This marks the second year New York Pass has teamed up with New York Cares for our annual Coat Drive. This holiday season, New York Pass graciously donated $1 for every pass sold – and another $1 for every Facebook post including a photo with someone holding their pass in hand at one of the attractions. 

Through this fun social media campaign and sale, they raised an incredible $21,340 in support of our Coat Drive! With that money, we were able to distribute over 7,000 coats to New Yorkers in need this winter.  

New York Pass helps you be a tourist in your own city, or figure out where to start sightseeing when visiting from out of town with discounted tickets to attractions around the Big Apple.

The actual New York Pass is the size of a credit card and allows you admission into more than 70 New York City attractions such as the Empire State Building, Madame Tussauds, New York Skyride, and so many more. 

We are so grateful for our partnership with New York Pass and cannot thank them enough for their support!

By Rebecca Gnessin

On Monday, December 10th, 600 guests joined us to celebrate New York Cares’ 25th Anniversary at our annual Winter Benefit fundraiser. The festivities, held at Cipriani’s 42nd Street, were hosted by The Honorable Harold Ford, Jr. and chaired by New York Cares Board Member, John Ehrenkranz.

In addition to recognizing 25 years of accomplishments, we honored longtime corporate partner the Macquarie Group Foundation and our 2012 Volunteer Extraordinaire, Sharnae Scott. We also paid special tribute to New York Cares’ critical role in the Hurricane Sandy relief and recovery efforts. The action-packed evening concluded on a high (as in 6’11”) note when NBA legend Bob Lanier (pictured right speaking with Sharnae Scott) worked his auctioneering magic to raise $225,000, bringing the grand total raised by the event to more than $1.45 million dollars. All funds raised will go directly to New York Cares’ ongoing programming.

By Rebecca Gnessin

Are you a dog or cat person? Perhaps you love playing with kids? Does getting your hands dirty make you feel accomplished?

New York Cares is launching a new community on Crowdrise, an online fundraising platform created by actor and activist Edward Norton, that allows you to raise money and awareness for the programs you care about. Join our team and use Facebook, Twitter, and good old-fashion email to ask people you know for a few bucks to support your volunteer work.

Crowdrise offers awesome prizes to the top fundraisers and point earners. Go head to head with Will Farrell and Seth Rogen to compete for an iPad – new laptop anyone? Even better, your efforts will expand our volunteer opportunities, helping more New Yorkers in need.

What are you waiting for? Give it a try!

On three Thursdays leading up to Hands On New York Day, we’re giving away great prizes to the top fundraisers. On April 8, the volunteer who raises the most money in 24 hours will win a Flip MinoHD digital video camera, designed by New York artist Ridge Rooms.

So far volunteers have raised $30,000. Help us reach our goal of $120,000. Even if you can’t make the event, you can still compete for fundraising prizes by joining the Virtual Volunteers team.

Don’t miss your chance to win – ask your family, friends, and coworkers to donate in your name on these Super Fundraising Days. On April 15, you could win a $350 Theory gift card, and on April 22, you could win a round-trip JetBlue ticket.

We’re participating in America’s Giving Challenge, a virtual contest that rewards nonprofits who get the greatest number of people to donate to their Facebook Cause. They’re giving away $1,000 to the nonprofit who gets the most donations in a 24-hour period or a $50,000 donation to the nonprofit who get the most donations overall by November 6.

We want to win the daily challenge (and $1,000 to create more life-changing volunteer projects) that starts this Wednesday. Past winners have only had a few hundred donors, so with 48,000 volunteers and countless supporters, we know you can help us beat that.

Visit our Cause and make a donation of any amount between 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28, until Thursday at 3:00 p.m. Remember, this contest is not about the amount of money we raise, but the number of people who donate. Tell your friends and help us win!

Thanks to everyone who made last night’s Art of Caring Happy Hour a resounding success. By the end of the night after all the raffle prizes were given away, the music died down, and the revelers dispersed, the event raised an astounding $16,000. This money will enable more volunteers to teach children how to read, help at-risk youth get into college, feed the homeless, and much more.

A special thanks to sponsors like JetBlue and Fresh for donating raffle prizes and Brooklyn Brewery and Kristian Regále for providing drinks.

If you couldn’t make it to the happy hour, be sure to take our media sponsor up on this special offer: UrbanDaddy, a free daily e-mail listing the hottest events around the city, will donate $1 to New York Cares when you sign up using this link. Sign up today (and share the link with your friends) to stay in the know and raise money for New York Cares.

New York Cares can do a lot of things with $100 — we can serve 1,800 meals to the hungry and homebound, or we can provide a low-income student with one-on-one tutoring for an entire year.

We’re asking all volunteers for New York Cares Day to raise at least $100, which would give us $800,000 to put back into the community. But can you imagine how many New Yorkers we could reach if all New York Cares volunteers raised $100?

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Honorary New York Cares staff member Asbury Corry needs your help to win the most votes in the Cutest Dog Competition!  Asbury has pledged to donate $100,000 each to New York Cares and Animal Care and Control if he wins the grand prize.

But to make it to the semi-finals, Asbury needs as many votes as possible in one week. Vote now, and share this with your dog-loving friends.

Through its Bullseye Gives campaign, Target will donate $3 million to ten charities based on your votes. Our parent organization, Hands On Network, is competing and currently has 4% of the vote.

New York Cares will share HandsOn Network’s winnings, so we need as many New Yorkers as possible to vote and help us raise money. Help us reach 10% of the vote by May 25 by voting daily.

The more you vote, the more we win!

The 15th Annual Hands On New York Day was an amazing day. 5,000 caring New Yorkers worked under bright sunshine all day to revitalize over 75 New York City parks, gardens, playgrounds, community centers, and schools. Volunteers also planted 20,000 trees throughout the five boroughs in support of MillionTreesNYC.

Thanks to everyone who participated, New York City’s public spaces are cleaner, greener, and ready for summer!

And thanks to the exceptional fundraising efforts of Hands On New York Day volunteers, we have already raised $130,000, which will help us mobilize 50,000 New York Cares volunteers to keep improving New York City in the coming year. Help us keep this good thing going by making a donation in honor of their work.