Easton Town Center > Community Foundation > Change for Charity Program

Your parking meter change funds local charities.

Only six organizations are designated each year to receive proceeds from the parking meters and parking tickets at Easton. Each coin dropped in a meter and each ticket paid helps fund the current two-month featured local charity. Easton is pleased to partner with the following Change for Charity recipients in 2012:

Strategies Against Violence Everywhere (January-February) – SAVE is a Columbus, Ohio nonprofit 501( c )3 organization confronting the challenging issues of youth violence. SAVE's mission is: "To empower youth, through results oriented programming services, to prevent violence and promoting healthy lives." SAVE has three programs which aim to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors for at-risk youth that will enable them to not become a victim or perpetrator of violence. SAVE serves youth in grades 3-12 and our efforts focus on stopping the violence that occurs in schools and communities in this age group.

Flying Horse Farms (March-April) – Flying Horse Farms provides magical, transforming experiences for children with serious illnesses. Located on 200 acres in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, they host more than 2,500 children each year - free of charge. From helping children in wheelchairs participate in sled hockey to heating the pool for those sensitive to temperature change, they've designed every detail of the camp experience to include all children and to foster a sense of pride, accomplishment, and freedom.

Goodwill Columbus (May-June) – Goodwill Columbus has been serving the central Ohio community since 1939, building independence, quality of life and work opportunities for individuals with disabilities and other barriers. Goodwill Columbus is the seventh largest nonprofit organization in central Ohio and is among the top 100 employers. Each year Goodwill Columbus provides 1.2 million hours of service to its participants with disabilities and other barriers through training, job placement programs and work programs for individuals with developmental disabilities.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing and Cultural Arts Complex (July-August) – The King Arts Complex, a 60,000 square foot facility, is located on the near East side of Columbus, Ohio, in one of the oldest areas of African-American life in the city. The King Arts Complex is an oasis for cultural and educational activities as well as community facility for special events. Through a multidisciplinary approach, The King Arts Complex offers performing, cultural and educational programs that provide high artistic merit, varied and diverse experiences, and which increase and disseminate knowledge regarding the vast and significant contributions of African-Americans to the culture and history of America and the world.

City Year Columbus (September-October) - Children in the city of Columbus begin school far behind their suburban counterparts in literacy skills and by the fourth grade, are already grade levels behind their higher-income peers by the fourth grade. In fact, 54% of 4th graders still read below grade level, and many statistically will not graduate from high school. Columbus City Schools along with City Year and many other Columbus citizens and business leaders, are working together to improve these statistics. In 2007, Columbus City Schools announced an ambitious goal of graduating 90% of seniors by 2012. To help accomplish this goal, City Year corps members make an impact on the lives of students by providing mentoring and one-on-one tutoring programs.

I Know I Can (November-December) – I Know I Can (IKIC) was founded in 1988 as a result of the foresight, dedication and generosity of community and civic leaders who believed that no child should be denied a college education simply because they could not afford it. I Know I Can is the only college access program in Columbus, and one of the largest and most successful in the nation. Since its beginning, I Know I Can has made higher education a reality for tens of thousands of Columbus City Schools students who dreamed of a college education and worked hard to get it.

In addition to direct support from the Easton Community Foundation, Change for Charity recipients receive the benefit of signage and LCD screen exposure around Easton Town Center, as well as the opportunity to schedule use of the Easton Town Center Community Booth during the months of the Change for Charity partnership.

The Community Booth is a host location inside the Easton Station Building available for use by community groups to reach the thousands of visitors at Easton each day, and is available to qualifying 501(c)(3) organizations on a first-come, first-served application basis.

Applications for Change for Charity

Applications for the Change for Charity program are accepted through October 1st of the year preceding disbursement. Groups interested in applying for 2013 consideration should download the request form and return it with development materials to the Easton Town Center Management Office at their earliest convenience.

Past recipients of the Change for Charity program include:

ArtSafe
A Special Wish Foundation
Adventures for Wish Kids
Amethyst, Inc.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio
Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus
Buckeye Ranch
CASA of Franklin County
Center for New Direction
Center for Healthy Families
Childhood League Center
Children's Hunger Alliance
City Year Columbus
Columbus Cancer Clinic
Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence
Columbus Literacy Council
Columbus Metropolitan Library
Columbus Urban Education Fund of the Columbus Foundation
Communities in Schools
Community Shelter Board
COSI Columbus
Directions for Youth & Families
Franklin Park Conservatory
Grange Insurance Audubon Center
Habitat for Humanity
Homeless Families Foundation
Hope Street Kids
I Know I Can
Jewish Family Services
Junior Achievement of Central Ohio
King Arts Complex
Lutheran Social Services
MAP Furniture Bank
Mid-Ohio Foodbank
New Directions Career Center
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio
Rosemont Center
Salesian Boys & Girls Club of Columbus
Salvation Army
Southside Settlement House
St. Stephen's Community House
St. Vincent Family Centers
The Center for Child & Family Advocacy
The James Cancer Hospital
The YWCA of Central Ohio

To pay your parking ticket online, please visit http://www.eastoncommunityfoundation.org