2022 Friendly Fundraisers Wrapped

Each year, The Friendly Toast chooses a variety of local nonprofit organizations to donate a portion of our specials’ proceeds to, lovingly named our Friendly Fundraisers. Each Friendly Toast location joins together to donate $1 from the sales of both food and drink specials to their chosen charity, helping us to give back to the variety of communities that we are lucky enough to serve and call home. Throughout 2022, The Friendly Toast partnered with and donated to eight nonprofits, raising a total of $60,031. Read on to learn more about our 2022 nonprofits. 

Our 2022 Friendly Fundraiser Beneficiaries

Piscataqua Land Conservancy - $11,734

The Piscataqua Land Conservancy (PLC) is a nonprofit land conservancy organization in the Merrimack Valley of southern New Hampshire. Founded in 1970, the PLC is dedicated to the conserving of land, water, and wildlife of a variety of communities throughout southern New Hampshire. Their conservation efforts include protecting clean water sources and wildlife habitats, building and maintaining trails, monitoring their 134 New Hampshire properties, hosting educational and recreational outreach programs, and more. The organization's modest annual operating budget is funded almost entirely by the generous contributions of their community. 

Winter Walk - $7,465

The Winter Walk, which saw two rounds of donations throughout the year, is an initiative raising awareness and funds to help end homelessness in the greater Boston area. The initiative centers on an annual two mile walk through the streets of the city in February, the coldest month of the year, to demonstrate just a fraction of the hardships that the homeless community face throughout the harsh New England winters. Walking together, shoulder to shoulder, housed and unhoused, allows participants to humbly listen to the stories of those experiencing homelessness and to show a commitment to ease their struggles. 100% of the funds raised by Winter Walk are distributed to their partner organizations, carefully chosen nonprofits who are dedicated champions of the homeless, each addressing a different aspect of the homelessness challenge to create a collective and comprehensive expertise. 

World Central Kitchen (Ukraine) - $16,092

World Central Kitchen (WCK) is a nonprofit organization that provides meals and resilient food systems to communities in crisis. The organization provides raw ingredients, teams of cooks, and sources and hires locals to partake in their cooking and distribution efforts, helping to jump-start economic recovery through food. WCK has been on the frontlines following a variety of humanitarian, climate, and community catastrophes, including the war in Ukraine.

Within hours of the initial invasion, WCK began serving hot, nourishing meals to Ukrainian families. As they continued to serve meals to those in need in the early months of the conflict, their response grew to mobilizing teams of cooks in Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia, Spain, and Germany. WCK is bringing hundreds of thousands of daily meals and pounds of food to over 9,000 distribution sites, and distributing tens of thousands of food kits each day to affected individuals and families. 

GLAD - $8,244

GLAD, the GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, work across the country to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation. GLAD’s fierce advocacy for the rights of LGBTQ+ people is expressed through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and educational efforts to tackle issues that tear down outdated laws and stereotypes. Since 1978, GLAD’s bold litigation has achieved precedent-setting victories on behalf of LGBTQ+ people and those living with HIV, including the passing of robust LGBTQ+ rights laws such as the freedom to marry nationwide. 

USOW - $6,726

USOW, the United State of Women, seeks to create a world in which women and all people of marginalized genders can thrive. USOW aims to amplify issues at the intersection of gender and racial justice through education, action, and community. Established in 2016 from the Obama Administration’s Council on Women and Girls, USOW sits at the intersection of policy, community engagement, culture change, and leadership development as they serve as a go-to platform to address issues facing women and other marginalized genders. 

Waypoint NH - $9,770

Waypoint NH is a nonprofit organization that provides an array of human services and advocacy throughout New Hampshire. Through their 16 sites across the state, Waypoint provides communities with services including but not limited to: adoption, prenatal support, child care, mental health counseling, family preservation, foster care, homeless youth continuum, home healthcare, and continuous advocacy for communities affected by these situations. Waypoint has been advocating for the people of New Hampshire since the 1850s, empowering people of all ages through their human services. 

Community Servings - (Included in Waypoint NH donations)

Community Servings works to actively engage community members to provide tailored, nutritious, scratch-made meals to chronically and critically ill individuals and their families. The organization's registered dietitians work closely with clients to develop tailored nutrition care plans that help them to manage their medical conditions, offer guidance for managing nutrition-related medication side effects, and provide patients and their families with nutritional meals. Each year, Community Servings provides over 875,000 meals to 4,000 individuals and families struggling with life-threatening illnesses. 

Burlington City Arts -  (Proceeds donated in early 2023)

For over 30 years, Burlington City Arts (BCA) has nurtured a dynamic environment through the arts, making quality experiences accessible to a broad audience. BCA supports and promotes artists across Vermont, advances the creation of new work, offers a wide spectrum of education and engagement opportunities, and presents exhibitions and events to promote dialogue and local participation surrounding the arts. Serving as Burlington’s cultural planner, BCA is integral to the area’s economic and civic development, using the arts to place Burlington in a global context and further improve the livability of the city.