One of the fundamental values of Valens Point is to give back to the communities in which we work and live. This involves charitable donations, as well as hands-on involvement in giving our time. We believe we are fortunate to have the opportunity to have a successful small business which gives us many benefits in our daily lives. Therefore, we want to pay it forward in the hope that people who are currently facing challenges and need the help of these charities will have the opportunity to live their dreams.

• United Way of Treasure Valley

  United Way of Treasure Valley advances the common good by focusing on education, income and health. These are the building blocks for a good life – a quality education that leads to a stable job, enough income to support a family through retirement, and good health.

  Their goal is to create long-lasting changes that prevent problems from happening in the first place.  Everyone is invited to be part of the change. Together, united, we can inspire hope and create opportunities for a better tomorrow.

  The focus of their work is in two major areas:

  • The Community Fund:  the foundation of their work, and crucial to helping those in times of need.
  • Initiatives:  United Way identifies the most pressing issues in the community, and brings together caring people to find ways to solve them.

• United Way Direct Impact Response Team (D.I.R.T.)

  The United Way Direct Impact Response Team (D.I.R.T.) is a grassroots approach to real community engagement and change.

  Once a month, we power through a volunteer project over our lunch hour. Get-your-hands-dirty-you’re-really-going-to-work projects. Show up, get dirty, change your clothes (did we mention that you’re going to get dirty?), go back to your desk and you say to yourself–wow–I really DID something today.

  If you’re busy and overcommitted, but you secretly wish that the Justice League was real and that you were on it, DIRT‘s for you.

  It’s not glamorous work, but it’s the right thing to do.

• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

  St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, located in Memphis, Tennessee, is one of the world’s premier pediatric cancer research centers. Its mission is to find cures for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases through research and treatment.

  Research efforts are directed at understanding the molecular, genetic and chemical bases of catastrophic diseases in children; identifying cures for such diseases; and promoting their prevention. Research is focused specifically on cancers, some acquired and inherited immunodeficiencies, sickle cell disease, infectious diseases and genetic disorders.

  About 5,400 active patients are seen at St. Jude yearly, most of whom are treated on a continuing outpatient basis as part of ongoing research programs. The hospital also has 78 beds for patients requiring hospitalization during treatment. St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and from around the world.

  Patients at St. Jude are referred by a physician, and nearly all have a disease currently under study and are eligible for a research protocol. St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. No child is ever denied treatment because of the family’s inability to pay.

• Special Olympics

  Around the world, people with intellectual disabilities are humanity’s forgotten ones. At best, they are underestimated, excluded from activities and subject to discrimination. At worst, they are caged like animals: warehoused away in institutions, discarded by society and living in a nightmare of physical and emotional pain.

  For many of the 200 million people worldwide who have intellectual disabilities, Special Olympics is their only hope – their only chance to participate in sport, to experience joy, to receive basic health care and to be part of their communities. Through Special Olympics, their lives change radically. They discover inner strength and capabilities that change their minds about their own self-worth, and the minds of everyone around them.

• Save The Manatee Club

  Save the Manatee Club is an award-winning national nonprofit 501(c)(3) and membership-based organization established in 1981 by renowned singer/songwriter, Jimmy Buffett, and former U.S. Senator, Bob Graham, when he was governor of Florida.

  Human activities are harming manatees, and only our compassion and action can protect them.

  Manatees are Florida’s official state marine mammal. They are listed as endangered at the international level by the IUCN World Conservation Union, at the federal level by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and at the state level by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Manatees are endangered largely due to human activity. Since record-keeping began in 1974, more than 41% of manatee deaths where cause of death was identified were human-related – and almost 34% were due to watercraft collisions (the largest known cause of manatee deaths). With increased awareness, education, regulations, and enforcement, manatee deaths caused by humans could be substantially reduced, and the eventual recovery of the species could be realized.

• Friends In Action Of The Eastern Panhandle

  Friends in Action of the Eastern Panhandle is a non-profit organization established in 2004 to assist low-income families build self-sufficiency and achieve economic, educational and social improvements in their lives.  Friends in action strives to strengthen families and build community.

  Friends in Action facilitates the linking of low-income families and volunteer mentor teams who act as surrogate family and friends.  They help their mentee family break down seemingly impossible goals into manageable objectives and actions.  Friends in Action does not solve problems, but helps families learn to rely on their own unique strengths to face and improve their lives. 

  Families are introduced to FIAEP by a local social service agency.  Each family is linked with a mentor team, made up of 5-8 volunteers, for a period of one year.   Mentors help families become more independent and plant seeds of hope by offering support such as:

  • serving as role models and providing emotional support,
  • helping with budgeting and parenting skills,
  • tutoring a child or helping a parent acquire a GED, or obtain a job
  • celebrating the good times and helping get past the rough spots.

• Feeding America

  Feeding America is the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity.  Our mission is to feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger.

  Each year, the Feeding America network provides food to more than 25 million low-income people facing hunger in the United States, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.

  Our network of more than 200 food banks serves all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, securing and distributing more than 2.5 billion pounds of food and grocery products annually. Those member food banks support approximately 63,000 local charitable agencies and 70,000 programs, which provide food directly to individuals and families in need.

• Children's National Medical Center

  Children’s National Medical Center is the only exclusive provider of pediatric care in the metropolitan Washington area and is the only freestanding children’s hospital between Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Norfolk, and Atlanta. Serving the nation’s children for more than 130 years, Children’s National is a proven leader in the development and application of innovative new treatments for childhood illness and injury.

  Children’s internationally recognized team of pediatric healthcare professionals care for more than 360,000 patients each year who come from throughout the region, nation and world. Serving as an advocate for all children, Children’s is the largest non-governmental provider of pediatric care in the District of Columbia, providing more than $50 million in uncompensated care. In addition, Children’s serves as the regional referral center for pediatric emergency, trauma, cancer, cardiac and critical care as well as neonatology, orthopaedic surgery, neurology, and neurosurgery.

• Breast Cancer 3-Day

  Thousands of women and men come together, each raising money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund. Then they take their commitment to end breast cancer one step further and walk 60 miles over the course of three days.

  Eighty-five percent of the net proceeds of this event go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  Every advancement in breast cancer research, treatment, education and prevention in the last 25 years has been touched by a Komen for the Cure grant.

  The remaining fifteen percent of net funds goes to the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund to provide a permanent endowment for ongoing support of breast cancer initiatives.