Lending a hand to local charities

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - A local businesswoman is using her creativity to lend a helping hand to several Allen County charities.

“What we're doing is giving back. We're just creating another way to do it,” said Julia Fiechter, founder of JFLendingahand.com.

The Fort Wayne realtor has designed a program that makes it easy for people to support local businesses and 10 local charities all at the same time.

It works like this. A customer will show his/her JFLendingahand.com card at a participating business. Instead of getting a discount on something, the business will give back to a local charity in its own way.

“Some of them are giving back in a donation of five or ten percent of the total sales,” Fiechter said. “They're being very creative.”

The 10 nonprofit organizations: The Carriage House, Habitat for Humanity, SCAN, Community Harvest Food Bank, Project Linus, Fallen Heroes Fund, Erin’s House, Mad Anthony’s Children’s Hope House, Special Olympics Allen County, and Turnstone will mail out cards to people on their current mailing lists.

The website doesn’t officially launch until Tuesday, March 15. At that point, anyone will be able to request a card at www.jflendingahand.com

You'll also be able to see a complete list of the 10 local charities and the participating businesses supporting them.

Businesses interested in participating should contact Julia at (260) 403-2005 or juliafiechter@aol.com