IACF Annual Grants Event Provides $52K for Local Charities
HOUSTON: Indo-American Charity Foundation (IACF) Grants Night was held on Saturday, August 5, 2023 at 11:30 am at Narin’s Bombay Brasserie. There was a significant turnout. The event raised $52,000 to benefit local charities. The beneficiaries were all very grateful for the funding, and they shared their stories with the audience.
IACF was founded in 1988 by a group of Houstonians of Indian origin (Indo-American) compelled by an altruistic desire to give back to their local community. IACF’s mission to help the underprivileged originated with the effort
to fight hunger and has now developed into a multi-faceted philanthropic endeavor to help those in need in the Greater Houston Area. The commitment of IACF to local communities is well represented in our motto “ WE LIVE
HERE, WE GIVE HERE”. Over the past 36 years, IACF has raised millions of dollars to support a wide range of charitable causes.
For the last 36 years, IACF has appealed to the philanthropic spirit of the Indo-American community in Houston to work in four key areas: “ E- F- G -H” : Education, Family, General Welfare and Healthcare. According to IACF President Rajesh Diconda: IACF has been active and did a lot of work in our local communities and around the world during two years of COVID. Thanks to past president Joseph and all my colleagues on board we donated for two 10-bed ICU Hospital units in India during the peak of covid with a donation of $100k. IACF distributed more that 15000 masks during the initial stages of Covid surge and many more activities.
This year has started well and IACF in executing all their signature events. IACF had a very successful scholarship distribution event on April 16, 2023 in which we awarded scholarships to about 26 Students from Fort Bend, Katy and Alief ISDs with a total sum of $40,000. We also had donors who had pledged to donate a rolling scholarship spanning about 4 to 5 years.
We had a successful Walkathon on April 22, 2023 which was well attended by community members and community leaders and raised money during the event. IACF has in its midst very kind and honorable souls who are associated
with charities doing selfless services in all the areas we focus of Education, Family, General Welfare and Healthcare in local Houston community.
Dikonda thanked the grants committee, which worked tirelessly to go through the strict filtration process in place to select the recipients. He also thanked all the charity representatives who are partners in this effort. The charities
benefitting from IACF included:
- Attack Poverty
- Asians against Domestic Abuse
- Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston and Houston
- Child Advocates of Fort Bend
- Child Advocates, Inc.
- Fort Bend Seniors Meals on Wheels
- Hindu Charities of America (HC4A)
- Indian Doctors Charity Clinic,
- Indo-American Cancer Network
(IACAN) - iEducate USA
- Parents Engagement for Active Children’s Engagement (PEACE)
- Parks Youth Ranch
- Prevent Blindness Texas
- Search Homeless Services
- Second Servings of Houston
- Sleep in Heavenly Peace
- Wellspring Village, Inc.
- YMCA of Greater Houston
- YMCA Camp Cullen
IACF Annual Gala will be held on September 9 at the Stafford Center.