October 17, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
Alan Shawn Feinstein says that he will donate $5 to anti-hunger groups for each person who visits his foundation’s Help the Hungry Web site by the end of the year, up to a total of $1-million.
Since 1998 the Feinstein Foundation, in Cranston, R.I., has given away $1-million each year to anti-hunger organizations. Mr. Feinstein, the foundation’s president, says that it will give the money again next year — if 200,000 people click on the Web site, a stipulation that the foundation hopes will raise awareness of its program.
The Feinstein Challenge, as the $1-million distribution program is called, is designed to help anti-hunger organizations raise money. The money is distributed among participating groups based on how much money they raise during a set period, usually in March.
This year the 1,714 groups that shared the money raised a total of $45.1-million in response to the challenge. “For each of these participating agencies the challenge is a little funding opportunity, but a great fund-raising opportunity,” says Mr. Feinstein.
Mr. Feinstein says that after the number of visitors to the Help the Hungry Web site reaches 200,000 — it’s about halfway there so far — the foundation will send an announcement about the next challenge to everyone who signed up at the Web site to receive e-mail updates. He hopes that those people, in turn, will let anti-hunger charities in their communities know about the challenge, particularly small organizations, such as food closets run by houses of worship.
“If a lot of these little food pantries knew about it they’d want to use it as a fund-raising spur, too,” says Mr. Feinstein.
To get there: Go to http://www.helpthehungry.org.
