The Blind Relief Fund of Philadelphia tops the contact lists of many providers of services to the blind because, when a blind person is in distress, The Blind Relief Fund is often the only organization in the Philadelphia region able to provide immediate assistance.
We’re able to provide these vital services because of the vision of our founders more than 100 years ago and the generosity of our donors – people who give their time, their services and their financial support to help us fulfill our mission.
The Blind Relief Fund is supported solely through private donations. We receive no funding from the city, state or local government, or from large, community charities like the United Way. This allows us to work independently from other social service agencies to speed help to those who need it – not next week, but today. We value and treasure our role as the provider of last resort.
Because of our unique financial structure, with endowment income covering all our administrative and fund raising expenses, every tax-deductible penny that people give to The Blind Relief Fund goes directly to the people in need. Our donors understand that their funds are not serving an abstract cause, but are hard at work every day, helping to make a real person’s life just a little bit better.
While we do our absolute best to stretch limited resources, our capabilities are swamped by the enormity of our task. That’s because blind people face a broad array of complex, interconnected, intractable problems in their daily lives. They often lack a strong network of family and friends. They’re cut off from meaningful work and a fulfilling sense of community. Increasingly they face multiple illnesses in addition to blindness. And their affliction condemns them to a crushing poverty of isolation, desperation and fear incomprehensible to most of us in the sighted world.
Despite severely limited resources and options, blind individuals often approach their challenges courage and resourcefulness. Perhaps most important of all, the blind are resolutely independent – making full use of all their remaining senses and intellectual skills – hearing, touch, smell, taste and memory – to master their physical surroundings and to function on their own. Through our services we strive to make it possible for our clients to remain in their own homes and communities.