JESTER & PHARLEY PHUND
It's up to us to make a difference. It's up to us to care.©
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
We address two pressing needs: low spirits among kids with cancer and the high percentage of illiteracy among disadvantaged and minority children. Over 40,000 U.S. children receive treatment for cancer each year, with 15,700 diagnosed annually. Of the 88% expected to survive, 60% suffer serious late effects that can include depression, anxiety, poor cognitive development and other illnesses. As the Mayo Clinic notes, “When it comes to relieving stress, more giggles and guffaws are just what the doctor ordered.” Illiteracy runs rampant. A recent lawsuit cited English-language proficiency as low as 4% at elementary schools serving primarily low-income Latino and Black children. Poverty levels determine academic achievement gaps, a 2019 study found. The percentage of students qualifying for free and reduced-price meals is the key determinant of student performance, researchers found. Experts warn that students will be at academic risk and fall further behind without intervention.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Reading To Give™
The Reading To Give literacy program offers elementary-age students a means to gain valuable service learning experience while showing compassion for hospitalized or special-needs children in their neighborhood. By participating in our Read-A-Thon, schoolchildren and those who are members of religious groups, service clubs or simply participating as individuals read to give copies of "The Jester Has Lost His Jingle" and Jester & Pharley Dolls to a local hospital or special-needs facility.
David’s story about a Jester searching for laughter only to find it in the heart of a hospitalized little girl touches children deeply. They want to give the whimsical, uplifting book to local ill children to lift their spirits and help them laugh. In the process, students become stronger readers, kinder and more compassionate. Hospitals nationwide appreciate receiving “Jester” books and dolls from children in their community who participate in Jester Read-A-Thons to help ill and injured children in their neighborhood.
Reading Makes A Difference™
We bring our award-winning, sponsor-underwritten RMD literacy and outreach program to low-income schools in Los Angeles and Orange Counties in Southern California.
Each classroom and all reading instructors receive a copy of the bilingual English/Spanish "The Jester Has Lost His Jingle/El Bufón ha perdido su gracia." Each classroom and reading instructors also receive three Jester Educator Enrichment Manuals that complement the Common Core. The manuals began from lesson ideas developed and submitted spontaneously by teachers nationwide wanting to find children's books that inspired students in multiple subject areas. Each page in the 72-page Curriculum Supplement includes numerous lesson ideas. The Educator's Guide provides detailed background on the book's history not available elsewhere, and The Jester & Pharley PhunBook offers fun activities built around the book's themes.
The RMD program begins with Motivational Introductory Assemblies for all grades, offering background about the author and creation of "The Jester Has Lost His Jingle." Each age-appropriate assembly includes a PowerPoint presentation showing how ideas for stories come from personal experience, how books are developed and researched, how everyone has an interesting and meaningful story to tell, how David Saltzman's personal experiences resulted in an entertaining and illuminating story that powerfully communicates his thoughts and ideas.
Students join The Jester & Pharley Read-A-Thon to donate copies of "The Jester" and The Jester & Pharley Doll to a hospital in their community. All gift books and dolls come with bookplates acknowledging the donor(s) and the school.
Students keep daily reading logs of their reading progress. Charts and posters track reading performances and build friendly competition. A school-wide Recognition Assembly after the three-week Read-A-Thon highlights not only the school's total pages read but also the top-reading classrooms and students at each grade level. Students make colorful Jester hats and stick figures to add excitement to the Recognition Assembly. Top-reading students and classrooms receive special Jester Jingle Certificates and surprise Jester items. All students joining the Read-A-Thon receive colorful participation certificates. Representatives from the program underwriter(s) and hospital receiving "Jester" books and dolls from the Read-A-Thon participate in this exciting pep rally for reading.
Smiles for Kids With Cancer
This program is designed to provide a copy of David Saltzman's "The Jester Has Lost His Jingle" book and Jester & Pharley Doll to every child in the United States diagnosed with cancer upon diagnosis. These emotionally supportive materials help children and their families cope with cancer both during the rigors of treatment, the recovery process and in dealing with “late effects,” which affect 60% of children surviving cancer. "Jester" books and dolls are given to hospitals and medical centers providing primary protocols and medical treatment for the 16,000 children annually diagnosed with cancer in the United States. The books and dolls are given directly to young patients upon diagnosis, providing them with something to literally hold onto during this extremely challenging time.
