FAQ | Ryan Newman Foundation

I want to do a fundraiser for the Ryan Newman Foundation

Thank you so much for your interest in raising money for the Ryan Newman Foundation to fulfill our mission. We greatly appreciate your passion for our cause! However, fundraising falls under many state and federal laws and therefore raising money in the name of or for a nonprofit organization is a lot more complicated than it sounds. Are you a private foundation, public foundation or 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization with your own organizational current solicitation license in your state? If not, you may not legally be authorized in your state or by the federal government to hold a fundraiser or take donations from the public. Additionally, if you want to conduct a fundraising event in some states, a registered agent is required.

We don’t mean to sound discouraging, but the IRS and state governments are quite serious about the laws of fundraising. Since you are interested in helping the Ryan Newman Foundation with donations, the best way to help us is by promoting our many fundraising efforts that we already organize each year. Encourage people to visit www.ryannewmanfoundation.org and click our Donate tab to make a tax-deductible donation online directly to the Ryan Newman Foundation. Also, help us spread the word about our annual fundraisers—our Charity Fishing Tournament and our Charity Dinner & Auction in December. You can also encourage people to go to www.ryannewman.org to purchase our charity books and for sale, Pit Road Pets: NASCAR Stars and Their Pets, Pit Road Pets: NASCAR Stars and Their Pets, The Second Lap and our newest item, Newman’s Pup Crew. Let us know if you would like to receive web banners or fliers about these events to send to your friends and family to help us promote our current fundraisers.

General Donation/Grant Request

Thank you for your interest in the Ryan Newman Foundation

The Ryan Newman Foundation receives an overwhelming number of requests each week from outstanding nonprofit organizations. If you are interested in a grant for your organization, please download an application. The open grant application process is from January 1st – June 30th. If your organization is chosen to receive funding, you will be notified within 60 days after the application process ends.

We want to help you find funding by pointing you in the right direction and sharing our resources. If you are an animal welfare organization, please visit LINK for a long list of grantmakers.

Please note that the Ryan Newman Foundation primarily funds organizations and projects that fulfill our mission. The mission of the Ryan Newman Foundation is to educate and encourage people to spay/neuter their pets and to adopt dogs and cats from animal shelters; to educate children and adults about the importance of conservation so the beauty of the great outdoors can be appreciated by future generations; and to provide college scholarship funding through the Rich Vogler Scholarship program to students interested in auto racing careers.

We regret f we are unable to offer your organization a grant and wish you the best of luck with your fundraising efforts. The Newman’s commend you for the work your organization does to make our world a better place.

If you are interested in requesting an autographed Ryan Newman item to use for one of your organization's fundraising auctions or raffles, please see the guidelines listed at the bottom.

If you would like to be informed about the Ryan Newman Foundation's coming events, fundraisers, volunteer opportunities, programs, foundation news, and where Ryan will be appearing to help a charity, visit www.ryannewmanfoundation.org and click on Join Our Email List.

Request for Autographed Item

Thank you for your interest in the Ryan Newman Foundation. You have requested the donation of a Ryan Newman autographed item.

Ryan and his wife Krissie believe that it is important to give back to the community, and they support the work of numerous nonprofit organizations across the country. We would be happy to consider your request for a donated Ryan Newman autographed item. Please note that each week we receive numerous requests for monetary donations and donations of autographed items. We are not able to fill all the requests. However, we encourage you to submit a letter outlining your request:

The letter should be on your organization's professional letterhead and signed by your Executive Director or President.
Using 100 to 200 words, describe:

the work of your organization
the type of fundraiser you are holding
how the money raised will be used.

Your letter should include a contact name, phone number, email address and address to which the items should be shipped
The last line of the letter should include your nonprofit organization's exempt tax ID #
Submit the letter via mail at least 5 months prior to your event.

