Livingston Philanthropies, Inc. (LPI), through its New Jersey Homeless initiative, has just received its largest donation ever, announced Jeff Friedman, the charity’s founder and director. “The process leading to this funding commenced about a month ago, quite by surprise, and is permeated with Livingston’s philanthropic stamp,” he said.
Friedman recounted, “I fielded a phone call from Livingston resident Charles Maltzman, who is the director at Willow Lake Day Camp in Lake Hopatcong. He shared that Willow Lake, each year, does a fundraiser for a diversity of charitable organizations. He had read about LPI’s initiative of ‘providing for the homeless, profoundly poor and disenfranchised’ in the West Essex Tribune – LPI’s stalwart partner since our humble beginnings in 2011 as a coat drive. Maltzman then approached me about dedicating this season’s 2021 family fundraising campaign to benefit LPI’s “New Jersey Homeless” initiative this season.
“As Willow Lake’s wonderful initiative on behalf of hopelessly poor folks required a proprietary website and donation process to make it seamless for generous parents who donated, I immediately called-in LPI’s brilliant ‘information technology team’ to make it all happen… and, on a tight deadline.”
As LPI does not have an actual IT team, Friedman noted, he called Livingston resident Allison Taylor “to make it all happen.” Taylor, who designed LPI’s website as a donation of her time and talent, immediately called- “internet master” Joey Flannigan, Friedman said. “Both are recent graduates of the prestigious New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark and both have ‘real jobs,’ along with busy lives. Still, they stepped up, pro bono, as the young philanthropists they obviously are.”
The “young geniuses” handled the design and execution of the specialized New Jersey Homeless website, continued Friedman, “complete with a donation button leading to the New Jersey Homeless PayPal account. I’m grateful for the hard work and skills of both. In fact, the fundraiser couldn’t and wouldn’t have happened without them.”
Finally, “Charles Maltzman directed me to the final dollar amount raised by Willow Lake Day Camp. After my popped eyeballs went back into place, I realized it’s the single largest contribution ever received by LPI,” said Friedman. “As we have been purchasing items like fresh produce, meats, diapers, baby formula, toiletries and more for prompt delivery to our distribution partners in Newark, I knew that our charitable operation would now go to the next step in terms of volume and frequency of deliveries to families who literally ...
