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Fellow brick slingers, please join with us in donating to your local food banks.

BigBBricksBigBBricks
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Please join with us in donating to your local food banks.

We will be giving 10% of the sales from our LEGO store to our local food bank through the end of the COVID-19 crisis and we are encouraging our fellow brick slingers to do the same.

Let's join together to give back.

More details can be found here:

Thank you for your support and feedback

- Big B

Comments

  • 11 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • CalibrickCalibrick
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    @BigBBricks, this is FANTASTIC of you!!!! We've always donated 10% of our sales to the Crohns and Colitis Foundation of America, and there is little worthier than leveraging the shared love of LEGO to support such important causes!!!

    Good for you!! We've been looking at expanding our donation %s as this year has just been wildly successful compared to previous years (maybe all the people stuck at home embracing LEGO? LEGO Masters? Who knows!), so we'll definitely add this to our list as we look at the numbers!

    I hope all our peers in all countries here consider the same! o:)

    For those Americans here running our stores as legal businesses and filing our profit with the IRS (even as sole proprietorships under Schedule C), you **can write off donations** from your Federal taxes! The rules are different for your business than if you were donating as an individual (where it must be a % of your income in order to be written off). Of course, ensure you keep written evidence and proof of your donations! I'm not a tax person, so check the IRS for more, but I've done this every year in Turbo Tax successfully. :-)

    That makes it a win-win!!
  • BigBBricksBigBBricks
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    Absolutely correct about taxes and the write offs allowed. Thanks for taking a look at this and commenting, I hope your numbers work out and you are able to join us.
  • GrahamGraham
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    @BigBBricks
    Excellent. I’m not a major player but definitely happy and willing to pledge my support in this way.
    I don’t believe our local area is in need as much as other places so will research the closest.

    All the best Graham
  • BigBBricksBigBBricks
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    Welcome to the team @Graham! Thank you for joining the cause!

    Thank you for reaching out to your local food bank, food insecurity can largely go unseen because many families are worried about outside judgement and go directly to the food banks or agencies instead to talking about it.

    I'll give you an example from my life when I was enlisted in the service and living off base years ago. We had to pay for our meals with around $165 every two weeks and the military doesn't pay the living expenses of dependents, the military member is expected to out of their base pay. I was single and the $165 sometimes covered groceries, sometimes not but no major thing as a single person with no dependents. I did often wonder how the married members with kids managed it but never asked.

    Years have gone by and now it has been reported that over half the enlisted families with children in the military are on some form of public assistance and have been for tens of years.

    tl/dr

    My point is that it was happening widespread right around me for years and I didn't know about it.

    Giving local and giving directly to the bank in the form of cash is always the most efficient way to donate.

    Thanks again for joining @Graham, I do appreciate the teamwork from big and small brick slingers alike.

    Anyone that thinks that their area isn't affected should ask because you don't know until you ask.
  • GrahamGraham
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    @BigBBricks

    Is second harvest food bank a good org? Seems to be the only one relatively close.

    I ask this due to finding out how many supposed charities pay themselves rather well (for example $2M to CEO of Red Cross, Wayne LP of NRA etc)

    Other option would be a local church that I know offers help.

    I would suggest a check not cash, never know who's got "sticky fingers"
  • BigBBricksBigBBricks
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    I would suggest going directly to the food bank and not through another institution, even one of religious nature, as some funding for the cause intended may be lost.

    I think you will be fine going with Second Harvest, probably the best choice.
  • GrahamGraham
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    Will do thanks mate!
  • GrahamGraham
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    Donation in, its been a good month for me and thence also the donation of 10%

    Bumping to encourage others to help too :smile:
  • CalibrickCalibrick
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    AWESOME, @graham!! The month has ended so I can look at my numbers tomorrow now, but I expect I'll be able to do something too on top of our usual CCFA donations. It's been a wild month!
  • BigBBricksBigBBricks
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    That's awesome! I really appreciate you and your stores participating in this, wasn't it kind of fun knowing that even with the extra work this month dumped on us that it was going to be for a good cause in the end?

    I certainly had fun this month pulling orders and slinging brick around the world, especially because of this. I'll be filming a video in the next few days as an update and I will post it here for all those that are following this little thing.

    @Graham and @Calibrick my sincerest gratitude

    - Big B
  • BigBBricksBigBBricks
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    Thanks to everyone that supported us this month. Because of your support and encouragement we were able to donate over 5000 meals to our local food bank this month. That equates to a full weeks worth of groceries for families suffering from food insecurity in our community and we're not stopping there. We will continue to donate 10% of our pre-tax earnings until the COVID crisis is over.

    My most sincere gratitude to those joining us to help take on this issue.
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