Donations | Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Best Donation You’ll Ever Make

December 13, 2011 By CourVO Leave a Comment

PRIME TIME VOICES FOR CHILDREN is a Holiday fundraising event to benefit Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA.

Spearheaded and promoted tirelessly by Joe Cipriano, 31 of the country’s top VO Pros joined forces to raise money for this noble cause by collaborating on a reading of “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. The recording is to be released very soon.

In the meantime, go ahead and visit the FUNDLY page for Prime Time Voices for Children, and prayerfully consider a generous donation. Let’s face it most of us in America — when compared to 75% of the rest of the world — are rich.

Here are the voices that contributed: Joan Baker, Bob Bergen, Kay Bess, Corey Burton, Joe Cipriano, Howard Cogan, Townsend Coleman, Josh Daugherty, George DelHoyo, Kara Edwards, Dave Fennoy, Pat Fraley, Stew Hererra, Ben Patrick Johnson, Brian Lee, Bill Lloyd, Anthony Mendez, Paul Pape, Jim Pratt, Bill Ratner, Rino Romano, Scott Rummell, Ashton Smith, Jim Tasker, John Taylor, Randy Thomas, Keri Tombazian, Sylvia Villagran, Rick Wasserman, Beau Weaver, Zurek.

Now, will YOU contribute?

Why should I care? Because when my oldest daughter was 3-months old, she had a life-saving surgery at that unit. Now she’s living her dream as a dancer in NYC. Miracles come from donations.

CourVO

Filed Under: Donations Tagged With: Joe Cipriano, Mattell Childlren's Hospital UCLA, Prime Time Voices For Children, VO, voice, voice acting, voice actor, voice artist, voice over, voice talent, voiceover, voices

VO Pro Bono

November 17, 2011 By CourVO Leave a Comment

By the time you see this, Nevada’s first, one-day THE BIG GIVE will already be underway. Visit the site, pic a worthy charity, and give whatever you can give in the spirit of the season. Please, do!

Thank goodness there still IS a spirit of the season. Sometimes the expectations of giving during November/December seem almost mercenary…but to coin a cliché: “…the need has never been greater…”

I’ve already committed hundreds of dollars to United Way in the form of an automatic payroll deduction for 2012…I voice monthly articles from the Readers Digest for blind listeners in Los Angeles, and donatae my time for many volunteer organizations, mostly for disadvantaged children.

I don’t say that to brag…I say that as a proud active member of a great nation with a strong civic community. That’s what makes the US great, not our military or our bounty. I guess I’m just a goody two-shoes.

If you’re unfamiliar with the great sense of fulfillment that comes with volunteering or donating, please check out Terry Daniel’s challenge for voice actors this season. You can even contribute as a voice-actor to some people who can really use the help.

James Alburger recently put out a notice seeking help: “…We’re in search of some very special voice talent who would be interested in participating as narrator’s for a series of online training and educational programs for people with developmental disabilities and those who work with them…”

This is gratis. No pay. But your heart will fill up. Click this link to find out more.

CourVO

Filed Under: Donations, VO Community Tagged With: donating, giving, James Alburger, Nevada's Big Give, Terry Daniel, The Big Give, VO, voice, voice acting, voice actor, voice artist, voice over, voice talent, voiceover, voices

Terry’s Ten-Week Challenge

October 20, 2011 By CourVO Leave a Comment

Give.

Give till it hurts.

When times are tough. Give.

When resources are short. Give.

You’d be surprised how much it gives you back.

My voice-over friend Terry Daniel is launching a simple idea from a new FaceBook page: Sometime in the next ten weeks, approach your favorite charity in your area with the offer of your voice. Do it for free, just ’cause the doing of it is its own reward.

I’m on the schedule to read for AIRS/LA. I narrate monthly articles from the Reader’s Digest. In recent months, I’ve voice and appeared on camera for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys Town USA, and Family Services. I work harder on those projects than almost any other. I believe those who have are responsible to give to those who don’t.

Won’t you consider Terry’s challenge?

THE 10-WEEK HOLIDAY CHALLENGE FaceBook Page (please “like”)

Also, watch Terry’s YouTube video explaining the challenge:

Nice going, Terry!

CourVO

Filed Under: Donations Tagged With: 10-week challenge, Terry Daniel, UniversalVoiceTalent.com, VO, voice, voice acting, voice actor, voice artist, voice over, voice talent, voiceover

Pro Bono

July 12, 2011 By CourVO 2 Comments

….and no that doesn’t mean I’m a big fan of that Irish Rock Star….

This is about volunteering your voice acting services just because it’s the right thing to do…and doing it, is its own reward.

See the appeal Voice Talent/Coach Marc Cashman makes below for volunteers to read for AIRS/LA. I’ve been contributing narrations of Reader’s Digest articles to AIRS/LA for a couple of years, and it’s very fulfulling.

Hi!

