Welcome Wednesday: favorite causes?

[Dave Liao]

If you're lucky enough have spare time or money, what causes do you support, and why?

Curious where the Community splits its focus!

[deluxe sande]

I would support young innovators who lack the infrastructure or knowledge to push out their ideas to the world.

[Sean Perry]

For the last 8 years (this year will be my 9th) I have taken part in a charity bike ride, always in the last week of August, supporting a small charity called Le Cure.

Le Cure was established in 2014 to raise money for cancer research. Every August, our annual cycle event “Le Cure de France” sees Curistas take on some of the Tour de France’s toughest climbs in the French Alps over four gruelling days. So far we have raised over £3.3 million for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity in the UK, and created six Le Cure research fellowships.

In 2026, riders will again climb more vertical metres than Mount Everest and finish in Alpe d’Huez.

I’m passionate about cycling, and like many others, I’ve seen friends and family affected by cancer. Supporting this cause gives real meaning to my efforts, gives me a reason to train, and I’ve encouraged friends to join me who now take part regularly.

[Dave Liao]

@Sean Perry - thank you for sharing, and you rock for biking such a course! 🚲🚲🚲

@Andy Gladstone - I feel like Le Cure de France is right up your alley bike lane!

[Andy Gladstone]

@Dave Liao how well you know me! I have participated in a similar event here in the US. They raise over $10M each year. Bike 4 Chai supports the efforts of Chai Lifeline to improve the lives of children with illness, and started specifically focused on children stricken with cancer and has expanded to include a multitude of critical pediatric illnesses. 

[Sean Perry]

@Andy Gladstone Le Cure has participants from all over the world, although most come from the UK. The group is 70 riders on average each year, plus support crew. We have one regular American participant, but in the past we've had people from UAE, New Zealand, Canada, America, South Africa....

Bike4Chai sounds like a larger concern. I like LeCure as it has no admin costs, everything we raise goes to the research; the route, bookings etc. are all volunteer run, quite an achievement each year, as the route is always different. 

[Stephen_Lugton]

Throughout the year I do charity events, such as:

Date: Saturday 13 June 2026 

Location: Battersea Park, London 

https://marchformen.prostatecanceruk.org/

---

Dates: 1 July to 30 September 2026

Location: Anywhere

https://step.diabetes.org.uk/

[Brita Moorus]

I don't actively support one single cause at the moment, but I really value initiatives around mental health and education, especially when they're local and practical. I also try to help in smaller ways when I can - donating, sharing awareness or supporting people directly around me 💙

[Barbara Szczesniak]

I support my local food pantry by donating food regularly and extra money around the holidays.

[Dave Liao]

You just reminded me to contribute time to my local food bank (Philabundance!).

Forever ago we participated in a food packing event, and I'm pretty sure some of the volunteers recreated a Supermarket Sweeps situation. 😂

[Dave Liao]

🙏 I've been supporting a few non-profits, and I'll highlight two:

• Friends of the Rail Park - their mission is to maintain and eventually extend the current Rail Park (an elevated park built on a long-retired railroad line). They bring needed life to Center City, and their goal to connect neighborhoods means a lot to me.
• IssueVoter - a nonpartisan, nonprofit online platform that presents American users with upcoming bills that will be voted upon. Via their app (or mobile web site) you can express your support or opposition to those bills. The votes are then aggregated and sent to their representatives. You can also see how often your rep votes with you (or not).

[Matt Doar _Adaptavist_]

I know Atlassian, Adaptavist and Appfire (and others not starting with A) all have active internal donation and work programs where they match time and money. I think that this is a great way to also get to build teams.

As a family we donate money to a number of local causes - small businesses, LGBTQ+ orgs, food needs, education and some individuals directly. But most of our giving is to our Episcopal church, and then other organization through that. All the personal giving tends to be more private.

[Matt Doar _Adaptavist_]

Good question this one @dave !

[Amanda Barber]

• I regularly donate blood at Versiti 🩸
• I volunteer for the United Way's Techquity program which provides computers to people who qualify 💻
• I volunteer as an Atlassian Community Champion for Milwaukee events 🧀
• I fundraise and walk for the Alzheimer's Association 💜
• I'm a Girl Scouts leader 💪
• I also spend a lot of time and money supporting my kids' schools and their theater programs 🎭

[Dave Liao]

Never heard of Versiti, super cool!

Thank you for donating so much of your time! 🙌

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Oooh, blood counts as well 🩸 

Adding to this that I've donated blood just today, and it was my 29th donation :)

Btw @Amanda Barber , when do you actually work? 😅

[Amanda Barber]

Hahaha, good question, @Tomislav Tobijas! Wow, that's an amazing number of donations!! Thank you for saving lives!!

[Tomislav Tobijas]

A nice reminder @Dave Liao !

I do support UNICEF, but I've recently updated my bank information, so I'll need to update my details there as well.
Really glad to see so many people are contributing to all these causes 🙏 (there's still hope for this world, I guess 😅)

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Great to read about everyone's favorite causes.

I usually like to support causes where I have a personal relationship to, so that I know that my time or money is well spent. Some examples:

• CVJM Walddorfhäslach - that's a Christian nonprofit in my town where we run lots of youth groups, retreats, handball teams so that young people can live a meaningful life. I've been benefitting from that in my youth and happy to give back.
• Kinderwerk Lima - that's a program where you can sponsor the education for children. We've been helping a young boy with his education for several years now.
• My sister is running a program to give kids in Syria a safe place to be kids so that they can play and interact with each other - and also learn some good values for their lives. That's especially challenging currently with all the fighting going on in Syria.

And many more.. :)

[John-Luke Brooks]

I volunteer for MAF International and the work that they do makes a genuine impact on people's lives in remote countries. I would definitely recommend looking into what they do and how to help out.