Good Samaritans don’t always just help people. Sometimes they aid animals too.

Such is the case with Point Loma resident Jessica Manning, founder and president of The JEM Project, a grant-making foundation supporting registered nonprofit 501c3 organizations. JEM has four focus areas of philanthropic funding: animal and child welfare, empowering women, and instigating environmental sustainability.

Through JEM, Manning has donated more than $610,000 in just three years to support animals and the people who love them through nonprofits like the San Diego Humane Society. This week, for Giving Tuesday on Nov. 28, The JEM Project matched up to $50,000 in gifts to provide shelter, lifesaving care, and second chances to San Diego homeless animals.

JEM’s grants to SDHS and other groups like it have furthered access to affordable veterinary medicine and supported behavioral resources to help pets become more adoptable and keep them with their families. Programs, like SDHS’s Community Pet Pantry aiding the financially challenged as a safety net for pet owners, have benefited from JEM’s largesse.

A lifelong animal lover, Manning pointed out JEM is the initials of her name.

Manning noted she was involved in a successful video game business that she has since sold. “I took a large percentage of the profits from that sale and put it into The JEM Project,” she said adding, “I wanted to set up a foundation of giving focused on those in society who are underprivileged and under provided for. And one of the pillars for that is animal welfare. So I started this organization.”

But Manning wanted to handle things differently. “I never wanted to just write a check and say, ‘OK, good luck,’” she said. “I wanted to be personally involved.”

Coming from a poor background in rural North Carolina, Manning recalls times from her childhood when her family could have benefited from resources like SDHS’s Community Pet Pantry and vaccine clinic to help care for canine companions. Today, she’s inspired to give brighter futures to even more animals in need by her rescue dogs, Zoey and Shelby.

Manning noted: “The happiness and love that comes with a pet is something every person and family deserves to have, regardless of unexpected circumstances that may arise. Happy and healthy pets lead to more fulfilled families and communities.”

Rachel Shocket, another member of The JEM Project team involved with operations and administration, said the organization “Funds grants, usually one per year, for many different groups and their programs and services. We are a small part of SDHS’s fundraising Fur Ball Gala, as well as helping match their donations, dollar-per-dollar, on Giving Tuesday.”

Manning has a special fondness for SDHS pointing out that “they are doing just a phenomenal job of keeping the animals healthy, not just making sure they get adopted and not euthanized. We have seen that SDHS takes an outlook of whole-community health. Their programs and services prevent animals from ever needing to add to the shelter population in the first place.”

Para más información visite thejemproject.org.