The Jester & Pharley Smile Cart
The Jester & Pharley Smile Cart is a mobile activity center providing diversion and entertainment for young hospitalized patients as well as for children in other facilities helping special-needs youngsters. The Smile Cart comes with a TV; DVD player; radio/CD/tape unit; 150 copies of "The Jester Has Lost His Jingle", 150 Jester & Pharley Dolls; 150 Jester & Pharley Bookmarks; Jester & Pharley "PhunBooks" and teaching aids. Donors are acknowledged for their generosity with permanent plaques on the cart. Patients are given the book, doll and bookmark to keep, while the activity center remains in the hospital to provide ongoing wholesome and positive entertainment.
Where we work
Awards
Celebration of Community Award 2018
Kiwanis Club of Torrance
Philanthropic Gold Award 2014
Mom's Choice
Supervisor’s Community Service Award 2013
Long Beach Education Assn. & Long Beach Unified School District
Woman of Distinction Award (Barbara Saltzman) 2013
CA Assembly District 66
Best Picks Winner, Bilingual ‘Jester’ Book 2013
Dr. Toy
Best Product/Classic Product 2009
Dr. Toy
Seal of Excellence 2009
Creative Child Magazine
Circle of Love Education Award 2005
Pediatric Therapy Network
Celebrate Literacy Award 2000
International Reading Association
National Everyday Hero 1999
National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship
External reviews
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of 'Jester' Books Donated to Hospitals
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Smiles for Kids With Cancer
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Our goal is to donate 16,000 books each year, but given limited storage space at medical centers, books are distributed on an ongoing basis throughout the year according to each hospital’s needs.
Number of Title I Elementary Schools Participating in Jester Literacy & Outreach Read-A-Thons
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Reading Makes A Difference™
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of Elementary School Students Participating in Jester Literacy & Outreach Read-A-Thons
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Reading Makes A Difference™
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
We strive to bring children with cancer the hope, joy, laughter and love found in “The Jester Has Lost His Jingle.” We also work to inspire struggling low-income, minority elementary students to become strong readers and develop compassion.
In David’s story, The Jester & Pharley set off on a quest to find laughter when banished for failing to make the King laugh. They ultimately discover it in the heart of a hospitalized little girl. The duo tell the King that they’ve learned that laughter isn’t dead, but hiding in us all: “So, when you’re feeling lonely or sad or bad or blue, remember where laughter’s hiding. It’s hiding inside of you!”©
“The message that we all harbor the potential to rediscover inner joy, no matter how bleak things may at first appear, is a positive and uplifting one,” said Dr. Gerald Koocher, former executive director of Harvard Medical School’s Linda Pollin Institute and past president of the American Psychological Assn. “I am looking forward to having this tool as a means of offering support, encouragement and hope to the children and families we care for.”
We hope to hook low-income elementary students on reading and inspire them to develop empathy. Our RMD program gives children struggling with literacy the motivation and tools they need to read and succeed in later life. If motivated at an early age to enjoy reading and to understand the importance of being a contributing member of their community, children will lead more productive and responsible adult lives.
A N.Y. Times report on an NEA study reinforces the importance of students reading for pleasure: “The data showed that students who read for fun nearly every day performed better on reading tests than those who reported reading never or hardly at all.” Said a 1st grade teacher at a low-income East L.A. elementary school, “The most effective aspect of the RMD program is having kids realize that reading is fun. It has opened up a whole new world.”
“Part of a school’s purpose is to create A-plus human beings, who get along and speak to each other in respectful ways,” USC Professor of Social Work & Education Ron Avi Astor told the L.A. Times. “If you are able to create a school that makes kids happy, where there’s a good school climate, it not only becomes fertile ground for creating civic, democratic and communal values but also for strong academic gains.” We work to help students develop empathy and respect for others, traits considered vital to social-emotional development.
