This morning we went down to present the 11,100.00 check to the Lincoln Nebraska Peoples City Mission homeless shelter.
The money was raised from my t-shirt auction for Affiliate Summit East 2009 won by coupon code giant retailmenot.com.
After the check presentation we got a tour of the People City Mission from Pastor Tom. The place is pretty amazing for a homeless shelter.
To start with over 90% of their money comes from private donations. They refuse to take government money in most situations because of the bureaucratic strings that come attached. Pastor Tom said, “the government has a certain way they like to do things and its not our way. We are an entrepreneurial homeless shelter. We have been running on private money for over 100 years and we make each dollar go a long way.” Over 80% of every dollar contributed goes directly to its occupants. That is a pretty insane margin for a homeless shelter.
As we continued the tour i was amazed at how much stuff they do in addition to just providing shelter to homeless people. They have a full health care clinic including surgery center and even dentists. All of this care is 100% free to ALL CITIZENS OF LANCASTER COUNTY who are uninsured!
That blew me out of the water. We have better than “universal health” care running right here in Lincoln Nebraska and its all run by a private organization and private money.
I honestly did not know that much about the Peoples City Mission other then I have a good friend who’s mother is a resident there but I am sure glad we choose it for our benefactor!
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 92 comments… read them below or add one }
I am sure this one is of great moment.
We wish that you should keep working these kind of stuff in coming days, months and years as well.
Yes i am sure Zubin
It has to be one of greatest moments of Shoe’s Life 
That’s awesome dude! Can’t wait till I can make a donation like that to help a good cause.
I read a few topics. I respect your work and added blog to favorites.
Great cause and quite the generous donation.
Completely unrealted to this articule, but dude… check out your weight!!! You’ve definitively grown some inches in the past couple of months… It’s time to get back to the gym!
I’m a huge fan of big checks. Where did you get it? Can you actually cash a big check or is it just for show?
I do not think that Jeremy will play such kind of dirty game to just show …
He do everything with dare …
A second year success for your auction.
I think that is amazing that this organization refuses the government money and does this on their own. I think you pointed out a great aspect of this charity that would often be overlooked.
This was a great choice for a charity to donate to.
Great job, and an excellent cause. We recently did the Orlando Can Care challenge and collected donations for the central Florida homeless coalition. The community provides a huge amount of donations (food, money, clothing, etc) there, too.
Yes you should do these kind of stuff … instead of sponsoring John Chow lunch … lollzz
Nice! Yeah there is a mission around here that has dental work and such too. It’s really cool that people are looking beyond the bare necessities. Good pick!
Also nice check LOL Do banks make em for you on request or do you go somewhere to get it special made? Some day I’d like to give one of those ridiculously big checks to some organization. Must be fun waiting in line with one of those in the bank LOL
Well done! That’s really awesome!
The very fact that they don’t bow down to the idol of government makes me want to donate to them.
Shows what a few truly creative and generous individuals can accomplish.
It sounds like a pretty great organization, but I would point out that Lancaster County != “the Universe”.
Nice one, good to see the money going to such a worthy cause!
Good work Shoe! What a noble thing you do with that auction money. Everyone is a winner!
Awesome!!!
Well done Shoe. They must have been very happy to see you.
Good Job, A lot of money for such a great cause. There could have been no better way this money could have been used.
Job well done.
I think it’s really great that you show your charitable giving here on the blog… not because you are showing it off (which I doubt that’s your intention), but because it inspires others to think of the day when they stroke $11K checks from their bank accounts (or through creative promotions created from their level of fame) to make a difference in the world.
Well done, and thank-you for doing good works in the world.
Jonathan
http://www.greatlegalbenefit.com/today
What the hell Prepaid Services mean …here also you start damn link building ??
Good lookin out!!
Well done! Thats really cool
Well done dude. You have always been an inspiration for me not only for monetizing online efforts but also for expressing your social concern.
Well done Shoe!
Now just to make myself sound like a pedantic a-hole. They’re the Beneficiary. You are the Benefactor.
Who is that other fellow at the right corner. We can understand people who is accepting cheque must be from People City Mission but who is that other one.
I guess his Name is Mark Thompson and he is VP of the organization. Is that right shoe ?
Which organisation ?
Awesome, donating money and seeing how it helps people out feels great.
Cheers,
Sean
That is totally rad! I have had the pleasure of getting to deliver health care to a small or medium size groups of people when money was not involved. It is amazing how efficient and low cost it can become. A friend of mine, no exaggeration, treated around 1,000 people in india in one day for no cost. Your place there is such a great example of what can be done by smart people.
Congrats, how about you give them all your weekly tshirts also?
We actually do give them all of our shirts.
That’s so nice of you Shoe
I hope one day i shall also start helping them like you 
good job shoe..may God bless u
Good stuff shoe, its nice to know your helping others.
Thats really cool, keep the giving going !!!
That is a nice gesture and one that will make anyone proud.
Really noble gesture
good job, you are great man, you know this charity will give you latter 10 times more money back, just because you are helping people
If you want to do charity than you should not do with such kind of intention.