The letter should be submitted along with a copy of your 501(c)(3) letter to:

Autographed Donation Request
Ryan Newman Foundation
PO Box 5998
Statesville, NC 28687

It is important to follow these instructions. If your request letter does not following all of the guidelines outlined above, it will be automatically rejected. Once your letter is received and approved, it will be forwarded to Ryan Newman Motorsports. If we have enough inventory, then Ryan Newman will autograph a designated item, and it will be shipped to your organization for purpose of fundraising only. Inventory of items is out of our control, therefore we will not be able to tell you in advance whether or not we will have inventory prior to your fundraising event. Due to the number of requests we receive, we can not guarantee a donation of an autographed item, but we will do our best based on the inventory at hand.

Please note that we are not donating Pit Road Pets books at this time. Since Pit Road Pets is a fundraiser for specific Ryan Newman Foundation mission partnerships, giving away free books would reduce the amount of funding we have pledged to that Humane Society through book sales. However, a variety of other items are often available thanks to Ryan's gracious team sponsors and vendors.

Request for a Scholarship

Thank you for contacting the Ryan Newman Foundation. The foundation does not offer scholarships directly to students. We fund the Rich Vogler Scholarship and direct scholarship inquiries directly to their scholarship fund at www.richvoglerscholarship.org.

Ryan Newman received the Rich Vogler Scholarship to attend Purdue University. He strongly encourages those interested in motor sports to attend college and obtain a degree in something they love.

The Rich Vogler Scholarship Foundation’s vision is to encourage members of the racing community to further their education.

Scholarships of $1,000. each are awarded to several candidates each year based on applications received. Funds may be used for any type of education from university to vocational training, or for special needs education. Scholarships are awarded to individuals throughout the United States. The Foundation's goal is to create a fund which is perpetual and self-supporting.

Best of luck with your future endeavors in education.

Request for a Donation of Veterinary Costs for Family Pet

We are so sorry to hear about your beloved pet. It is very difficult to cope with the critical illness or injury of a pet when we love them as much as we do. The Newman’s empathize with you and knows how emotional times like these are. If we could help you with your veterinary costs, we would. However, the Ryan Newman Foundation receives hundreds of emails each week, many of which are requests for donations. Even though the Newman’s are very generous people, they can not possibly fulfill all the donation requests we receive. That is one of the reasons they created a 501(c) (3) nonprofit charitable foundation in January 2005 to manage those requests. As a nonprofit foundation we have guidelines for grants to nonprofit organizations, and we are unable to give money directly to individuals.

Please know that although we are not able to offer you funding, we will keep your family in our hearts as you deal with this difficult situation. Pets bring such joy to our lives and become part of our families. Dealing with their critical illnesses or injuries is as emotionally straining as dealing with those of a human family member. Your pet and your family will be in our thoughts and prayers.

Where to Adopt a Pet

Ryan and Krissie Newman are very glad that you are interested in adopting a pet from an animal shelter or rescue group. We suggest you use www.petfinder.com to find a pet and rescue group in your area.

Petfinder is an on-line, searchable database of animals that need homes. It is also a directory of over 9,000 animal shelters and adoption organizations across the USA, Canada and Mexico. Organizations maintain their own home pages and available pet database.

Petfinder's mission is to use Internet technology and the resources it can generate to 1) increase public awareness of the availability of high-quality adoptable pets and to 2) increase the overall effectiveness of pet adoption programs across North America to the extent that the euthanasia of adoptable pets is eliminated.

From the comfort of their personal computers, pet lovers can search for a pet that best matches their needs. They can then reference a shelter's Web page and discover what services it offers. Petfinder also includes classified ads, discussion forums and a library of animal welfare articles. Petfinder is updated daily. To adopt a pet, find a shelter near you, or just to find out more about Petfinder, visit www.petfinder.com.

Ryan and Krissie encourage people who are interested in adding a pet to their family to search for a furry friend on Petfinder.com and rescue a homeless pet from an animal shelter. The Newman’s gave fans Petfinder.com book marks and bumper stickers at the Pit Road Pets: NASCAR Stars and Their Pets book signing at Penske Fan Fest in May 2006. Petfinder.com donated the items to the Ryan Newman Foundation so the Newman’s could spread the word about the free pet adoption web service.

