We are pleased to kick off our 2022 #GivingTuesday fundraiser. We are raising money for Turkish American Cultural Association of Michigan (TACAM) and your contribution will make an impact, whether you donate $5 or $500. This year’s goal is $5,000!
You can donate to TACAM 2022 #GivingTuesday fundraiser by visiting our fundraiser page in Facebook. Alternatively, you may also use our donation page for credit card or Paypal payments (tacam.org/donate), or mail a check made payable to TACAM to 28847 Beck Road, Wixom MI 48393.
TACAM, a non-profit organization, solely relies on your membership and generous donations. Although the entire TACAM board are volunteers, TACAM’s major annual expenses remain to be our property taxes (approximately $10,000), insurance, and general maintenance including those related to our Ataturk Park. Furthermore, TACAM continue to support students with scholarships both in Turkey and in Michigan. In 2022, we are providing a scholarship to one college student in Michigan and 2 students in Turkey through our collaboration with Bridge to Turkey and Cagdas Yasami Destekleme Dernegi.
We appreciate all donors and members for their diligent support over the years. Your donations and membership fees have continued covering most of our expenses in 2022. Although TACAM is not in a financial crisis thanks to our careful cash management, we strongly urge you to donate to our fundraiser so that TACAM can continue sponsoring important programs such as Turkish classes for children which started in December 2020, celebration of national days, educational, informative webinars, supporting our TACAM Highschool Chapter and maintaining our Cultural Center and Atatürk Park years to come.
There are few other ways that you can support TACAM at no cost to you:
1) Matching Donations: Did you know TACAM is a non-profit, charitable, 501c3 organization that is eligible for matching gifts? Many corporations offer these matching gifts, and your donation goes longer with these corporate matches. If your employer offers a matching gift, please contact us at contact@tacam.org and we will be happy to provide our EIN number, address any other information needed to complete your matching application.
2) Kroger Community Rewards Program: Simply visit kroger.com. Create or log into your Kroger account, then search for Turkish American Cultural Association of Michigan either by name or by the code HN687 and then click Enroll. New users will need to create an account which requires some basic information, a valid email address, and your rewards card number. Here is a short video explaining how to create an account and enroll.
3) Amazon Smile Program: If this is the first time, when you go to smile.amazon.com, search TACAM in the area “pick your own charitable organization” and then select it, and going forward, for your shopping use smile.amazon.com instead of just amazon.com. It is exactly the same as amazon.com, only difference being a fraction of your spendings is donated by amazon.com to TACAM, with no additional cost to you.
Turkish American Cultural Association of Michigan, founded in 1972, follows the philosophy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, who stated: “Culture is the foundation of the Turkish Republic.” His view of culture encompassed the nation’s creative legacy as well as the best values of world civilization. It stressed personal and universal humanism. “Culture,” he said, “is a basic element in being a person worthy of humanity,” and described Turkey’s ideological thrust as “a creation of patriotism blended with a lofty humanist ideal.” Thus, TACAM wants to instill this philosophy into all Turkish Americans living in Michigan.
Mehmet Erdem Yaya
November 23, 2022
