A ripple, repeated, becomes a wave.
Let Goodness Shine exists to create new ripples of goodness and amplify those set in motion by Joel. We exist because of how he lived his life, day in and day out.
Our mission
Our mission is to pour into the organizations connected to Joel, into the organizations that support the SUDC cause — from research to grief support — and into the small, unheralded work being done every day for people in need — and to encourage in everyone else the small, unwitnessed, kind goodness that made Joel who he was. In doing so, we amplify the ripples he cast into waves that shape future generations.
Goodness is not a program. It is a habit — and habits are built by the people and places around a person. So we do two things. We fund those organizations. And we encourage the kind of goodness that made Joel who he was.
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father."
Matthew 5:14–16Standing with the families
When a child dies with no explanation, a family is handed two things at once: the grief, and a process nobody prepared them for. Decisions about DNA have to be made within days. Research takes years. Most people have never heard of any of it until it happens to them.
We have been through that, and are still in it. So alongside the grants, we share what we have learned — about the grief, and about how to navigate finding answers — with any family who wants it.
Why the small ones
People ask why we fund small organizations instead of the big, established ones. The honest answer is that they match how Joel lived.
He looked out for the ones at a disadvantage. He did little things nobody thought mattered — though they mattered a great deal to the person on the other end of them. He did not need anyone to notice.
The organizations we look for are the same. They are not proud and they are not loud. They are doing the Lord's work day in and day out, with no marketing staff and nobody writing about them. A grant goes further there, and it goes to the right kind of people.
Why a lantern above a wave
Waves represent a remarkable force in the universe — transferring a great amount of energy from one place to another. It is through waves that the sun's energy travels 91 million miles to power life as we know it. It's through waves that we see, hear, and communicate.
For a wave to exist, there must be a trigger and a medium for it to travel through, like water or air. We believe that waves of goodness are no different. They start with a simple act — a pebble thrown into a pond — that triggers a ripple. And like sound or light, those ripples can be amplified through resonance, or dampened until the wave stops altogether.
Waves of goodness use people as the medium. Every single person has the ability to cast pebbles. One act of goodness is a ripple — easy to miss, gone in a second. Repeated by enough people, and amplified, ripples become waves. And waves change the shape of the shore.
Two halves of one idea.
We fund the organizations
Every grant goes to a small organization in one of three categories:
01 · The ones that shaped Joel — and those that carry his light. The teams, ministries, and places that formed him, and the organizations doing the work he would have done.
02 · The ones working on the SUDC cause. The research, registries, and advocacy working to explain why a healthy child or teenager dies without warning — and the organizations that stay with the families left behind.
03 · The ones flying below the radar. Direct, hands-on good for people in need, run on a shoestring. The money reaches a person, not a campaign.
We encourage people
The second half costs nothing and cannot be donated. We encourage an actual act — the unwitnessed, unglamorous kind Joel made ordinary. Pick up the litter. Sit with the kid nobody sits with. Do the right thing when the cool thing is easier.
We also organize public acts of service in Joel's honor — keeping a field clean, running a drive, giving a day of work. Anyone can join without having to join anything. #WhatWouldJoelDo
Built to last longer than us.
The foundation is a permanent endowment, not a pass-through. Gifts are invested, and grants come from what those gifts earn. Nothing goes to salaries.
How much we grant each year depends on what the fund earns and where the need is. Some years more, some years less, some years we let it grow. We would rather give steadily for a hundred years than give once and disappear.
The endowment is held at the Arlington Community Foundation, which handles the investing, the compliance, and your tax receipt.
Overhead for large national organizations. Political causes. Anything that benefits our own family. Those last two are prohibited outright by the IRS rules governing our fund, and we are glad of it.
The long view
We believe the core of this foundation is rooted in need. Today, more than ever, goodness has to be recognized and encouraged — in ourselves and in the people around us.
We are early. The fund is small and so are the grants. But an endowment is a patient thing: a gift made now keeps giving for as long as the fund exists, and our ambition for how large that becomes is not modest. Getting there will not be easy, and it will not happen without enormous help from many people.
For every person who gives money, serves, reads, shares, or encourages us — you are part of this. We commit to being good stewards of what you give.
This is only the beginning.
Because goodness is contagious.
The Let Goodness Shine Foundation is a donor-advised fund of the Arlington Community Foundation — a 501(c)(3) public charity, tax-exempt since March 1, 1992, and accredited under Community Foundations National Standards. EIN 54-1602838
Gifts are made to ACF for the benefit of the Joel Byrne Let Goodness Shine Fund. ACF issues your tax receipt and holds legal control over contributed assets. Contributions are deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. We pay no salaries.
By check — payable to Arlington Community Foundation, with Joel Byrne Let Goodness Shine Fund on the memo line: 1100 N Glebe Rd, Suite 630, Arlington, VA 22201 · 703-243-4785