Need to Find a Home for a Pet or Need to Give Up a Pet

The Ryan Newman Foundation does not take in animals; however, one of the great resources we recommend is PetFinder.com. We suggest that you contact one of the animal rescue groups in your community to see if they have room to take in your animal. You can find a listing and contact information for those groups in your area at www.petfinder.com.

Petfinder is an on-line, searchable database of animals that need homes. The Petfinder.com Classifieds are for Lost Pets, Found Pets, Pets Wanted and Adoptable Pets. Posts for Adoptable pets are available for people who have taken in a stray and wish to find it a home and for people who wish to place their own pets in new homes. To post a Classified Ad on Petfinder, visit www.petfinder.com.

Request for Newmans to Appear at a Charity Event

Thank you for your invitation for Ryan and/or Krissie Newman to appear at your event. Unfortunately, Ryan’s busy NASCAR schedule does not allow him to time to attend. NASCAR drivers have extremely busy schedules. They work 6 to 7 days a week February through November and they even work during their "time off" months of December and January to prepare for the next season. On rare occasions, NASCAR drivers may be able to attend an event that is near a race track where they will be racing, but only if they have a free hour left in their race weekend schedule between NASCAR practice, qualifying, team meetings, sponsor appearances, and racing. And of course, it is important for Ryan to make time to rest during a race weekend so he can perform at his best in the race itself. Ryan's wife, Krissie, attends the races with Ryan, so she is not available during the weekends either. During the week, she runs Ryan Newman Motorsports, which takes up most of her time.

We commend you for the good work of your organization and thank you for making our world a better place. Although Ryan and Krissie Newman are not able to attend, they wish you the best of luck with your event.

We would like to stay in touch. If you would like to be informed about the Ryan Newman Foundation's coming events, fundraisers, volunteer opportunities, programs, foundation news, Pit Road Pets book signings, and where Ryan will be appearing to help a charity, visit www.ryannewmanfoundation.org and click on Join Our Email List.

When Ryan Will be Doing Pet Road Pets Book Signings

Thank you for your interest in our charity books, Pit Road Pets: NASCAR Stars and Their PetsTM and Pit Road Pets: NASCAR Stars and Their PetsTM, The Second Lap. We plan on holding book signings throughout the nation during the year. Most of these book signings will be held during race weekends at the race track.

To be notified of future book signings, visit www.pitroadpets.com or www.ryannewmanfoundation.org and click Join Our Email List. We'll keep you posted about upcoming events. You can also visit the Book Signings page on www.pitroadpets.com to read articles about upcoming book signings.

To purchase your copy of the books from the Fan Club, visit www.ryannewman.org or www.pitroadpets.com. One hundred percent of the proceeds from book sales from our Fan Club will benefit the Ryan Newman Foundation.

Want Autographed Copy of Pit Road Pets

Thank you for your interest in the Ryan Newman Foundation's charity books. If you would like to purchase autographed Pit Road Pets books, you can order them from the Ryan Newman Foundation

Allow 2 to 6 weeks for shipping in case they are out of stock at the time that you order.

Here's how to order an autographed Pit Road Pets book:

For the newest edition, write a $44.99 check to the Ryan Newman Foundation. This includes a $5.00 shipping charge.
For the first edition, write a $24.99 check to the Ryan Newman Foundation. This includes a $5.00 shipping charge.
Be sure to neatly print in the memo line of your check: "For Autographed Pit Road Pets book". Please note if you are requesting Book 1 or Book 2 on the check.
If your shipping address is different than the address on your check, please include it on a note.

Mail the check to:
Ryan Newman Foundation
Attention: Pit Road Pets Book
PO Box 5998
Statesville, NC 28625

If you want Ryan and Krissie Newman to autograph a book that you already own, they would be happy to. Visit www.ryannewman.org. to read the autograph policy and follow the directions to have your book autographed.

Thank you for supporting the Ryan Newman Foundation and Pit Road Pets and Newmans Pup Crew!

