Optometry Giving Sight (OGS) has launched a new program to provide optometry practices with ways to support OGS’s work on a year-round basis by integrating fundraising activities into their everyday business operations. The initiative is called TEAM OGS— Together Eyecare Achieves Miracles— and is available to all optometry practitioners in the U.S. and Canada.
OGS is a non-profit organization whose mission is to end preventable blindness and vision impairment globally. As “Optometry’s Charity,™” OGS raises funds from optometrists, optometry practices and optometry-related businesses and corporations to award grants for sustainable, impactful projects that expand the profession and improve access to vision care in underserved areas of the world.
“Since the inception of OGS, the optometry community has generously supported our work, particularly through our annual World Sight Day Challenge, which began in 2007,” says OGS Executive Director Lois Schoenbrun, CAE (Ret.), FAAO.
“The World Sight Day Challenge is, historically, our largest fundraising activity. But it runs only two months out of the year,” explains Schoenbrun. “Optometry practices began asking us for ways to raise funds throughout the year as well. So, TEAM OGS was born.”
“Optometrists and optometry practices are very generous and compassionate,” she adds. “Most practices are quite involved in their local communities, whether they have formal corporate social responsibility programs in place or not. Their support of OGS— and participation in TEAM OGS— demonstrate their concern for people throughout the world who have little to no access to vision care.”
Through TEAM OGS, practices can select from a variety of ways to raise funds for OGS through the normal course of doing business. Options include:
- Donating a day of eye exam fees each month
- Choosing to give a percentage of eyeglass frames or products sold
- Promoting vision care rebate and reward programs that benefit OGS
- Engaging their patients in ways to give.
There is no cost to join TEAM OGS, and all materials for the program are provided at no charge.
According to Schoenbrun, one of the primary considerations for selecting which fundraising activities to include in TEAM OGS was how easy it would be for optometry professionals to participate. “We know how busy optometrists and their staffs are,” she says, “and we wanted to make it easy for them to participate in TEAM OGS, so their focus can remain on caring for patients every day.”
