Social Service/Public Welfare/Human Services

Meet Brian Merkel, calendar cover model for 2017. The Lino Lakes, Minn., dad is one of 12 fathers in the first-ever “Dad Bods” calendar being sold as a cheeky fundraiser for Spare Key, a Twin Cities nonprofit that makes mortgage payments for parents who have a critically ill or injured child. The dozen dads pictured…

I will do damn near anything to avoid hurtful political conversations with my family. This year, with so much potential for such conversations, I volunteered to help house homeless women in our church from Dec. 23 to Dec. 31. That pretty much cleared the social calendar of any kind of gathering that could cause ill…

President-elect Trump is leaning on a once-obscure group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch as he seeks to make good on a campaign promise to overhaul veterans’ care he has denounced as a tragic failure. Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) was founded as a political advocacy group just four years ago. It has…

On Thanksgiving Day, the American Legion hall in Antioch, Calif., opened its doors to anyone who didn’t have a place to go for the holiday. With the help of a local church, the veterans’ organization hosted a dinner for those who would have otherwise dined alone, complete with turkey, stuffing, green beans and other Thanksgiving fare. More…

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick pledged he would donate $1 million to organizations that work with communities in need across the country after he initiated his silent protest of the national anthem, and the first wave of charitable contributions was disclosed Friday. On his personal website, Kaepernick detailed the donations made in October as…

Planned Parenthood has received 20,000 donations made in the name of Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and thousands of dollars in donations to the group's Indiana organization were made in his "honor" since last week's election, the groups said. At least 20,000 of more than 128,000 donations Planned Parenthood received since the election made reference to…

A U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs executive who ran a "shameless" veterans' charity will be allowed to retire with full government benefits. Thomas Burch, a career lawyer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, will retire Nov. 30 with a full pension and lifetime health care, a congressional source told CNN. Burch was in the process…

If there’s one sure takeaway from the 2016 election, it’s that non-college-educated whites are furious at America’s cosmopolitan elite. And well they should be—the white working class has been decimated over the past few decades by economic shifts that elites of all stripes have either actively abetted or barely lifted a finger to challenge. Foundations…

Last week, Promo Marketing, our sister publication, looked into the leftover Cleveland Indians merchandise that won't hit stores following the team's World Series loss. Ordinarily, apparel falsely crowning the game's loser goes to charity. This year, MLB is destroying the merchandise, instead...

October is one of the most important months of the year for organizations whose mission is to end the epidemic of intimate partner violence, also known to many as domestic violence. During the 31 days in October, almost every agency does two things: Raise awareness and raise funds...