Child-Founded Charities

All it takes is an idea to become a project to become an organization. Check out these kids, just like you, who started charities cuz they wanted to lend a helping hand to people and their community.

Charitable Organizations - The Ladybug Foundation Inc.

When five year-old Hannah Taylor saw a homeless man eating out of a garbage can, she set out to cure the world of homelessness with hugs and ladybugs - as Hannah says, ladybugs represent luck and homeless people need good luck. With some help from the 'rents, she set up The Ladybug Foundation and painted baby food jars like ladybugs and asked businesses for spare change. Now 10 years old, Hannah has raised more than half a million dollars and doesn't plan on slowing down!

Visit The Ladybug Foundation for more info.

Charitable Organizations - Free the Children

One morning before school, Craig Kielburger was looking for the comics section of the newspaper when he noticed an article about a 12 year-old Pakistani boy who was murdered for speaking out against child labor. Craig was only 12 at the time and didn't even know what child labor was, but soon learned there were 250 million child laborers in the world! Wanting to put a stop to this, he started Free the Children with a group of classmates. Craig is now 23 and Free the Children has become the largest organization of children helping children, with partnerships with the United Nations and Oprah's Angel Network.

To learn more about Free the Children, head to their official website.

Charitable Organizations - Alex's Lemonade Stand

Alex's Lemonade Stand grew from a front yard lemonade stand into a national organization for kids with cancer. Alexandra "Alex" Scott was diagnosed with cancer two days before her first birthday, but when she turned four, she set up a lemonade stand to help her doctors find a cure. Although Alex passed away when she was eight, her campaign lives on. Thousands of children, schools, businesses and organizations hold annual lemonade stands to support this charity, which has raised over $5 million for pediatric cancer research.

Get the 411 on Alex's Lemonade Stand right here.

Charitable Organizations - Kids Saving the Rainforest

Kids Saving the Rainforest is a non-profit organization in Costa Rica that was founded by Janine Licare and Aislin Livingstone in 1998. In an effort to protect the local rainforests and endangered wildlife, the girls set up a roadside table and sold painted rocks. A year later, they opened the Kids Saving the Rainforest store to sell their artwork, as well as the work of local artists. All of the profits go to saving the rainforest and rehabilitating baby animals.

Check out Kids Saving the Rainforest to find out how you can help.

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