Mar03VillageNews

Charity Navigator, a well-respected web site dedicated to evaluating nonprofit organizations, has featured Give Kids The World Village as number three in its list of “10 Consistently Excellent Charities.” More than 1,700 charities were examined during Charity Navigator’s most recent review.

GKTW Village achieved the excellence rating based on Charity Navigator’s evaluation of data related to the financial management of the organization. Charity Navigator investigated four performance categories of short-term spending: fund-raising efficiency, fund-raising expenses, program expenses, and administration expenses. In addition, the experts at Charity Navigator analyzed GKTW’s ability to sustain its programs and services over time. Factors considered in determining the Village’s sustainability were primary revenue growth, program expenses growth, and working capital ratio.

The goal of Charity Navigator is to provide a guide that will help people make intelligent giving decisions. To meet this challenge, Charity Navigator offers a charity rating system based on proven financial models, formulas, and ratios. By reporting charity ratings that are completely free of any biases, the program seeks to empower people “to give not only with their hearts, but with their minds.” GKTW welcomes IAAPA members to stop by the Village whenever they are in the Orlando area to check on the progress of their investments in the GKTW mission. To see Charity Navigator’s listings and in-depth evaluation of GKTW, please visit the web site at www.charitynavigator.org.

A Princess Story

Every day of her stay at GKTW Village, four-year-old Alyssa of Milwaukee, Wis., wore a different princess costume. Her beauty inspired everyone whom she met, including photographer Tom Smith. Fortunately, the day that Alyssa and Tom became friends, Tom happened to be capturing images for a photo show that GKTW presented at the Orlando Museum of Art to build community awareness for the Village’s mission. Alyssa’s photo (pictured here) did that—and so much more.

Because the princess portrait created so many fans for Alyssa, GKTW invited her to come back to Orlando to be the guest speaker at the Village’s “Celebration of Hope,” a breakfast that GKTW held at the Gaylord Palms Resort. When Alyssa returned to Orlando, she had long curly brown hair and wore a princess costume that was one size larger than her original royal wardrobe.

Now that Alyssa has achieved her dream of becoming a princess, she eagerly shares her message of hope. Her family explained Alyssa’s enthusiasm in a letter to the Village:

Dear Give Kids The World,
Alyssa’s wish to fulfill her dream of being a princess was realized through the love and caring of the staff and volunteers of Give Kids The World. Her dream was almost destroyed when she was re-hospitalized only weeks prior to our trip. We worried if it was the best decision to take her on such a big trip; we were so wrong.

Alyssa believes in her young heart that it was the magic of the Village that made her better. Upon our return home, Alyssa happily explained to her doctors that she did not need the medicine because the angels in Florida made her better. Each trip to the clinic finds her telling other children, nurses, and doctors how they should “just send sick kids to GKTW. They will be happy, get well, and grow hair.” The change in her has many of them believing the trip did save her life.

This summer since returning from her magical trip she has worked hard trying to earn money to send friends at the clinic to GKTW. Knocking on doors, going into stores talking about her cancer and GKTW, she earned $4,000 to send other children to get well and be happy. What more can we say except thank you for removing the memories of all the fear and pain and replacing them with peace, joy, and laughter.

With love and magic kisses,
Alyssa’s family