A History of Giving
Since Rylee + Cru’s inception there has been a desire to use the brand to promote good on both a local and national level via direct giving to those less fortunate. Owners Kevin Murray and Kelli Larson have always believed in the idea of philanthro-capitalism, meaning business has the ability and responsibility to create support and financial resources for those in need and that we can be better neighbors and citizens through taking action.
In the 4th quarter of 2020, inspired by all of the work that needed to be done in our community and abroad, we launched the Rylee & Cru Foundation as a dedicated arm of the business focused on giving to needs that moved us. The mission of the Foundation is to use our apparel sales platform to provide care, support and financial resources to children and families in need
Below is a timeline of the donations we have given and organizations we have supported throughout our journey as a brand. We hope this is a resource for you to be able to discover organizations worth looking into that we love and support.
12-20-20 : Boys and Girls Club of San Diego - $25,000
The Boys and Girls Club of San Diego serves our city by inspiring and enabling youth between the ages of 5 and 18 to achieve academic success, build good character and responsible citizenship, and make healthy lifestyle choices through ongoing programs and guidance through their 20 community-based sites.
12-20-20 : Promises 2 Kids - $5,000
Promises2Kids is a leading nonprofit organization originally founded over 35 years ago as the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation of San Diego. Since 1981, P2K has responded to the needs of foster children and provided support to children removed from their home due to abuse and neglect. This organization is especially close to our hearts being an SD-based company.
12-18-20 : Angels Foster Family Network - $25,000
Angels Foster Family Network is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating safe, stable, loving homes for infants and toddlers in foster care throughout the County of San Diego, California. The organization is led by current and former parents who have fostered.
12-18-20 : Baby 2 Baby - $2,500
B2B provides children living in poverty, ages 0-12 years, with diapers, clothing and all the basic necessities that every child deserves. to date they have distributed over 50 million basic essentials.
12-18-20 : Lighthouse For Hope - $2,500
Lighthouse for Hope strives to fight alongside families experiencing the physical, emotional, and financial setbacks caused by pediatric cancer by providing them with support and assistance for day-to-day necessities.
12-18-20 : San Diego Food Bank - $2,500
The Jacobs & Cushman SD Food Bank is the largest hunger-relief organization in San Diego County. On average, they serve 350K people per month and partner with nearly 500 nonprofits to provide nutritious food to individuals and families across the county.
12-18-20 : Mission Waco - $2,500
Mission Waco is a dynamic inner-city organization that mobilizes middle-class Americans to become more compassionately involved among the poor. The organization seeks ways to overcome the systemic issues of social injustice which oppress the poor and marginalized, including women and children in need, and do work across the city of Waco to serve those communities most in need of resources.
12-15-20 : World Vision - $25,000
World Vision is one of the worlds largest (and most effective) humanitarian non-profits which is operating on almost every continent. We've been very involved with WV for years and worked with them on a number of projects in the past. For this donation, we gave to their India Project which focuses on building a community center for children rescued from sex trafficking / slavery.
11-18-20 : Hugs and Bags - $7,264
Hugs and Bags started as an idea to raise awareness for San Diego's homeless population and over time has grown from a concept to a love movement. They now provide clothing, warm meals, basic medical services, haircuts, and personal hygiene accessories to those in need. The primary focus groups HaB serves are homeless teens, vets, immigrants, and single parents.
Little Angels provides themed birthday parties for homeless children on the Florida Coast at area shelters.
6-10-20 : Little Birthday Angels - $7,264
Little Angels provides themed birthday parties for homeless children on the Florida Coast at area shelters.
6-4-20 : Facing History - $25,000
Facing history helps mold our future by teaching students about racism and bigotry.
6-4-20 : The Conscious Kid - $25,000
The Conscious Kid is an education, research and policy organization dedicated to reducing bias and promoting positive identity development in youth.
5-21-20 : Big Brothers and Sisters of San Diego - $7,500.00
As the nation’s largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network, Big Brothers Big Sisters makes meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”), ages 7 through 18, in communities across the country
2-19-20 : Big Brothers and Sisters of San Diego - $7,500.00
As the nation’s largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network, Big Brothers Big Sisters makes meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”), ages 7 through 18, in communities across the country
12-27-19 : Angels Foster Family Network - $2,500.00
Angels Foster Family Network is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating safe, stable, loving homes for infants and toddlers in foster care throughout the County of San Diego, California. The organization is led by current and former parents who have fostered.