Thats the main purpose of charity. You should do in such a way that your second hand would not know about that.
One of my pet gripes with charities is the fact that only a miniscule portion of donations actually end up benefitting the intended recepients. When you talk about a totally independent organization that realizes 80% I sit up and take notice. I feel it is important that people make sure their contributions actually go to charities that deliver, and not to fund some bloated organizations overheads & directors.
I agree with your saying Jacques
How true, most of them are money making machines not helping ones!
There are directories of charities that show the ratio between operating costs vs money that actually goes out to help people, and you can find a lot of good charities that have low overheads.
That is good to hear, because it is disconcerting thay many people don’t give heed to any charity because of the perceived black hole status of their financials. Any idea of URL’s? I’ll just Bing it otherwise
Nice move! I used to work with drug addicts and the homeless. That’s great work they are doing.
That’s a good gesture! Congrats on raising the 11k and donating it!
Very Nice work Shoe. I am so damn happy for the work which you have done by helping needy people. I would like to wish to you all the very best for doing this kind of work on monthly basis, god will give you good strength by doing such a awesome work.
You da MAN ..!!
I agree with you chris that is great work
Very nice. Way to go Shoemoney.
That is very good charity to give money to. It looks like they help a lot of people. I think more places need to give out free healthcare because most people don’t have insurance. They did a free clinic in LA and a lot of people came out for it. Greg Ellison
That is great idea do you have greg ellison, all we do for humanity is GREATT…..
Wow, that’s a nice chunk of change to give away.
That was a great thing you did. Its so nice of you to donate to the homeless shelter.
Good Stuff
Nice to see you giving back to the community bud. Hope i’ll one day be in the situation to do so.
Congrats, its one thing to become successful, its a another to give back!
Back home where I grew up they have similar thing that is available to all the people who live in the county minus the shelter, much of is is run off the church and the government. These programs are great and provide a much needed service. That is incredible that they run solely of private donations.
Great job man. It’s really good to see someone doing this for their community.
When our hands hold on too tight to our money, they can’t let anything go, but they also don’t make room for money to come IN. So having an open hand makes you a vessel and lets money go through you to more important things. It’s awesome that you guys are profiting and helping others out!
That is good advice Cigars
Way to go shoemoney…Retailmenot.com is an awesome site.
Look everyone is appreciating this and I think you have done a great job. I must say.
I hope in next 3 – 6 months we will be able to see such kind of noble act again.
Hey Jeremy … I think instead of giving whole amount to one charity you should divide them in two or three charity so that everyone can get benefit from that.
Best of Luck.
I agree with you ZK, that’s good idea
I think Jeremy have more budget on charity that he doesn;t have to split it into few parts lol
Yes Tim … that can be a reason but we have not seen here.
May be Jeremy do not want to disclose his kindness openly.
I saw that you and John is doing these kind of charity stuff.
No other blogger have come with this kind of noble idea
You did a great job there mate. Charity makes all people do be a better person. In God we trust…
Wow, few people these day who give there money to charity
Well you must be proud
Face it, it’s tough getting people to spend money on charities,People are scared and want to hold on to their money. That’s understandable.
You guys have done really good work by donating money to charity. I think every one of us should donate atleast few bucks from our income to charity.
This is very honourable of you Shoe. Lead by example.
He is truly great who hath a great charity. ~
Thomas a Kempis
It’s great to support charities, but my question is : do you have a giant checkbook to hold these oversized checks?
Very nice man! Keep it up, We salute your kindness…
Homeless charities are the only charities I give money to as I know they will go to the people who need it, unlike other charities.
Well doen to Shoe for donating it and well done to retailmenot.com for paying that much for the auction.
Anything you or I would want, they (homeless people) want, too,’We can only treat the symptoms. The cause is a societal issue. It seems like there are a lot more have-nots than there used to be.good effort Shoe.
Is that troe shoe
WOW you is great man two tumb up for you shoe
Sharing serves best always… more power shoe!
When your hands are open to give, they are also open to receive. That’s the way the story goes, good people. Try it for yourselves, it makes the journey very rewarding.
Shoe, Great Job!! I believe in the what goes around comes around. You have it coming around. I grew up in Nebreska, really Good Hearted people there, Keep up the Awesome work!!
The more you give the more you get, that’s a good point, doing charity will get you more in the future, well done Shoe
Yes this is really nice to see that people who have wealth and power now spreading this to those people who are in need.
Good cause … and would love see more and more photos of like this.
Not everybody will do the same as what you did over there. Cheers on that
what you have done is a great job, Jeremy. Hats off to you…
Really paying for used cars was great idea of US Government. I like this very much. You can change your car and get money for the old one.
What you are talking about dude … simple want to put keywords on your comments … lollzz
Put simply, I believe there are two reasons why people do it. Firstly, people give their time and money to charity because it is something that they passionately believe in.
The second reason is simply that giving feels so great – just as good if not better than receiving.
Don’t be afraid to ask friends and family to help out. Perhaps they can assist by making a few donations as well as helping to spread the word to others who may be able to help