Tim McGraw: Neighbor's Keeper Fund Featured on NBC NIghtly News

NBC Nightly News wraps up its weeklong celebrity causes spotlight on "Making a Difference" with country music artist Tim McGraw and his unyielding belief in the power of neighbors to help and influence local communities.

After years of charity work and benefit concerts, Tim McGraw and his wife, Faith Hill, founded Neighbor's Keeper Fund in 2004 to nurture the spirit of neighbors helping neighbors and strengthen communities in need. The two both grew up in small Southern towns where people were always willing to lend a helping hand, and the fund aims to emulate that philosophy.

Neighbor's Keeper focuses mainly on children's initiatives, and funds the work of existing charitable groups who are already working in areas where relief is needed. The fund targets community-focused local organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity in Nashville and St. Jude's Research Hospital, and gives them financial backing to complete their projects.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated areas close to where McGraw and Hill grew up and impacted the lives of numerous friends and relatives, the two were inspired to expand the scope of Neighbor's Keeper. Though the news was flooded with stories of death and displacement, all McGraw could think about were the children affected by the disaster.

"We thought the best way we could help was find a community of people, an organization, that was really addressing the mental health situations for children," says McGraw.

That organization turned out to be Community Initiatives Foundation, which helps traumatized children work out their emotional problems through art therapy. Neighbor's Keeper Fund contributed $1 million to the nonprofit for its projects.

McGraw explains what distinguishes Neighbor's Keeper from other organizations: "We can go straight to the heart of the problem, identity a problem or a situation and put funds directly into it, without any red tape, without any overhead, any committee."

WATCH:

Read McGraw's blog post, "Every Day You Can Make a Difference."

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Comments

[klbrz]

I love how they aren't trying to reinvent the wheel, but just find already existing groups and give to them.

[VivamusAmemus]

Bravo to Tim and Faith and all of the celebrities that appeared in this series. We need more stories like this and less of the tabloid trash that we see and hear every day!

[Thundercloud65]

In difficult economic times wealthy people seem like such easy targets for the mob mentality we often see expressed. It's reassuring to me that our system can work for the greater good when I see people like Tim, Bil and Melinda Gates, Brad etal out their truly giving something back to the people in their world.

[childrenofthelost]

Faith & Tim, your doing great work and I would like to reward that great work if you like any of my work. Go to---child­renofthelo­st.com--- and pick out any song you like except---The will to go on--- that's my own story, when I was homeless. "Children of the lost", is a movie I am making on the homeless with the homeless. The music tells the story. You can even cover---Dear Mom--- I wrote half when I was 15-1/2 after my Mom died I had to write the other half just to be able to play it again, you'll see.