What’s with the Red Nose?

By Kaitlyn Maloney, Development Associate, NCLR

RND_blog1I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there have been a lot of pics floating around the Internet of people wearing these weird red noses. Bizarre new fad, or marketing genius? It turns out the reason people are playing around on social media is to raise money for charity.

FUN-raising is more than just a silly pun; it’s a business strategy. Everyone enjoys having fun, and when you can combine that fun with a good cause and raise money for a charity you care about, it gets even better!

Red Nose Day has long been a tradition in the U.K., but only made its U.S. debut last year. Harnessing the mighty power of comedy, celebrities and corporations loan their time, money, and skills to the fantabulous cause of supporting children and teens in the United States and around the world.

Take Markin, for example. Through Sociedad Latina, an NCLR Affiliate, Markin went from an unhappy, underachieving, and unhealthy teen to a more confident, active student who is making good grades in school and paying more attention to his health. Thanks to funds raised through last year’s Red Nose Day campaign, NCLR was able to feed that money directly back into our programs focused on helping children and teens, such as the Padres Comprometidos program that helped Markin.

NCLR has been chosen as a partner organization for the second year in a row to receive a portion of the funds raised by the Red Nose Day telethon. These funds will directly support the wide variety of programs that NCLR has developed to help children stay healthy and in school, and also provide support for their families, many of whom are immigrants who are unsure about the U.S. school system. Programs such as Padres Comprometidos, as well as our Escalera STEM program, which encourage a healthy interest in the science and mathematics fields among Latino students to increase diversity in traditionally White- and male-dominated fields.

Tune in to the live Red Nose Day special tonight, May 26 at 9/8c on NBC and share your #RedNoseDay pictures with us.

Learn more about Red Nose Day.

View more pictures from our friends.

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