I wanted to acquaint you with a great non-profit organization in Los Angeles, Airs/L.A.

www.airsla.org is the website of a California non-profit corporation organized in 2006.

Their purpose is to provide information and entertainment for the blind, low-vision, and dyslexic.

All of their work is provided by volunteers–they have no paid employees.

Some of their voiceover talent is professional, but there are a lot of enthusiastic and talented beginners who are narrating material in three countries and twelve states.

Their podcasts cover a wide range of subject matter:

health and medical information, seminars, periodicals, interviews, and more.

They have a number of new programs which they’d like to offer their listeners.

Most of these are periodicals of varying publication frequency.

AIRS/L.A. needs qualified people to narrate and produce these programs.

Voice talent must have access to recording facilities (preferably a home studio)

to produce a quality podcast.

Talent has to be available to meet the project schedule (i.e., biweekly, quarterly. etc.).

And if a periodical is needed, they must acquire the material to read.

They prefer their podcasts to be 30-minutes or less and provide scripts for the intro and closing.

With periodicals, the producer/reader selects the material, transmits the edited program to AIRS/L.A.’s engineers, and provides a brief summary for the website.

AIRS/L.A. has a studio that may available for people living in San Fernando Valley, CA or nearby.

But if you have a decent-sounding home studio setup and would like to contribute to a very worthwhile cause, this is a great opportunity to donate your talent for those less fortunate,

no matter where you live.

If you’d like to participate, or know of any associates, students, or other professionals who might, please contact Max Flehinger at max.flehinger@gmail,com or call him at 818-356-8371.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Marc Cashman

661-222-9300

[email protected]

www.cashmancommercials.com

Filed Under: Donations Tagged With: AIRS/LA, giving, Marc Cashman, pro bono, VO, voice acting, voice actor, voice artist, voice over, voice talent, voiceover, volunteering

AID for VO Bicyclist

March 18, 2011 By CourVO Leave a Comment

VO talent and coach Julie Williams is a brave woman. This June, she’ll take on a grueling personal fund-raising bike trek across America to raise money for AIDS orphans in Africa.

We know that Julie has a big heart…now we see she also has a big mission she’s absolutely commited to.

Julie could use your help in the form of a pledge. (so far, the fund-raising is going slow, she says)

See below for her email to me with links and explainers… and please consider giving whatever you can.

Go get ‘em Julie!

CourVO

________________________

What I’m doing:

Voice-Over talent and coach, Julie Williams is taking on the brutal challenge of riding her bicycle from California to Florida next June… braving the Arizona sun and Texas heat to raise money for children who have to fight every day just to survive. All sponsorship monies help AIDS Orphans in Africa.

Where

Julie and her team will embark on their nine-day journey from Orange County, California, with their rear tires in the Pacific. They’ll trek to Phoenix the first day, then on to Albuquerque on day two. From there the team will ride to Lubbock, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, Tallahassee, and Datona Beach to put our front wheels in the Atlantic.

How can they cover so many miles in so little time?

“We’re ‘leap-frogging it’” says Williams. “That means I’ll only be riding about 100 miles a day—and driving 400 miles a day—as someone from our team rides every single mile.”

Why?

Is she crazy? But Julie points out, she’s doing it for a cause. As the sun sets each day in sub- Saharan Africa, HIV and AIDS have claimed 3800 lives and another 5200 men, women, and children are infected. Little children wander with no parents, and no one to care for them. Many are HIV positive, themselves. Christ’s Hope International helps with food, medicines, and hope.

“Last year, because of the recession, Ride For Hope funds were what kept this ministry afloat!”

She adds, “I love cycling, I love giving, and I love a challenge. I’m very excited about this ride because it’ll offer all three. Granted, I do realize that there’ll be many times along this ride when I’ll say, ‘Never Again!’ That’s when I’ll persevere for the children, reminding myself of

Phil 3:13-14, which says: Forgetting what’s behind and looking toward what’s ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize, for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Her Goal, and How you can help

Her goal is to raise $5,000.

Fundraising Link: http://rideforhopectc.org/users/user_page.php?user_id=101

Be sure to specify that you’re donating for a specific rider… Julie Williams (page 2 of list, it’s alphabetical)

Other ways you can help… perhaps give a certain percentage of each VO for a month to the cause? Or spread the word and pass the link on to friends.

Who is Julie Williams

Julie Williams is a national voice-over talent and coach, Voicey Award winner, and Audie Award Finalist, who’s worked for the likes of Orbitz.com, Coca-Cola, Pampers, Adobe, The U.S. Army and thousands of others. She’s voiced commercials, audiobooks, narrations, and other genres. Her specialty is voicing and teaching narration and medical narration. In addition, Julie works as a news anchor at K-Love Radio Network which has more than 5-million listeners, and is ready to launch in NYC. She can be heard at www.VoiceOverChocolate.com, and reached at [email protected].