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Giving Thanks

Giving thanks is an outwardly focused activity. It is a personal opportunity to express gratitude towards those in our lives who mean so much to who we have become over the last year. With this intent in mind, I would like to give thanks to you for everything you provide the Charitable Union.

There is no doubt spirit gets you down your path, but at the same time concrete reality keeps you on it! Your gifts to Charitable Union are the solid background of our mission – the reality to our strivings.  Because of you we:

  • clothe children all year long; including our special efforts to clothe school children for the first day of school and for our bitter Michigan winters
  • support new mothers and their newborns with baby layettes, formula and diapers
  • provide the homeless with weather-appropriate gear such as sleeping bags, tents, and thermal underwear
  • assist school girls with free prom dresses and feminine hygiene materials
  • help disaster victims with immediate and longer-term assistance, such as with clothing and household items as they move away from the disaster to rebuilding their lives
  • aid low-income seniors with incontinence materials, and,
  • facilitate the full involvement of adults in the work-world with steel-toed work shoes, business suits and attire, scrubs, and hospitality uniforms

While we recognize all of the gifts you have given us in the past, we earnestly ask you to continue to support our efforts to bring help that brings hope in Calhoun County! Please consider giving a year-end contribution to our on-going operation.

On behalf of the board of directors and myself, I wish you the very best for 2019 and the continued well-being of your family. Happy holidays!

Sincerely,

Teresa Allen
Executive Director

 

Our Impact This Year

  • 38,944

  • Households Served in 2018

    15,521

  • Volunteer Hours in 2018

    38,602

  • Backdoor Donors in 2018

    7,477

News & Notes

Charitable Union received a wonderful gift recently from Chapel Hill United Methodist Church. The above stained glass art piece now hangs in the window in front of the building on 85 Calhoun street. It depicts the charitable works that our agency has been a part of for the past 132 years here in the Battle Creek and surrounding Calhoun County area. On behalf of the board, staff and clients at Charitable Union, thank you Chapel Hill Methodist Church!

  • Peter Christ

    I've lived and worked in this area for most of my life and I care deeply about this community and its future. In my opinion, the future of our community will be determined by how we collectively care for our children, not just the children in our family, but all our children. When children don't have the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter it is hard for them to be concerned about learning.

    Many of us live in areas where we don't see the children and parents who are so deeply impacted by poverty, but our teachers see them every day. And make no mistake - each of our local school districts have children who live in poverty....

    Right now in Calhoun County, nearly 22,000 people are living in grinding poverty. That includes one in four local children and thousands of local seniors. And I know we can do better as a community in helping these people to help themselves.

    So where do we start? For me, the journey out of poverty begins with the basics: clothing, shoes, bedding and basic infant-care items. Kids need them to grow up healthy and succeed in school.

    Adults need them to get and keep a job. Seniors need them to stay warm. While many organizations and individuals are working to help, Charitable Union is a key player in the journey out of poverty, and it has been since 1887….

    Today, I invite you -- I urge you -- to help lead our community by making your pledge. Gifts of any amount will help, but I'd encourage you to consider seriously making a "stretch gift” that goes beyond what you may have given before. The rewards you'll reap from giving will last a lifetime!

    With Hope and Gratitude,
    Peter J. Christ
    Former CEO, Battle Creek Community Foundation

© 2019 Charitable Union
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Privacy Policy

  1. What Information Do We Collect? When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.
  2. Personal Information You Choose to Provide We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number and other personal information for such purposes as correspondence, placing an order, requesting an estimate, or participating in online surveys. If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.
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  7. Notice of New Services and Changes Occasionally, we may use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. As a user of our website, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers by clicking on a response box when you receive such an offer or by sending us an email request.
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  9. How Do We Protect Your Information? Information Security -- We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration or destruction. Evaluation of Information Protection Practices -- Periodically, our operations and business practices are reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information. Employee Access, Training and Expectations -- Our organization values, ethical standards, policies and practices are committed to the protection of user information. In general, our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
  10. How Can You Access and Correct Your Information? You may request access to all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our database by emailing us using the contact form provided to you within the site structure of our website.
  11. Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties? We may provide aggregate information about our customers, sales, website traffic patterns and related website information to our affiliates or reputable third parties, but this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy.
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Terms & Conditions

Terms & Conditions

Donation Refund Policy

We are grateful for your donation and support of our organization. If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to our organization please contact us. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.

Automated Recurring Donation Cancellation

Ongoing support is important to enabling projects to continue their work, so we encourage donors to continue to contribute to projects over time. But if you must cancel your recurring donation, please notify us.

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