John R. Burgess nominated to receive the American Spirit Medal

$6,000 Donation to the Hispanic Heritage Organization

$50,000 Donation to the Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU

$25,000 Donation to POWER

$3,000 Donation to Local Choir and St. Mary Parish

$10,000 Donation to the Hispanic Heritage Organization

IPA Charities Has Contributed $2,500 to the Chicago Foundation for Women.

Special Olympics

Martin Luther King Dinner

Red Cross

Hispanic Heritage

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center

Columbine Memorial

Operation Hope

Operation HOPE’s Banking On Our Future (BOOF) Program

IPA Charities Donates to the BCLC Disaster Assistance and Recovery Program

IPA Charities contributed $15,000 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) Disaster Assistance and Recovery Program (DAR). The donation was used to sponsor a forum previously held in March and also an upcoming disaster response simulation in June.

IPA was a featured patron at the BCLC’s forum, Lessons Learned about Long-term Recovery, held on March 15, 2007 at the U.S Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC. The forum focused on the recent efforts in disaster recovery and identified some areas of improvement to better advance these efforts in the future. Attendees reached two conclusions to improve disaster recovery efforts:

  • The need for local businesses in disaster areas to return to normal operations to improve the economy; and
  • The importance of increasing the efficiency in public-private coordination and cooperation at the community level to expedite response time when disaster strikes.

On June 8, 2007, BCLC will hold the Cross-Sector Disaster Response Simulation at the UPS Headquarters in Atlanta.

BCLC has been involved with business disaster response issues since 1998 and their current focus, over the past six months, is on the establishment of a national funding organization aimed at providing relief for disaster-stricken communities. According to BCLC records, business disaster aid in 2005 reached an unprecedented $1.9 billion, including contributions for the Southeast Asia tsunami, Gulf Coast hurricanes, Pakistan-India earthquake and other natural disasters around the world.

The Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) is a 501(c)3 affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation. BCLC's mission is to advance the positive role of business in society. They work with leaders from business, government and non- governmental organizations to address and act on shared goals. The overarching goal is to help build good will, good relations and good markets by focusing work on current issues that affect businesses from a social and economic standpoint. The BCLC helps build good will and addresses social issues that concern business, including corporate social responsibility, nonprofit and social service effectiveness, globalization, education and disaster assistance. It was founded in May 2000 as the Center for Corporate Citizenship (CCC) and stemmed from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's informal creation of corporate public service coalitions and the fact that corporate citizenship was an emerging area of business management strategy.