2023 GivingTuesday Grant Contest - the results are in!

FedEx Cares is excited to announce the winning nonprofits of the 2023 GivingTuesday Grant Contest. We received hundreds of heartwarming nominations from team members across the U.S.

The best way to share the impact these wonderful organizations have in their communities is to hear directly from the team members who nominated them.

Congratulations to these nonprofits and to all our team members who commit to do good in their communities every day!

South-Western City Schools is the 5th largest school district in the state of Ohio. It is also one the most diverse districts with 41 different languages spoken by its students. The poverty level in some areas is as high as 93%. FedEx Ground has four operations within this school district, the Columbus Hub/Linehaul (COLO/432), Columbus Local (ZCOL/430) and Grove City Economy (formerly SmartPost – GCOH/5431).

After 11 failed levy attempts, the South-Western School District instituted Pay-to-Participate Fees for all extracurricular activities in middle school and high school. For students living in poverty, this created hardships for families barely getting by, and having to choose between basic needs or their children being actively involved in something they loved and worked hard for at the middle and high school level.

In 2009, nine community members began the daunting task of establishing a foundation to help these kids pay the fees by creating the Success Beyond the Foundation. The goal was to raise and award scholarships to students to offset these fees. After a year of working with the IRS, lawyers, and mounds of paperwork, this goal came to life.

Since that time, they have raised over $250,000 to help more than 6,100 students be able to do what children from other economic areas take for granted – be a part of something outside of the classroom where they can be successful and learn life-long lessons about working together, leadership, and create lasting friendships.

For many years before COVID, they organized a yearly Pasta Dinner to help raise critical funds for our scholarships. This was the only fundraiser, and it was always standing room only as the entire community came together to help the kids. They have not been able to have this for the last four years but hope to institute it again next year.

This grant will help continue the dream of ensuring no kid is denied the opportunity to belong to those activities that contribute to them being well-rounded students, and that also enrich their school experience outside of the academic classroom.

Three months after I adopted my dog, the Community Humane Shelter of Steuben County posted on their Facebook page that they were called to respond to a hoarding situation, and they were taking in over 120 dogs. To give you some perspective they only have enough space to hold 40 dogs at a time. They were begging people to come and foster or adopt a dog. Fostering is like dog sitting for the animal shelter. A dog may be put into foster care due to lack of shelter space, a behavioral issue, or for hospice care.

I have been fostering for 11 months now. In this time, I have fostered seven dogs. I started out with just taking any dog and just taking care of it for the shelter. Now it has evolved to me taking in the aggressive dogs or dogs with severe behavioral issues. I have no formal schooling or training, I learned from them teaching me and YouTube videos. I go there on the weekends to walk dogs, and I take dogs to adoption events.

They have a large ripple effect in the community. Every animal adopted from this shelter is spayed or neutered and up to date on their shots. While these two things may seem small, they have large impacts on population control when we are already dealing with a national problem of dog and cat overpopulation. There is no question that they are doing their part.

I have been impacted by The Community Humane Shelter of Steuben County in a very positive way. They gave me a chance when other shelters would not, because I had no dog experience. I appreciate everything they do.

Every year our facility collaborates with the Broward Partnership to collect food during our Thanksgiving Food Drive and Toy Drive each Christmas. We have been doing this for over 10 years now, and each year they are more than grateful for all the donations they have received.

They are a nonprofit organization that works with homeless individuals and families to get back on their feet. Their programs include street outreach and emergency housing. They provide the homeless with tools for education, healthcare, job training, and employment placing. They provide physical, emotional, and educational support for the homeless community.

Our station has volunteered in their kitchen to distribute food to the homeless and participated in the yearly toy drive and food drive. I have personally volunteered with my daughter in their kitchen. It breaks your heart to see so many young children, families, and pregnant mothers who are homeless in our community. We have also done job fairs at their center and have even employed some of the residents who are qualified. Each and every one of us is a paycheck away from homelessness and has much to be thankful for so giving back to this organization is the least we can do.

***Photos courtesy of the winners