The Foundation is dedicated to raising money for children's cancer care and research. At this time, the Foundation's chosen primary beneficiary is the Boston, MA based Jimmy Fund, the principle fundraising arm of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

However, the Foundation is not formally affiliated with the Jimmy Fund or the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, nor does the Jimmy Fund or Dana Farber Cancer Institute formally sanction our events.

The Foundation also contributes to other suitable charities with missions consistent with our goals, and we reserve the right to change our chosen primary beneficiary at any time.

The Foundation has no paid employees and volunteers pay all their own expenses.

To a certain extent it is because we believe that the sports of rodeo and bullriding reach their highest calling when put forth in the name of a charitable cause. They are a unique legacy of a great nation - one with a generous and courageous heart. But there is more to it than that.

The true cowboy spirit is about being brave enough to face a foe that is much greater than any man. It's about being courageous enough to fight through the physical pain that comes with facing that foe time after time. It's about having the strength of mind and spirit to never quit, to never give up, no matter how difficult the struggle or bleak the odds. This is how the cowboy spirit is related to the fight against childhood cancer.

The original inspiration for the work of the Foundation came from the battle fought and won by an exceedingly courageous young man named Ian Emery and his family. We remain humbled by, and in awe of, the strength and courage that sustained them through their long struggle.

It has been said that there are no atheists in a rodeo arena. So too can that most certainly be said about any pediatric oncology ward. Showing a willingness to reach beyond themselves and their own abilities and limitations, seeking out a higher power, and finding the added inner strength to never give up the fight against a fearsome and powerful foe that they do not understand nor know that they can conquer is what children who face this deadly disease do each and every day during their struggle. In that, there is no better example of what we call the Spirit of the American Cowboy.

The Foundation's goal is to make an annual gift to our chosen beneficiaries. Our annual gift will generally consist of a combination of direct contributions to the beneficiary by the Foundation's supporters, corporate matching gifts, and a grant from our giving account within the U.S. Charitable Gift Trust.

Our events are funded solely by ticket sales and commercial value-added corporate sponsorships and do not rely in any way on charitable contributions for their support. Proceeds from our events beyond working capital needs are sent to our giving account at the U.S. Charitable Gift Trust and grants from that account make up the bulk of our annual giving. We are proud to say that 100% of any charitable donations given directly to the Foundation's giving account at the U.S. Charitable Gift Trust go to support children's cancer care and research. We hope to be able to grow the amount of our annual gift each year.

In 2007, our inaugural giving year, we were proud to give a total of $21,000 to our chosen beneficiaries, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute [more details...], the Boston Children's Hospital [more details...], and the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The Spirit of the American Cowboy Foundation is a Massachusetts-based non-profit corporation which is currently tax-exempt as a Social Welfare Organization under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. It has also established a private affiliation, in the form of a Donor Advised account, with the U.S. Charitable Gift Trust - a public charity under section 501(c)(3) - for the purpose of granting charitable contributions to other 501(c)(3) organizations. This affiliation offers the Foundation three important benefits:

1. It provides an extra level of privacy and liability protection for the Foundation's benefactors by creating a legal separation between the operations of the Foundation, which involve the direct production of publicly supported events, and the Foundation's endowment, which is set aside exclusively for the purpose of recommending grants to our chosen beneficiary or beneficiaries.
2. It offers extremely cost-effective professional investment management of the Foundation's endowment; and
3. It helps the Foundation minimize overhead by handling all the due diligence and paperwork associated with the grant recommendation and distribution process.

The Spirit of the American Cowboy Foundation will not, unless we get your explicit permission first, share any personal information that you give to us with anyone, ever. Period. Fair enough?

Our mailing address is:

    Spirit of the American Cowboy Foundation
    P.O. Box 960003
    Boston, MA  02196

You can contact Mike Allison, the Foundation's founder and Executive Director, at Mike@CowboySpirit.org. Who is Mike anyway?

You can find a copy of the Foundation's form W-9 here.

Please email us if you would like more detail about any aspect of the Spirit of the American Cowboy Foundation or our work.