Our Blog from Simon Solutions

On Friday night, a week ago, I received a phone call from Larry, who was pretty excited. He said, “Mike, guess what just happened? We were on the evening news!” He went on to say that the local NBC affiliate in Huntsville, AL aired a special report on CharityTracker.

Needless to say, I got very excited too. Larry told me to go to the TV station’s website and see the report online. I read the report, and even found they had video of the segment posted on the website.

Featured in the report were our good friends Tina Scott, Executive Director of the United Way of Northwest Alabama, and Ashley Butler, 211 Information and Referral Specialist. Both women shared how CharityTracker was fighting the problem of scammers.

“We have been able to identify a lot of people who were scamming the system; people who were going to different agencies to get the same bill paid.”

- Tina Scott

They also shared how the network was bringing people together and building relationships with other service providers.

“The best thing is the networking and relationships we now have with agencies and churches in Colbert and Lauderdale Counties, that we didn’t have before [CharityTracker] was made.”

- Ashley Butler

I had a chance to talk with Tina the other day. She said that calls are coming in from all across the country. People are hearing about CharityTracker and calling to see if it is “for real.” After hearing Tina’s story of the success of CharityTracker in our community, these callers are filled with hope.

My hope is that this simple tool, which is now becoming a community-builder, will find its way into communities all across America and help make a difference.

- Mike