Buying Books Wholesale to Retail

Thank you for your interest in retailing our charity books, "Pit Road Pets: NASCAR Stars and Their Pets and Pit Road Pets: NASCAR Stars and Their Pets, The Second Lap." The books have been selling very well, and they are now in their second printing because we sold out of the first printing. We are selling cases of books directly to retailers. You may purchase books in cases of 16 for the wholesale price of $12.50 per book ($200.00 per case) plus $20 shipping per case. The retail price is $24.95 per book ($399 per case). If you are interested in ordering books, please fax your Purchase Order to 866-593-6793. Thank you.

We would like to stay in touch. If you would like to be informed about the Ryan Newman Foundation's coming events, fundraisers, foundation news, volunteer opportunities, programs, Pit Road Pets book signings, and where Ryan will be appearing to help a charity, visit www.ryannewmanfoundation.org and click on Join Our Email List.

Want Ryan to do Pet Road Pets Book Signing Off-site

Thank you for your invitation for Ryan Newman to do a book signing at your venue. Unfortunately, Ryan’s busy NASCAR schedule does not allow him to time to attend. NASCAR drivers have an extremely busy schedule. They work 6 to 7 days a week February through November and they even work during their "time off" months of December and January to prepare for the next season. On rare occasions, NASCAR drivers may be able to attend an event that is near a race track where they will be racing, but only if they have a free hour left in their race weekend schedule between NASCAR practice, qualifying, team meetings, sponsor appearances, and racing. And of course, it is important for Ryan to make time to rest during a race weekend so he can perform at his best in the race itself. Ryan's wife, Krissie, attends the races with Ryan, so she is not available during the weekends either. During the week, she runs Ryan Newman Motorsports, which takes up most of her time.

How Kids Can Help

Thank you for your interest in the Ryan Newman Foundation. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman and his wife, Krissie, established the Ryan Newman Foundation in January 2005. The mission of the foundation is to educate and encourage people to spay/neuter their pets and to adopt dogs and cats from animal shelters; to educate children and adults about the importance of conservation so the beauty of the great outdoors can be appreciated by future generations; and to provide college scholarship funding through the Rich Vogler Scholarship program to students interested in auto racing careers.

Children can help the Ryan Newman Foundation fulfill our mission in several ways:

Take a tour of your local animal shelter: One of the best ways children can help the Ryan Newman Foundation fulfill our mission is to do what Ryan and Krissie do--support the local humane society or animal shelter. If children have never been inside an animal shelter, it is a great educational opportunity. Call your local shelter to make an appointment for a tour. While you are there, find out what kids can do to help the local animal shelter. Many shelters can not allow children to walk dogs for liability reasons, but they may be able to make cat toys or collect pet supplies from the community to donate to the shelter for animal care.
Learn more about conservation: Contact your local Fish & Wildlife agency, The Conservation Fund or Trout Unlimited chapter to ask about their educational programs for kids. The Newman’s feel that it is important for children to learn why it is important to take care of our rivers, lakes and streams so they can be there for future generations to enjoy.
Storm drain marking programs: These programs are a remarkably easy way for residents of all ages to get directly involved in reducing the amount of pollution in our streams and lakes. Do an Internet search for "Storm Drain Marking" and the name of your state to find local storm drain marking programs. Storm drain labeling involves marking storm drain openings with messages reminding citizens not to dump pollutants down the drains. Drain messages are usually a simple phrase to remind passersby that the storm drains connect to local water bodies and that dumping in drains pollutes these waters. Sometimes, the drains specify the body of water where drain water eventually flows. Common messages include "No Dumping. Drains to Water Source," "Drains to River," and "You Dump it, You Drink it". No Waste Here."
Say thank you to your animal shelter staff: The words "thank you" are powerful, but since animals can't speak, it's up to community members to let shelter workers know just how much their commitment to animals is appreciated. Send a letter, card or e-mail to your local shelter, and let them know you care. Kids can make thank you cards to bring to the hard working shelter staff at the local animal shelter to let them know that their compassion is appreciated.
Spay/neuter your pets: Do your part. Spaying or neutering your pet is one of the most important things you can do to reduce the number of homeless pets in your community. Kids can prevent animal overpopulation by asking their parents to spay/neuter the family pets.
Make our world a greener place--plant trees: Kids can plant trees in their own community. Arborday.org offers detailed information on dozens of commonly planted landscape trees that grow throughout the United States. Here you will find information on height and spread, soil and sun requirements, leaves and fruit, history, wildlife habitat, and more. Also, kids can participate in a Nature Explore Club Activity.
Hold a community fundraiser: Some parents feel that it is important for their children to learn about philanthropy at an early age. Kids can hold fundraisers to benefit your local humane society, conservation agency or the Ryan Newman Foundation. Some ideas include:

