We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Keating a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Our vision it to help hard working families who are struggling the means to support themselves. We ask them what is holding them back? Do they need a DL, Credit repair, warrants cleared, a better job. We work with them to correct the things in their lives that are holding them back.

Michael, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We started out as the typical “holiday.” support group. We raised money to make the holidays better. As we started to raise more funds, we asked ourselves, should we start providing more families a happy holiday or would it not be better to work with fewer families for a longer period and truly help them change their lives forever not just a few days.

We will spend month/years working with a family to help them fix their credit, work on higher education, better jobs, clear up warrants and more.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

We are not the typical non-profit. Givingmas is offers “a hand-up, no handouts.” All our family’s patriciate in improving their lives. Example, many families ask if we can offer vehicle assistance. Our answer is, possibly. we need to ask two questions first. One do you have a valid Drivers License? Two do you have car insurance? If they say no to either of those questions, we work on fixing those things first.

If they don’t have insurance because they can’t afford it, we work collaboratively with them. Givingmas could pay 85% of the policy and the family pays 15%. If the family stops covering their portion so does Givingmas. We also put on hold all other assistance we are providing.

We do this for two reasons, one, we believe if they participate in their transformation, it will have longer lasting effects. Two, we respect our donors’ dollars and do our best to make sure their investment in Givingmas is provide true family ROI.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

We work with other organizations/ nonprofits/ businesses like Family Gateway, VFW, Exidus house, Restored Hope and places of faith who all nominate families to be served.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.givingmas.org
• Instagram: givingmas.org
• Facebook: Givingmas.org
• Twitter: Givingmas.org

Image Credits
Mike Keating, Mike Keating, Mike Keating, Mike Keating