Burn Foundation of Central New York receives a $5,000 donation as part of being named Upstate's 2025 Your Cause charity. From left, Linda Veit, Upstate assistant vice president of community relations; Paul Knierman, Burn Foundation volunteer and an Upstate nurse; James Ennis, co-founder and chair of the Burn Foundation of Central New York; and Upstate President Mantosh Dewan, MD.

Your Cause

Each November, Upstate employees and students are encouraged to nominate a local non-profit organization whose mission is in line with the mission of Upstate. The selected organization will be Team Upstate’s featured “Your Cause” organization for the year and will receive support for events, outreach, hands-on work and education.

Past "Your Cause" Sponsorships:

2024: Empower Parkinson, Inc. Check here for announcement
2023: Francis House. Click here for the announcement
2022: Sarah's Guest House Announcement

2021: Rescue Mission: Runaway & Homeless Emergency Youth Shelter (Due to the pandemic volunteer efforts were limited in 2020)
2020: Rescue Mission: Runaway & Homeless Emergency Youth Shelter Announcement

Submission FAQs

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If my organization is selected, what are my specific duties and responsibilities?

You will be required to attend quarterly Team Upstate meetings and serve as a liaison between your organization and Team Upstate. You will also be required to recruit and organize Upstate volunteers for special events, if needed. The time commitment is approximately 20 hours for the entire year.

I want to start a charity; can I use these funds?

Your Cause only funds established organizations.

Is my organization a part the SEFA?

Please check the website at https://www.sefanys.org to determine if your organization is a part of SEFA. If not, please be sure to enroll during the open enrollment period of 12/1/2018 to 1/31/2019.

How would the chosen organization recieve finanical sponsorship/support?

The chosen organization would receive financial sponsorship/support totaling $5k for any of their organization’s fundraising event. It would be at the discretion of the chosen organization to use all benefits of that sponsorship including filling the table, use of any tickets that the sponsorship may provide (except marketing opportunities which would be provided by Upstate Medical University). Multiple events can be sponsored not to exceed $5k.