When Kindness Strikes

I believe we’re in an era that is considerably more challenging for many non-profits, if not most, to effectively operate. Limited resources must go towards services and core needs, yet communicating the need for assistance is essential to amplify messaging and bring in more funds and overall support. The economy surely plays a big part in the challenge for non-profit recipients and with individual and corporate funders as well. I do not recall a similar time of increasingly rigid requirement of accountability to non-profits along with a political climate that is well-beyond disruptive in the philanthropic sector. Cuts in federal funding are especially severe; those at the state and county level represent a clear and present danger, too.

The U.S. government has for decades continued to dig a massive, potentially unfillable fiscal hole. Cuts in funding and waste are warranted. The politicized nature of the current administration, however, has created monumental challenges for non-profit agencies to effectively operate and in some cases to even survive. In the Philanthropy Industry Outlook Report on Page 57, our 2025 Philanthropist of the Year Mike Brown states what we don’t want to hear but need to know: “Everybody’s lives around the table are going to be tougher” in the coming years. With less federal funding, he says, “it all comes down to messaging” for non-profits.   

Why we encourage companies to fund ads for non-profits

In 2013 we established the Give a Charity a Chance program, by which  non-profits with an ad or profile page in Ingram’s December Philanthropy Edition can tell their story and become eligible for a $25,000 drawing for ads in Ingram’s the following year.

Here is the list of organizations who have received $25,000 in advertising in Ingram’s since the first drawing:

2014: Culture House-Störling Dance Theater

2015: Children International

2016: reStart

2017: City Union Mission

2018: Down Syndrome Guild (now Down Syndrome Innovations)

2019: Harvesters—The Community Food Network

2020: Wayside Waifs

2021: Cristo Rey

2022: The Salvation Army

2023: Police Athletic League

2024: Alphapointe

2025: Midwest Innocence Project

2026: Down Syndrome Innovations

All told, $325,000 in ads in Ingram’s have been provided to support messaging for non-profits, with sponsors stepping in to fund most of them.

Here is how the Give a Charity a Chance program works:

• Companies, individuals or non-profits themselves commit to a marketing page in Ingram’s December Philanthropy Edition at the deeply discounted rate of $2,992.

• Ingram’s matches the marketing-page spend and provides a second ad or profile page on behalf of each qualified non-profit. Each qualified non-profit receives $9,960 in value of ads (including its ad and the one Ingram’s matches to be placed in another 2026 edition).   

• A drawing is made from the names of qualified non-profits and the winner of $25,000 in print or digital ads in Ingram’s is publicly announced.

• The drawing for this year’s gift was made at our Philanthropist of the Year luncheon Dec. 19 at Rockhurst High School, where Will Bergman of Midwest Trust drew this year’s winner: Down Syndrome Innovations. This becomes the first time since the program began in 2013  where a non-profit won for the second time. Congratulations to our friends at Down Syndrome Innovations and a special thanks to KBP Brands, which funded the ad on behalf of DSI in 2017 and in 2025. 

Good corporate citizens know their investment in non-profits helps amplify their message to prospective donors. 

A Special Thanks to Creative Planning

One of the area’s most extraordinary philanthropic organizations is Creative Planning. Veronica and Peter Mallouk and the remarkable team at Creative Planning stepped up and sponsored marketing pages in this Philanthropy Edition for 10 terrific non-profits, making each eligible for the $25,000 in ads in Ingram’s drawing. These organizations and others enjoy exposure to more than 66,000 influential and affluent business executives with average individual incomes of $313,000 and HH incomes of $391,000. Citizens and prospects who matter.

This edition of Ingram’s includes stories of many philanthropic heroes, corporate champions and extraordinary selfless philanthropists. We believe every person and company can play a role in philanthropy and help serve the needs of this community. Ingram’s is a small company with talented journalists committed to sharing stories of ordinary people performing acts of extraordinary kindness.

We thank each organization and individual who contributed to make this 29th Philanthropy Edition a reality. We cover a lot of ground with diverse programming over the course of each year, but I believe you’re holding the most important publication we produce. Thanks to our advertisers, including those who sponsored the non-profit of their choice, and to Veronica and Peter Mallouk for their remarkable gift to significantly support 10 fortunate area non-profits.

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 2025