Firm Donates to Eight Charities
Reston, VA – December 8, 2008 – ConceptSolutions (www.Concept-Solutions.com), an information management and technology consulting company serving government, military and commercial organizations, announced today that it continues its tradition of year-round, charitable giving by supporting a diverse group of family- and child-focused nonprofits in 2008, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), Maison Chance, Segs4Vets, Children’s Charities Foundation (in conjunction with the BB&T Charity Gala), NTAF Spinal Fund, United Black Writers Association (UBWA), Great Meadow Foundation’s International Gold Cup, and the local Adopt-A-Family holiday program (Fairfax County, VA).
The company’s charitable giving activities reflect the values of the company’s founders, who firmly believe in working throughout the year with and supporting organizations that improve the lives of others. With so many worthy causes and active charitable organizations, each year, ConceptSolutions’ founders choose organizations closely related to their personal interests for donation.
“Giving back to organizations that make a positive, quality-of-life impact is one of ConceptSolutions’ guiding principles,” said Phong Mai, president and CEO, ConceptSolutions. “Our participation in special programs, like Adopt-A-Family, UBWA and the Children’s Charities Foundation, allows ConceptSolutions and our employees to make an immediate difference right here in our local community.”
JDRF
JDRF is a leader in setting the agenda for diabetes research worldwide, and is the largest charitable funder and advocate of Type 1 research. The mission of JDRF is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. Type 1 diabetes is a disease that strikes children and adults suddenly, and requires multiple injections of insulin daily or a continuous infusion of insulin through a pump. Insulin, however, is not a cure for diabetes, nor does it prevent its eventual and devastating complications, which may include kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, stroke and amputation.
Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with Type 1 diabetes, JDRF has awarded more than $1.3 billion to diabetes research, including more than $156 million in FY2008. In FY2008 the Foundation funded more than 1,000 centers, grants and fellowships in 22 countries. For more information about Type 1 diabetes and research efforts for the cure, please visit www.jdrf.org.
Maison Chance USA
Maison Chance USA (www.maison-chance.us) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing a second chance in life to the heartbreakingly disadvantaged children and disabled people of Vietnam. The concept of Maison Chance USA was inspired by Maison Chance, a charity organization founded in Vietnam in 1996 by Tim Aline Rebeaud, a Swiss philanthropist. Its primary mission is to raise funds to support various program activities in Vietnam. The organization’s goal is to provide underprivileged people the necessary tools and support for a successful re-start in life and reintegration into society, including providing: shelter and medical care for those who need it most, basic education and vocational training adapted to the physical ability of the beneficiary, as well as employment and suitable living conditions to disabled persons. The work of the Maison Chance USA is carried out exclusively by unpaid volunteers. By maintaining a volunteer-only staff, nearly 100 percent of funds raised go directly to supporthe program activities in Vietnam.
Segs4Vets and DRAFT
Jerry Kerr, Leonard Timm, and Fred Laplan founded Disability Rights Advocates For Technology (DRAFT) in 2004. DRAFT is a nonprofit, public charity that advocates for more widespread adoption of universal design, and promotes increased access to assistive technology devices. In 2005, DRAFT started the Segs4Vets program. The program awards Segway Personal Transporters to members of the United States Military who have sustained injuries while serving our nation in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), and whose injuries have resulted in permanent disability and difficulty walking.
DRAFT has established training and assessment programs at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas; the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland; Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; and Naval Medical Center San Diego in San Diego, California. These programs help assess and train potential candidates for the Segs4Vets program, which has awarded 81 Segways to injured veterans since its inception. Members of the program hope to secure the funding to award about 250 Personal Transporters during 2008. For more information, please visit www.segs4vets.com.
Children’s Charities Foundation
Founded in 1994 by a group of Washington-area business and professional leaders, The Children’s Charities Foundation has distributed nearly $7 million to charities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. These funds are critical for to maintaining and supporting public and private programs and services for local disadvantaged and at-risk children and youth. The Children’s Charities Foundation, which raises most of its funds from an annual basketball tournament, featuring college and university teams, and from a gala dinner, will fund non-profit organizations that support disadvantaged and at-risk children by strengthening their health and welfare, supporting strong and cohesive families, and assisting educational and recreational programs. The Children’s Charities Foundation is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization chartered and headquartered in the District of Columbia.
NTAF
National Transplant Assistance Fund (NTAF) has been a trusted resource in the transplant community for more 25 years. NTAF has helped families raise more than $57 million for critical but uninsured medical expenses related to transplantation and catastrophic injury. NTAF helps patients and their families organize, launch and sustain grassroots fundraising campaigns, providing fiscal accountability for the funds raised and weekly disbursements for life-saving and life-sustaining medical care. NTAF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization.
United Black Writers Association
The UBWA’s mission is to encourage people of all ethnicities to nurture their literary talent. They promote writing and literacy for all through workshops and educational forums, including the US Department of Transportation’s (DOT) 2008 program “Transportation Star Search.” ConceptSolutions’ donation specifically helped provide buses for children from Watkins Elementary School, in Washington, DC, to attend this year’s National Transportation Week event, and ensure that children from underprivileged areas had a chance to improve and highlight their writing skills through their participation. For the event, students were challenged to write lyrics to illustrate their understanding of the theme “One Nation on the Move.”
Great Meadow Foundation
Nestled in the heart of Virginia’s Piedmont countryside, Great Meadow is a 250-acre field events center and steeplechase course operated under stewardship of the Great Meadow Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of open space for community use.
Adopt-A-Family (Fairfax County, VA)
Each fall, as the holiday season approaches, underserved families in Fairfax County are in need of assistance. These families earn salaries far below the amount that offers them the luxury of providing gifts to family members for special holidays. The Adopt-A-Family program is integrated with Our Daily Bread (ODB), a volunteer-based organization focused on easing the plight of low-income residents in Fairfax County, Virginia. ODB helps provide these families with clothing, toys, gifts and many of the necessities of life that most of us take for granted. Sponsors, who include employees of area businesses and County agencies, members of civic organizations and faith communities, and private citizens are provided information on family members’ needs and wishes. Sponsors can either purchase and wrap gifts themselves or donate monetary contributions for purchase of gifts. To learn more about Adopt-A-Family, please visit www.our-daily-bread.org.
