• We are an all-volunteer, IRS tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization with forty clowns across the U.S., and in several other countries.
• How It Started – We became an organization after 4 of us went to clown in Vietnam in 2001. Three of us served in the U.S. Navy and Air Force during that war.

  After seeing the need of disabled and poor children, we came home and decided to start this nonprofit with the focus to clown and to raise funds to help significantly improve the lives of poor children worldwide.

• Our Volunteer Clowning Time Commitment – Considering make-up and travel time, and an average of 4 hours performance time, each clown spends approximately 8 hours per gig. With an average of 4 clowns per gig, that is roughly 2,600 hours annually.
• Our Volunteer Management Time – In addition to clowning, several of us spend approximately 2,800 hours a year managing CCI and our projects.
• Our Administrative Overhead – These costs cover web site management, CPA and bookkeeping, and balloons and red noses we give away at clowning gigs
• As an all-volunteer nonprofit, we keep our overhead costs to about 10%. (Most U.S. nonprofits average 30-35% overhead cost.). Ninety percent (90%) of your contributions to CCI go directly to support children.
• None of CCI’s funds are used for personal clown items or travel.

• Video from Caring Clowns International on how we help to improve lives and help kids through your generous donations.
  
  

• We raise money to accomplish Good in the world – helping to fund humanitarian projects through other well-established nonprofit organizations.We clown to help awaken the human spirit: making people laugh, helping to heal, and connecting people to their individual humanity.
• Why It Works – Clowning is an unusual art form. It frees people to become aware of how connected we all are to each other. It is jubilation to experience life!
  The clown creates a safe harbor for people: for the young, and the old to enjoy the reverie of unabashed laughter for its own sake.
  Clowning is joy expressed openly by a stranger (the clown) to the audience. It is self-effacing foolery. It is insane! Yet, it touches people of every culture and every generation.
  Clowning is a micro-moment of loving and caring devoid of hate, politics, conflict, tension or personal agenda.
  Our clowning beckons adults to become children again, and magnifies the happy child-like qualities of children themselves.

We clown annually in over 80 events internationally and across the U.S. This includes:

• Orphanages
• Children’s and other hospitals
• Events for homeless children and adults
• Residences for abused women and children
• Schools and residences for the disabled
• Public and private schools
• Retirement centers
• VA hospitals
• Community parades and other celebrations
• Prisons and correctional facilities
• Military homecomings and other military celebrations
• Elementary school reading programs
• Auction fund raisers for nonprofits
• Office and private parties
• Children’s birthday and other celebration parties

We have clowned in Brazil, Canada, The Caribbean, The Dominican Republic, France, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, throughout the United States and Vietnam, and continue to expand to other countries around the globe.

Some of the nonprofits and others we support with clowning and donations include:

• American Cancer Society – Puget Sound Area, Washington
• American Red Cross – Puget Sound Area, Washington
• Armonizar (Children’s clinic for the poor – assisting with dental, speech therapy and family counseling for children with cleft lip/cleft palate disorders) – Arequipa, Chincha and Lima, Peru
• Candlelighters (Helping children with cancer) – Puget Sound Area, Washington
• Chambers of Commerce (Community events) – Puget Sound Area, Washington
• Children of the Nations International (COTNI) (Feeding and educating poor children) – The Dominican Republic, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Uganda
• Children’s Regional Hospital of Seattle, Washington
• The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation – Puget Sound Area, Washington
• The Detlef Schrempf Foundation (Helping needy children in the Pacific Northwest) – Puget Sound Area, Washington
• Forgotten Children’s Foundation (Providing Christmas for needy families) – Puget Sound Area, Washington
• Helping and Loving Orphans (HALO) (Feeding, housing and educating poor children) – Afghanistan, Mexico and Vietnam
• Hospital Del Nino (Children’s Hospital) – Lima, Peru
• Interplast (Surgical teams) – worldwide
• Komedyplast – (Facial reconstruction and educational surgical teams) – Boston, Chicago and Peru
• M Bar C Ranch (Therapeutic riding and ranch entertainment park for disabled and ill children) – Whidbey Island, Washington
• Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital – Tacoma, Washington
• Mobility Builders & the Wheelchair Project (Designing and fabricating custom wheelchairs free for disadvantaged quadriplegic and paraplegic children) – Seattle, Washington and Lima, Peru
• North Kitsap Fishline (Local food bank and thrift shop- helping needy people and a weekend feeding program for poor children) – Kitsap County, Washington
• Peace Trees Vietnam (PTV) (Schools, homes, land mine clearing) – Vietnam
• The Prosthetics Outreach Foundation (POF) (Prosthetics and related services and club foot correction and education for children and adults) – Angola, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Vietnam
• Tree House (Assisting needy families) – Seattle, Washington
• US Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard members and families – Puget Sound Area, Washington
• VA Hospitals and Residences- Puget Sound Area, Washington
• Vine Maple Place (VMP) (Transitional housing and life skills education for indigent families) – Maple Valley, Washington
• Vision House (Living assistance to battered women and children) – Seattle, Washington
• World Vision (Global aid to the needy) – worldwide

• Caring Clowns International has contributed $542,077 in funds and equipment supporting over 47 nonprofits in the U.S. and several developing countries. We have clowned for hundreds of thousands of children and adults in every setting and circumstance.