DR. KEITH P. TAYLOR

Date Added:

August 13th, 2012

State:

 New York

Charity:

Modest Needs

Views:

4930

Votes:

2024

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Small change. A world of difference.

Many years ago, during the times of personal financial hardship, Dr. Keith P. Taylor made a commitment to tackle the ever-present issues of Poverty in America, and he stuck with it. While a professor of medieval studies in Tennessee, Dr. Taylor was struggling to find a way to help those less fortunate around him. At the time he just wanted to help two, three, four people by sharing 10% of his own salary every month.

The deeper he delved into the reasons and the core cause of poverty and homelessness, the more he began to realize that very often it was the, otherwise, self-sufficient individual or family that encountered that one unexpected emergency expense and simply could not find the money to overcome this financial hurdle. Even more often, because of their overall self-sufficiency they did not qualify for any kind of government aid, leaving them to choose between paying an enormous hospital bill or an unexpected car repair and keeping the roof over their family’s head.

It was then, that Keith understood that promoting self-sufficiency in low-income workers was the way to lessen the rate of poverty and homelessness in the US. Soon enough Keith realized that this mission could be bigger than just one person, more people could be helped. Soon enough Modest Needs and the crowd-funding technology behind it were born. Since 2002, Modest Needs' donors have stopped the cycle of poverty for 10,678 (and counting) hard-working individuals and families that conventional philanthropy otherwise had forgotten. Modest Needs helps stop the cycle of poverty BEFORE it starts.

"The work here is not yet done and Keith continues to guide the organization under the same core principals that with the help of ordinary folks we can help our neighbors and together we can change people’s lives. Small change. A world of difference. www.modestneeds.org"