12-20-19 : Casa Theresa - $2,500.00
Casa Theresa provides pregnant women in crisis a loving home to begin their healing journey in order to break cycles and transform women at risk.
12-20-19 : Northeast Animal Shelter - $2,500.00
Northeast Animal Shelter, established in 1976, is one of New England’s largest non-profit, no-kill animal shelters. Since opening their doors, they have placed over 140,000 cats and dogs.
12-18-19 : Christ in The City - $2,500.00
Christ in the City is a Catholic program dedicated both to forming young adults, volunteers, and the greater community to be lifelong missionaries and to knowing, loving, and serving the poor.
12-18-19 : Lighthouse for Hope - $2,500.00
Lighthouse for Hope strives to fight alongside families experiencing the physical, emotional, and financial setbacks caused by pediatric cancer by providing them with support and assistance for day-to-day necessities.
12-16-19 : Every Mother Counts - $26,831
Every Mother Counts works worldwide to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for everyone, everywhere and reduce risks related to giving birth. They are dedicated to understanding the challenges of and opportunities for improving access to maternity care around the world.
12-9-19 : Angels Foster Family Network - $50,000.00
Angels Foster Family Network is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating safe, stable, loving homes for infants and toddlers in foster care throughout the County of San Diego, California. The organization is led by current and former parents who have fostered.
04-17-19 : Olive Tree Projects - $2,500.00
Olive Tree Projects was created to help children in Haiti. We believe that the best way to achieve this goal is through 'family preservation' efforts - a term that has stemmed from a movement to keep children out of institutions.
11-28-18 : Every Mother Counts - $14,000.00
Every Mother Counts works worldwide to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for everyone, everywhere and reduce risks related to giving birth. They are dedicated to understanding the challenges of and opportunities for improving access to maternity care around the world.9-17-18 Savvy Giving by Design 20,000.00
World Vision is a global Christian humanitarian organization that partners with children, families, and their communities to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
10-8-17 : Savvy Giving by Design - $50,000.00
Savvy Giving rebuilds interior spaces for children and families facing a medical crisis to strengthen and encourage recovery. In this specific project we designed and funded the renovation of children's room facing cancer.
9-5-17 : World Vision - $50,000.00
World Vision is a global Christian humanitarian organization that partners with children, families, and their communities to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. We targeted clean water programs in Africa as it was specifically an issue that negatively affected young women in these regions as lack of access to water in rural communities was a prime indicator of lower amounts of girls being educated.
9-5-17 : Food For The Hungry - Ongoing, we started here and continues today at $350.00 a month donation to sponsor 10 girls going to school in Indonesia.
Food for the Hungry seeks to end ALL forms of human poverty by going to the hard places and walking with the world’s most vulnerable people.
Previous to starting Rylee + Cru Inc.
Some background history : Kevin and Kelli owned and operated an action sports fashion brand called Jedidiah Clothing.
The mission statement of Jedidiah was to use apparel sales as a way to provide care and financial support to those in need. From 2004 to 2014 Jedidiah made financial contributions in excess of 800,000.00 to many different NGO’s and relief organizations. Kevin and Kelli also traveled with many of these organizations to see first had the work that was being done. These trips and experiences are etched in our hearts and minds even today and laid the foundation of what we will continue to do with Rylee + Cru. The theme of all these programs were based on the scripture verse James 1:27 to “look after widows and orphans in their distress" and this theme drives the same ethos for the whole company of Rylee & Cru today.
Here are some highlights of what was done during this time.
$42,000.00 to World Vision Cambodia to build a children recovery center in Cambodia to treat children who were rescued from the sex trafficking industry.
$63,000.00 to Gabriel’s House, an orphanage in Ensenada Mexico that cared only for severely handicapped children who were often cast aside and overlooked and in need of care.
$50,000.00 to Street Angels, a local San Diego non-profit caring and ministering for the homeless youth of San Diego
$25,000.00 to Love, Light and Melody who are using art and music to raise awareness for those in extreme poverty in Central America.
$50,000.00 to Compassion Intl in direct support of the work they did in Haiti after their devasting earthquake.
$42,000.00 to The Red Cross in direct support of the work they did after the tsunami in Japan.
$25,000.00 + to Not for Sale who fight against modern day slavery around the world.
This isn’t meant to be a definitive history of the brand. Nor is it a complete list of all the folks we have met along the way and were able to call friends. It’s simply intended to remind us of what is possible when love and charity intersect with a business plan.
