HeroFest®
Giving Back... To Those Who Gave So Much
Are my gifts tax deductible?
How do you select the charities you give money to?
We are a brand new organization currently working to set up a highly independent Charitable Giving Advisory Board (CGAB) to screen and approve the best and most worthy charities. The CGAB will consist of representatives from non-profit veterans' organizations and the military, business and entertainment communities.
Charities will be selected based on Inclusion and Ranking Criteria (IRC) determined and approved by the CGAB. In general, IRC will be based on advice from non-profit organizations whose missions are to monitor and evaluate the worthiness of charity groups.
The IRC will be used to determine a Master List of Approved Charities (MLAC) that HeroFest may give money to .
The IRC and the MLAC will be published here on our website.
What are the current Inclusion and Ranking Criteria (IRC) you use to select charities?
- Rating of A- or greater rating by the organization CharityWatch AND
- Minimum 4 star rating as listed by the organization Charity Navigator.
What charities are listed on your current Master List of Approved Charities (MLAC)?
The following charities qualify based on the initial IRC rules, subject to amendment upon establishment of the Charitable Giving Advisory Board (CGAB)*:
- Armed Services YMCA of the USA
- Fisher House Foundation
- Homes For Our Troops
- Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund
- Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America
- National Military Family Association
- Operation Homefront
- Semper Fi Fund/Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
- Discretionary funding (per CGAB rules)
*Note: The listing of the above named organizations does not indicate any endorsement of HeroFest by these organizations.
How do you give away the money you raise?
At the discretion of the Charitable Giving Advisory Board (CGAB), money may be either distributed through project-specific grants or given directly to the organizations for use as they see fit. On an annual basis, we will show how all gifts have been distributed here, on our web site.
How much of my donation actually goes to the charities you have selected?
In general, a minimum of 90% of your donation will be distributed to veterans' charities or used to put on the HeroFest® event to raise money for veterans' charities. This is how we operate:
- Leading up to the initial HeroFest annual event, all donations will be directed towards producing the event.
- All proceeds from the HeroFest event after expenses will be placed into a Charitable Giving Pool (CGP) for distribution to veterans' charities in the following manner:
- Up to 15% of proceeds may be placed into an escrow fund to be used to produce the next HeroFest event within three years or else donated to veterans' charities.
- Up to 10% of proceeds may be retained by HeroFest and used to cover administrative expenses required to operate its programs.
- The rest of the money will placed into the Charitable Giving Pool (CGP) to be distributed to veterans' charities at the direction of the Charitible Giving Advisory Board (CGAB) or in the manner we have indicated to the public as part of our fund raising activities.