Hospitals especially welcome “Jester” donations made via our RMD program. “The book has such a positive impact on everyone and it is a perfect fit to our literacy program,” said one Children’s Hospital Los Angeles executive. “It is really a pleasure to distribute this delightful book to the children because we hear the most wonderful comments from both the patients and their parents. They are often very surprised to learn that people outside our walls are thinking of them.”
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our strategy originates in the Saltzmans’ promise to David to give “The Jester” to every child in the U.S. diagnosed with cancer annually. They originally worked with 150 hospitals affiliated with national cancer support groups. Upon “The Jester’s” release in 1995, all 10,000 children diagnosed with cancer received David’s story.
Today, 44 children a day are told they have cancer, a total of over 16,000 annually. We now donate “Jester” books & dolls to over 350 hospitals, regularly contacting them to fulfill their requests.
As Robert L. Pannoni, COO and president of the National Childhood Cancer Foundation, noted upon the book’s release. “We want to distribute copies of ‘The Jester Has Lost His Jingle’ and Jester & Pharley Dolls to every child who enters our hospitals for cancer treatment, to raise their spirits and offer them the hope for a cure.”
Our strategy to inspire disenfranchised children to read grows from their love for “The Jester” and their desire to bring its joy and laughter to local ill children. Our RMD program gives children struggling with challenges the motivation and tools they need to read and succeed in later life.
We bring our donor-funded RMD program to low-income schools where most students face obstacles that prevent them from discovering the personal joys of reading. A large number are learning English as a second language and need inspiration to read. The beauty of the program is that it allows students to give of themselves and develop a love of reading on their own, becoming charitable, independent readers.
Our program is designed to motivate K-3 students to read. Studies find that ongoing success in reading usually develops by age 9 and that parental involvement is a key factor. When students see that they can help other children simply by reading, they understand that they can give of themselves without having to donate money. It fills them with pride and satisfaction.
Students meet “The Jester” and its author in Introductory Assemblies, then embark on a 4-8 week Read-A-Thon to donate “Jester” books & dolls to local patients. Parents sign off on reading logs. Classes receive a copy of the English/Spanish “Jester” & a set of our 3 Educator Enrichment Manuals. A digital copy of the book is available online. The library receives a Jester & Pharley Doll. A Recognition Assembly celebrates top-reading students & classes with Jester Jingle certificates, bilingual “Jester” books, a personalized journal & other educational items.
“The RMD program has inspired all our students to want to read. It is beautifully interrelated with our curriculum for reading and social-emotional development,” says the principal of a Title I school, who has requested the program for 6 years. “It helps them develop self-esteem and empathy for others. It gets parents and kids talking about reading. It inspired our students to not only read more, but also to try harder, be positive and have compassion for others.”
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
For two decades, The Jester & Pharley Phund has successfully completed over 230 Reading Makes A Difference programs. Over 138,000 disadvantaged students have eagerly read in Jester Read-A-Thons to donate “The Jester” book and doll to local patients.
Our ability to build, grow and sustain this program stems from how Phund founder-president Barbara Saltzman developed it. Upon “The Jester’s” release, she was invited to speak about her late son’s book nationwide. She received hundreds of unsolicited letters from teachers, students and librarians with creative lesson ideas drawn from David’s story. She met students of all socio-economic levels, ethnicities, regions and backgrounds wanting to help sick kids with “The Jester.”
Barbara created a literacy program with the same determination she oversaw publication of the book. She consulted with educators, including her husband, Joe Saltzman, a nationally recognized professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. Former editor of the L.A. Times daily entertainment section, Barbara knew how to organize and run an effective, motivational program.
In response to COVID-19, she now brings the same enthusiasm and expertise into reshaping the RMD project into an impactful remote program. “The RMD program is a wonderful way to elicit social-emotional learning tenets like social awareness and empathy in the K-5 grades,” said one principal requesting the virtual program for his low-income school.
Executive Director Amy Hastings has overseen the RMD program for 15 years as Program Director and 4 years as Executive Director. She coordinates all programs, evaluating their outcomes and building strong relationships with educators. She oversees donation of “Jester” books and dolls to over 350 hospitals. She conducts motivating assemblies and works closely with volunteers and staff to share her skills. Director of Development Nikie Hamilton works with both Amy and Program Director Connie Lopez in the expansion and development of our literacy and medical programs. Connie oversees myriad details to ensure that programs run smoothly and that all school and hospital needs are met.
