our local partners. We recognize that each country is different in need and expertise but that we can learn from each other.
Results: A positive rapport and mutual respect; interested foreign physicians to come to the United States to observe how their U.S. counterparts perform various medical procedures. - Deseret very rarely expends funds for public relations or fund raising.
Results: Our focus on the patient and our overall effectiveness—not salesmanship. We have no staff of professional fundraisers; more of your dollar goes where it is intended. We rely on our results, not slick brochures or purchased media time, to invite the contributions we need to continue our work.
The Real Bottom Line:
1. A truly cost-effective and efficient medical charity.
2. As a U.S. charity based in Utah, we represent our country and culture to the world.
3. The cost to "gift" a major surgery through Deseret averages only $25per procedure.
4. Our overhead expenses during the last five years have been less than 5 percent.
Deseret International is a Utah nonprofit foundation operated exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
To learn more, visit their website at http://www.deseret-international.org/