holding a bake sale or lemonade stand
hosting an educational fair at your school or church that focuses on conservation issues or companion animal issues and raffle items to raise funds while educating your peers
collecting pet food and cat litter from your local grocery store customers to donate to your local animal shelter

For additional educational resources, visit:

Want to Volunteer

Thank you for your interest in volunteering for the Ryan Newman Foundation. Since we are a charitable foundation and not a nonprofit agency that offers programs and services directly to clients, we only have a few volunteer opportunities each year. Our volunteer opportunities include helping with our annual fundraising events. When those opportunities are available, we will post them in our eNewsletter. If you are not already on our email list, please go to www.ryannewmanfoundation.org and click Join Our Email List to register.

Ryan and Krissie believe that making a difference in the world starts by making a difference in your own community. That is why the Newman’s not only help nonprofit organizations nationwide, but they also volunteer for their local humane society. If you are looking for regular volunteer opportunities, we suggest that you help us by helping you community. You can help the Ryan Newman Foundation fulfill our mission in several ways:

Take a tour of your local animal shelter: Contact your local Fish & Wildlife agency or Trout Unlimited chapter to ask about their volunteer opportunities. The Newman’s feel that it is important for families to learn why it is important to take care of our rivers, lakes and streams so they can be there for future generations to enjoy.
Learn more about conservation: Contact your local Fish & Wildlife agency, The Conservation Fund or Trout Unlimited chapter to ask about their educational programs for kids. The Newman’s feel that it is important for children to learn why it is important to take care of our rivers, lakes and streams so they can be there for future generations to enjoy.
Storm drain marking programs: These programs are a remarkably easy way for residents of all ages to get directly involved in reducing the amount of pollution in our streams and lakes. Do an Internet search for "Storm Drain Marking" and the name of your state to find local storm drain marking programs. Storm drain labeling involves marking storm drain openings with messages reminding citizens not to dump pollutants down the drains. Drain messages are usually a simple phrase to remind passersby that the storm drains connect to local water bodies and that dumping in drains pollutes these waters. Sometimes, the drains specify the body of water where drain water eventually flows. Common messages include "No Dumping. Drains to Water Source," "Drains to River," and "You Dump it, You Drink it". No Waste Here."
Spay/neuter your pets: Do your part. Spaying or neutering your pet is one of the most important things you can do to reduce the number of homeless pets in your community. You can prevent animal overpopulation by spaying/neutering your family pets.
Make our world a greener place--plant trees:Plant trees in your own community. Arborday.org offers detailed information on dozens of commonly planted landscape trees that grow throughout the United States. Here you will find information on height and spread, soil and sun requirements, leaves and fruit, history, wildlife habitat, and more.

For additional educational resources, visit:

Unable to Fund Personal Situation

We are so sorry to hear about your unfortunate situation. The Newman’s empathize with you and know how difficult times like these are. If we could help you financially, we would. However, the Ryan Newman Foundation receives hundreds of emails each week, most of which are requests for donations. Even though the Newman’s are very generous people, they can not possibly fulfill all the donation requests we receive. That is one of the reasons they created a 501(c) (3) nonprofit charitable foundation in January 2005 to manage those requests. As a nonprofit foundation we have guidelines for grants to nonprofit organizations, and we are unable to give money directly to individuals.

Please know that although we are not able to offer you funding, we will keep your family in our hearts as you deal with this difficult situation.

