So you may have noticed on our store pages we have a little piece of text that says we donate 10% of all of Epiphany City's profits. Well it took us awhile to decide where to donate the money, but as promised we have done just that, and we've settled on donating the money to specialized adoption coalitions.
Why Adoption?
There are many places our money could have gone. In the past we've donated to BLM initiatives (specifically BLM Chicago), feeding the homeless initiatives, and human trafficking prevention among many others. However after doing some research we've decided that our money would have the highest beneficial impact if we aided the adoption of orphans.
There are many reasons for this, but the bottom line is, almost any problem in society you want to improve can be solved by adoption. Homelessness, education and drop-out rates, drug and alcohol abuse, crime and prison overcrowding, unemployment, financial instability, illness and mental health, obesity, early mortality, you name it, adoption probably has it covered.
In addition, there are a whole host of debilitating issues that occur in children without loving parents. Growing up without a father figure increases school drop-out rates by 71%, delinquency and crime by 85%, homelessness by 90%, teen pregnancy increases by 5-8x, drug and alcohol abuse drastically increases, and even 60% of all youth suicides are from fatherless homes. Of course, growing up WITH attentive parents provides an immeasurable amount of benefit as well, including 55% more likely to enroll in college, 130% more likely to hold leadership positions, and tons more. I don't need to go into too many details as this is stuff anyone can google themselves, but it is one of the most debilitating circumstances to have to grow up without loving parents.
However, solely providing support for adoption agencies alone results in a whole new host of challenges, as there are unfortunately many families who sign up for adoption or foster care solely to reap extra financial benefits. So with that in mind, we've donated $2,000 to Foster the City, which is a coalition that works with licensed foster and adoption agencies to both pre-approve and support families that can provide the loving care that orphans need. We've also donated $366.58 to Berean Community Church which runs its own internal adoption agency that does almost the exact same thing.
We chose these two adoption organizations for 3 reasons. First, as we said, both are very diligent about which families qualify for adoption, as there are many aspects to consider when finding a proper home for an orphan. Second, our funds are relatively limited, so giving a small(ish) amount to a gigantic corporation may not only barely make a difference in their bottom line, but may also be used less efficiently, as there can be much more red tape to work through and friction/interference from various levels of government. And third, I have personally met with or spoken to people from both organizations, so I have been able to personally scout out and verify the people in charge and how they operate. Foster the City in particular had a base out in the Northern California Bay Area (Foster the Bay), which is where I was located for the majority of Epiphany City's development, so I wanted to aid that location as well.
Also I shouldn't have to say this, but just in case I do want to note that I am not personally affiliated with either of the organizations or benefit from any of their operations, so it's not like I'm just paying myself in a roundabout way or anything.
Last but not least, Epiphany City is at a limited time discount of 25% off! This is the deepest discount we've had EVER, so if that's what you've been waiting for, now's the time =)
Thank you so much for reading this particular email as it means a lot to me, and I hope you have a wonderful week.
- Dave