Charity Spotlight – 13 Ugly Men

When I started looking for charities in Alabama, I inadvertently stumbled upon what has become the charity spotlight for Florida, 13 Ugly Men. When I saw the name I told Melanie “this has to be our charity.” She brought up the (very good) point that we should probably see what they do before we commit based on just the name… so I looked into it and found this…

Legend has it many years ago there was a group of misguided young men who spent their youths indulging in acts of sin and depravity. These treacherous acts resulted in a curse that turned them into hideous, troll-like creatures. Thus, to regain their looks, they must continuously do good deeds and charitable acts. Beware, however, they do occasionally revert to their old ways!

The 13 Ugly Men first appeared in the Tampa area in the 1990’s as a group of 13 Founding Members who hosted fantastic parties, and wanted to improve our community by giving back. By encouraging Tampa Bay to “Party With a Purpose”, the reputation of the original 13 grew steadily, and by the late 90’s, they were ready to take the next step.

Given my… how to say… “social schedule” during my second and third decades on this planet, at this point the die were cast for me, this was going to be the one. However, the first bit of news I read about them really locked it down for both of us… headline: “The 13 Ugly Men Foundation Announces Charitable Donation of $25,013.13 to Support the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention”

Both Melanie and I have been keeping an eye out for a suicide prevention related organization and the connection with that issue along with all of my nagging cajoling solid arguments made the choice easy. 13 Ugly Men has grown since their inception and have now raised in excess of half a million dollars for various charitable organizations.

What I really like is that is that the organization takes no money from donations for their overhead, so 100% of donations go toward the cause for which the money was donated. According to their website they are “ardent supporter[s] of charities and organizations that benefit children’s issues, women’s issues, crisis intervention, law enforcement and our military men and women.” Including their signature White Party event, the group hosts up to five events a year.

You can find out more about 13 Ugly Men on their website.