Advice on Opening an Animal Shelter

Thank you for contacting the Ryan Newman Foundation. It sounds like you are very passionate about animal welfare. Ryan and Krissie Newman commend you for the work you have been doing for animals. You are truly a guardian angel! We are so glad that you came to us for advice.

Opening a no-kill shelter in your community seems to be the answer to the desperate need to save the lives of animals being euthanized today; it has been proven to be ineffective in preventing animal overpopulation. Studies show that rescue and adoption programs simply can not keep up with the pace of the number of unwanted animals being born and then euthanized. Although they do great work in rescue and adoption, they came to the conclusion a few years ago that they were fighting a losing battle because there are simply not enough homes for all the animals being euthanized each day. In order to rescue all the animals in shelters at this moment, we would all have to adopt 25 animals today. That is impossible, of course. Local Humane Societies can start a spay/neuter transport program.

The only mathematically proven way to reduce the number of homeless animals euthanized is to prevent them from being born by offering public, low-cost spay/neuter surgeries. Continued rapid progress against pet overpopulation in some of the fastest-growing parts of the South, the Sunbelt and the Midwest combined with continued low shelter killing volume in the Northeast and Northwest to bring estimated total U.S. shelter killing in 2002 down to 4.2 million--a record low. That number is down from 5.7 million pet euthanasia’s in 1992. Furthermore, spay/neuter programs are much cheaper than rescue and adoption programs. It costs us $250 to rescue, provide medical work to, house and adopt one pet. However, it only costs us $60 - $70 to spay/neuter one pet through the low-cost spay/neuter clinic. So for the cost of saving one animal from euthanasia through rescue and adoption; you could use the same amount of money to spay/neuter nearly six pets and prevent the birth and euthanasia of thousands of unwanted animals in the future. There is a national consensus: Fundamental to all animal euthanization preventative work is sterilization. Spaying/Neutering is recognized as our best defense against all sources of shelter overpopulation. The solution to the stray, abandoned, and unwanted companion animal dilemma is this: Only by implementing widespread sterilization programs, only by spaying and neutering all companion animals, will we get a handle on pet overpopulation. The American Veterinary Medical Association states, "Although the cause of pet overpopulation is multifaceted, failure of owners to spay and castrate their animals is a major contributing factor."

In July 2006, Ryan and Krissie Newman became the spokespeople for the Humane Alliance's National Spay/Neuter Response Team. The NSNRT is an initiative of the Humane Alliance, which is a nonprofit public, low-cost, high-volume spay/neuter clinic in Asheville, North Carolina. Humane Alliance operates a high-volume spay/neuter clinic in Asheville that has sterilized 275,000 animals since its inception 12 years ago and reduced the euthanasia rate in their community by an astounding 82 percent! Through their NSNRT initiative, they have already helped groups across the country begin operations for 12 model clinics in just one year. Working much like a NASCAR pit crew, the National Spay/Neuter Response team sends in groups of trained vets and techs around the country to help nonprofit organizations open spay/neuter clinics using the Humane Alliance model. The nonprofit organization first spends a week with their entire staff in Asheville at the Humane Alliance clinic, and then the Asheville staff comes back with them to their hometown for two weeks to help them open their clinic.

If you want to prevent the euthanasia of thousands of animals in your community, we urge you to strongly consider starting your own low-cost spay/neuter referral program with local veterinarians or start a public, high-volume, low-cost spay/neuter clinic through the National Spay/Neuter Response Team. For more information about NSNRT, please visit www.humanealliance.org. After reading their resources about the NSNRT, you may contact them to take them next steps.

Resources:

Thank you very much for contacting us about companion animal welfare. People like you make a difference in this world! We would like to stay in touch. If you would like to be informed about the Ryan Newman Foundation's coming events, fundraisers, foundation news, volunteer opportunities, programs, Pit Road Pets book signings, and where Ryan will be appearing to help a charity, visit www.ryannewmanfoundation.org and click on Join Our Email List.

The Ryan Newman Foundation

Frequently Asked Questions