Educators consistently praise the program’s ability to motivate children. “As I reflect on the variety of academic and enrichment programs that we have had in Magnolia School District, the Reading Makes A Difference Program has truly been one of the most rewarding and inspiring to students, staff and families in our community,” said Hanan Thornton, Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services, in Anaheim, CA. “The Kick-Off Assemblies at each school for kindergarten through 6th graders did a great job motivating both students and teachers. By the time the Recognition Assemblies took place, students had read hundreds of thousands of pages! Your RMD program has truly made a difference for our students and our community. We look forward to working with you again and hope to be able to continue this partnership for years to come.”
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We see our progress in “The Jester’s” impact on every child David Saltzman's story touches ‒ both in hospitals and schools. Over 250,000 “Jester Has Lost His Jingle” books and Jester & Pharley Dolls have been donated to children with cancer and in support of student literacy since “The Jester’s” debut in 1995.
Release of the bilingual English/Spanish edition of “The Jester” in 2012 added an important resource to the programs. Enthusiasm for “The Jester Has Lost His Jingle/El Bufón ha perdido su gracia” has been so strong among Spanish-speaking families, hospitals and schools that in 2016 we released a second printing. We are now raising funds for a third printing.
“Half of the families I work with are Spanish speaking,” said one pediatric oncology social worker. “The children usually prefer to read in English but their parents only speak Spanish, so this book is perfect to bring smiles and unite parents and children. It is hard to put a value to anything that brings a smile to a child battling cancer. That’s why this book is invaluable. This book is perfect to bring smiles and unite parents and children under a special reading experience.”
In the last two decades, students in our RMD program have read over 45 million pages to donate “Jester” books and dolls to local hospitalized children. For some, reading had not been an important part of their lives. But when they realized that they could directly help a sick or injured child just by reading, their lives were transformed.
Vanessa U. is one such child. “Before I came to Jefferson, I hated reading. It wasn’t my thing,” Vanessa confided in a hand-written note to The Jester’s Mom (Barbara Saltzman). Things changed for the Compton, CA, fourth grader when The Phund brought our RMD program to her elementary school. “When I heard it would benefit kids in the hospital,” Vanessa wrote, she couldn’t stop reading. “Now I love to read! The Jester & Pharley Phund has inspired me.”
Her teachers and principal reported that her test scores had gone up, her comprehension and fluency also improved. They also saw her imagination fired up by “The Jester Has Lost His Jingle” ‒ both the story and its illustrations and the back story of its author-artist. “It’s been exciting to see Vanessa motivated to read more and to draw and create her own stories,” her teacher said. “She has been inspired to see how David himself found that drawing and illustrating ‘The Jester’ helped him cope with the challenges he faced.”
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is one of the hundreds of hospitals eager to receive more copies of “The Jester” from our Read-A-Thons: “The children love receiving the book, and the smile it brings to their faces is priceless,” said one pediatric administrator. “We are delighted to give these copies to the children here at St. Jude. This is a delightful story, and one that brings many smiles to the patients and families.”
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
JESTER & PHARLEY PHUND
Board of directorsas of 01/18/2022
Ms. Barbara Saltzman
The Jester & Pharley Phund
Term: 2000 - 2024
Amy Forte
California State University
Term: 2018 - 2024
Beth Kleid
Community Advocate
Joe Saltzman
USC, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Mauricio Heilbron. MD
St. Mary Medical Center, Long Beach, CA; Los Alamitos Medical Center
Jennifer Glimpse Saltzman
Educator
Mark Wiedenmann
Chadwick School
Craig Fox
UCLA Anderson School of Business
Michael Saltzman
Film, TV Writer/Producer
Allan Jones, DDS
Allan C. Jones Dentistry
Mandaar Gokhale, MD
Mendocino Coast Hospital
Liz Mitchell
Former TV Journalist
Deborah Zwelling
Health and Education Advocate
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? No -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Not applicable -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
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Equity strategies
Last updated: 10/20/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.