Hey, big news just in time for Independence Day! We just raised $346,438 for America’s Heroes during the Veterans Charity Challenge 2. The organizations raised $296,438 online. Another $5,265 was raised offline, and I gave $50,000 to support these Veterans, Military Families, Police, and Firefighter organizations.
A total of 94 teams signed up. All of ’em were the real deal. Folks, I can’t thank you enough for all the good work you’re doing.
- The grand prize winner of $20K is Warrior Canine Connection (WCC), which raised $74,687 for training therapeutic service dogs. WCC utilizes clinically based Canine Connection Therapy to empower returning combat Veterans who have sustained physical and psychological wounds while in service to our country. This is WCC’s second time coming in first place.
- 2nd place winner of $10K is Dogs on Deployment, which raised $32,800 to give military members peace of mind concerning their pets during their service commitments by providing them with the ability to find people and resources able to help them.
- 3rd place winner of $5K is Leave No Veteran Behind (LNVB), which raised $26,528 for their innovative educational debt relief scholarship, community service, employment training, and job placement programs. LNVB invests in heroes who have honorably served our nation and seek to continue their service as productive citizens in their communities. Last year LNVB came in 2nd place.
It was really close in the end, and an exciting finish. Our team was able to call and chat with (or leave messages for) each of the big winners, and really thank them for all they’re doing for our service members and their families. I figure if someone’s willing to risk their life for me, this is the least I can do to give back…
Over the course of the Challenge, there were 6 Bonus Challenges, and we had 13 teams win.
- Bonus Challenge #1, raise at least $250: Meghan Shortt Wilent Foundation won $2K.
- Bonus Challenge #2, the first 5 charities to raise $500 gets that matched: Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs, Warrior Canine Connection, World Sport Chicago, Full Circle Home of Rochester NY, Dogs on Deployment, and Things We Read each won $500.
- Bonus Challenge #3, raise the most money this week: Warrior Canine Connection won $2500
- Bonus Challenge #4, raise at least $500 for a chance to win $1K: Leave No Veteran Behind, Lifesavers, and Healing 4 Heroes each won $1K.
- Bonus Challenge #5, get the greatest number of individual donors this week: Warrior Canine Connection won $2500.
- Bonus Challenge #6, the first 5 charities to get 5 donations this week: Things We Read won $2K.
I’ll be interviewing some of the winners in the coming weeks…more to come…
If you didn’t give during the Challenge, you can still give now. And it’s a great way to honor our heroes for Independence Day, and really, every day.
Did you participate in the Veterans Charity Challenge 2? I’d like to hear your feedback. And again, congrats to all those orgs who really have their boots on the ground making a difference for our heroes.
Craig Connects 
Thank you so much for sponsoring the Veterans Charity Challenge. This is the second year I’ve participated as a supporter of the Warrior Canine Connection. The monies raised will certainly be a huge asset to the WCC as they will be moving to a new property in the next year. Thanks again for your generous support!!!!
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Craig – Just wanted to express my thanks for your generous sponsorship of the Veterans Charity Challenge 2014. I’m a supporter of Warrior Canine Connection and am of course thrilled that our team won the $20,000 bonus! Beyond that, I just love the crowdrise platform for charitable fundraising. It is so easy to donate through crowdrise and the ghallenge opportunity really gave our group the motivation to get a lot of people to contribute to WCC. The bonus challenges were fun and I appreciated that they were structured so every team had a chance to compete during various weeks – not just the teams raising the most money. Thanks again for doing this!
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