Walking With Alex Foundation
Success is often measured by what we achieve for ourselves. But perhaps one of the greatest measures of success is what we are able to make possible for someone else.
That is the heart of philanthropy.
Giving is not simply about transferring money from one person to another. When directed toward meaningful causes, a donation can become an education, medical treatment, therapy, food, shelter, books, equipment, or an opportunity that someone may never have had otherwise. In many cases, philanthropy does more than help someone through a difficult moment—it gives that person the resources to move forward.
Some of the world’s most successful and recognizable individuals have made philanthropy an important part of their legacies.
MacKenzie Scott has become one of the most significant philanthropists of our time. Through Yield Giving, she has distributed more than $26 billion through over 2,700 gifts to nonprofit organizations. Her approach has directed enormous resources toward organizations working within communities and addressing needs ranging from education and economic security to housing and health. Her philanthropy demonstrates what can happen when those with resources place those resources in the hands of organizations already doing the work.
Dolly Parton has shown that philanthropy can also begin with one very personal idea. Inspired in part by her father’s inability to read and write, she launched the Imagination Library in 1995 to provide free books to young children in her home county in Tennessee. What began as a local program became an international movement. Today, the program distributes millions of free books every month to children around the world.
Think about what those numbers actually represent. Behind every book is a child being encouraged to read, imagine, and learn. A single book may appear to be a small gift, but millions of small gifts can create opportunities for millions of children.
Warren Buffett has likewise demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to philanthropy. Over the course of his lifetime, he has donated tens of billions of dollars to charitable causes and has pledged to give away the vast majority of his wealth. His giving has supported efforts addressing health, poverty, education, and opportunity around the world.
And philanthropy is certainly not limited to traditional foundations.
Basketball legend Michael Jordan made a $10 million donation to Make-A-Wish America in 2023—the largest individual donation in the organization’s history at the time. Jordan had already been involved with Make-A-Wish for more than three decades, helping grant wishes to children facing critical illnesses.
What these individuals demonstrate is not simply the power of wealth. They demonstrate the power of deciding that some portion of what we have can be used to improve someone else’s future.
And you do not need billions—or millions—to participate in that idea.
Every meaningful philanthropic movement is ultimately built by people who decide to give what they can. One person funds a therapy session. Another purchases equipment for a classroom. Someone else sponsors a family, volunteers time, purchases a gala ticket, introduces a nonprofit to a potential donor, or simply tells another person about a cause worth supporting.
Those individual acts accumulate.
For a child with special needs, philanthropy can be particularly powerful because access to appropriate services and resources can influence development, communication, independence, and quality of life. A donation is no longer simply a dollar amount when it becomes an hour of speech therapy for a child working to communicate, occupational therapy that helps a child develop important daily skills, or resources that allow a classroom to better meet the developmental needs of its students.
This belief is at the heart of the Walking With Alex Foundation.
We believe that a child’s access to essential therapy should not depend entirely on whether his or her parents can afford it.
Since officially launching on January 7, 2026, the Walking With Alex Foundation has already helped children with special needs in Armenia and Lebanon receive essential services, including speech therapy, occupational therapy, aquatic therapy, and behavioral therapy. These therapies have been fully funded for children whose families otherwise could not afford them.
Our mission has also reached children here in the United States. We have supported special needs classrooms by providing vital equipment, developmental toys, and resources designed to create environments where children can learn, develop, and engage.
And we are only beginning.
On October 21, 2026, approximately 400 guests will come together at the beautiful Taglyan Cultural Complex for the Walking With Alex Foundation’s Annual Fundraising Gala.
The evening will be much more than a celebration.
It will be an opportunity to see what generosity has already made possible. It will be an opportunity to learn about the children and families we have served, understand the work that remains ahead of us, and hear our vision for expanding the foundation’s impact in the years to come.
Most importantly, it will be an opportunity to participate.
When you donate to a charitable cause, you may never fully know how far your generosity will travel. The child receiving therapy today may communicate something to a parent tomorrow that they have never been able to express before. The developmental resource placed in a classroom may help countless children for years. The support given to a family may allow parents to continue providing opportunities for their child when they believed they had exhausted every option.
That is the extraordinary ripple effect of philanthropy.
The world’s most prominent philanthropists remind us what enormous giving can accomplish. But changing lives has never belonged exclusively to billionaires.
It belongs to communities.
It belongs to businesses.
It belongs to families.
And it belongs to every individual who decides that helping another person move forward is worth investing in.
On October 21, 2026, we invite you to join the Walking With Alex Foundation at the Taglyan Cultural Complex. Come learn about our work. Meet the people who believe in our mission. Discover what we have accomplished in a remarkably short period of time and, most importantly, learn where we hope to go next.
Attend. Sponsor. Donate. Share our mission.
Because philanthropy is not measured only by what we give away.
It is measured by what our giving makes possible.