The Peace Fund is a

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

, founded by

Adrian Paul Adrian Paul Hewett (born 29 May 1959) is an English actor, martial artist and director best known for the title role of Duncan MacLeod on the television series '' Highlander: The Series''. In 1997, he founded the Peace Fund charitable organis ...

, dedicated to the worldwide improvement of the living,

educational Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also fol ...

and

health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

conditions of

children A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

. It meets this goal by distributing

funds Funding is the act of providing resources to finance a need, program, or project. While this is usually in the form of money, it can also take the form of effort or time from an organization or company. Generally, this word is used when a firm us ...

raised through various activities to organizations whose focus is the care of children. It may also create and manage direct programs to care for children in

emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

situations. The Peace Fund is also known by the

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

''P.E.A.C.E'', which stands for ''Protect Educate Aid Children Everywhere''; indicating that protecting, educating and aiding children are the specific focus of their programs. P.E.A.C.E was founded by the actor

in 1998, in affiliation with the Athletes and Entertainers for Kids (AEFK) charitable organization. P.E.A.C.E has since become independent of the AEFK, operating for a time as a private charity until it applied for and received

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

status as reported in a May 2006 press release. It runs

celebrity Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

memorabilia A souvenir (French language, French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memory, memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collecte ...

auctions An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

, sells

merchandise Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of Product (business), products ("merch" colloquially) to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative w ...

, participates in affiliated

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

activities (such as Macy's Shop for a Cause ) and accepts direct corporate and individual

donations A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as blo ...

for the funding of its programs. Celebrities such as

Tom Welling Thomas John Patrick Welling (born April 26, 1977) is an American actor, director, producer, podcaster, and model. He is best known for his role as Clark Kent in The WB (now The CW) superhero drama ''Smallville'' (2001–2011). He also co-starr ...

, and

Michael York Michael York (born Michael Hugh Johnson; 27 March 1942) is an English film, television, and stage actor. After performing on stage with the Royal National Theatre, he had a breakthrough in films by playing Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli's ''Romeo ...

have provided auction items, participated in and/or sponsored P.E.A.C.E events.

Programs

The Peace Fund has several programs that focus on the well-being and protection of children such as the Celeb4Kids fundraising initiative. One such program is ''P.E.A.C.E. in Paradise'', which began as an effort to provide aid for victims of the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+07:00, UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicenter, epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The Submarine earthquake, undersea ...

. The organization also hosts programs that focus on child education such as ''School Makes a Difference'' and ''COTA''.

Organization

According to

GuideStar Candid is an information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies. In 2016, its database provided information on 2.5 million organizations. It is the product of the February 2019 merger of GuideStar with Foundation Center. ...

, P.E.A.C.E is a 501c3,

Community Foundation Community foundations (CFs) are instruments of civil society designed to pool donations into a coordinated investment and grant making facility dedicated primarily to the social improvement of a given place. Community foundations are a global pheno ...

organization located in

Sherman Oaks, California Sherman Oaks (founded in 1927) is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles, California within the San Fernando Valley region. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density ...

. GuideStar also reports that the organization is listed in IRS Publication 78 - the Cumulative List of Organizations, which lists all charitable organizations eligible to receive donor gifts that are United States Federal income

tax deductible A tax deduction or benefit is an amount deducted from taxable income, usually based on expenses such as those incurred to produce additional income. Tax deductions are a form of tax incentives, along with exemptions and tax credits. The differe ...

. On its official website, P.E.A.C.E has listed its volunteer board, officers and staff; a comprehensive Statement of Values; its

Code of Ethics Ethical codes are adopted by organizations to assist members in understanding the difference between right and wrong and in applying that understanding to their decisions. An ethical code generally implies documents at three levels: codes of b ...

policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an or ...

; and declaration of its adoption of the IRS

Conflict of Interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...

Policy as stated in IRS

Form 1023 Form 1023 is a United States IRS tax form, also known as the Application for Recognition of Exemption Under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is filed by nonprofits to get exemption status. On January 31, 2020, the IRS abandoned the paper ...

. The Code of Ethics is based upon The Statement of Values and Code of Ethics for

Nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

and

Philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

Organizations as recommended by the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA).

Notes

References

* {{cite web , url=http://www.thepeacefund.org , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080819174421/http://www.thepeacefund.org/ , url-status=usurped , archive-date=August 19, 2008 , title=PEACE - Protect Educate Aid Children Everywhere , accessdate=2007-03-09 Children's charities based in the United States 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami Charities based in California