The HIKE Fund
Introduction
The HIKE Fund, Inc., which stands for Hearing Impaired Kids Endowment, is the official philanthropic project of Job’s Daughters and was created in 1985 to strengthen voluntary support for hearing-impaired kids. It is a program that supplies hearing devices to needy children. Today this includes providing hearing aids and other types of hearing devices to help kids to hear at home, at school, at church and while playing sports. HIKE has helped kids in the Philippines, Australia, Canada, and in the United States of America.
When an award is made to the family, a check is usually presented to the family at the Bethel that sponsored the child. These presentations are a special treat for our Job’s Daughters. They are able to see their fundraising efforts pay off and are also able to meet the recipient and see the joy their work brings to another. It exemplies the adopted symbol of HIKE, the hand sign for “I Love You.”
Facts About the HIKE Fund
The HIKE Fund, Inc. is a not-for-profit charity incorporated under the laws of the State of Nebraska and registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity.
The Fund is the continuing philanthropic project of the International Order of Job’s Daughters. Fully staffed by unpaid volunteers from throughout the United States and Canada. Total operating expenses are less then 5%.
The purpose of the Fund is to provide hearing devices for children with hearing impairments between the ages of newborn and twenty years whose parents are unable to meet this special need financially. An estimate of 100 children are provided with hearing devices each year.
Children are eligible to receive a grant providing the need is verified by a prescription from an audiologist or physician. Many of the recipients are children of working parents. The HIKE Fund, Inc. is administered by a Board of Directors composed of individuals from the fields of Audiology, Business, education, Labor, Law and Medicine.
The Fund has awarded many types of devices including, but not limited to, hearing aids, PM systems, closed caption converters, tactile units, alerting systems, and specialized sports equipment, to aid hearing impaired children in communication.
All donations made to the HIKE Fund, Inc. are TAX deductible.
U.S. Tax I.D. No. 36-3406438
How to Apply
For a Child to be Considered
- A letter from the parent(s) or guardian(s) explaining the financial need.
- A monthly statement of income and expenses (parents and/or guardians only).
- A copy of a recent pay stub and W-2 Form for the most recent tax year (parents and/or guardians only).
- A recent (withing the immediate past three months) audiogram AND prescription from a licensed and/or certified audiologist and/or physician.
- An itemized cost quotation from the supplier which should include cost of hearing aid(s) or device(s), cost of ear mold(s), professional fees (evaluation, fitting, dispensing fee, follow-up visits, repairs/warranty per year, batteries, and insurance – loss or damage).
- Please emphasize to your child’s supplier that it is important to provide an address and telephone number in the space provided on the application form.
Please see The HIKE Fund’s Application Portal for the most current application and directions.
Submission of a single, all-inclusive information package allows the process to be completed in an efficient, timely manner. When all parts of the application have been received, consideration for approval begins. If any of the information described above is not included, this will delay consideration. You will be notified of the receipt of your application and of any additional information, if any, that will be required. Each application is reviewed initially for general content and subsequently is submitted to the HIKE Board’s Audiologist for final review.
Please note that we are unable to accept applications for services or devices which have already been fitted, nor are we able to fund cochlear implants.
If you know of a needy child that would benefit from this program you may refer them to one of our Bethels so they may apply for assistance.
Hairbows for HIKE
During her term as Miss Job’s Daughter, KC Conrad started a project called Hairbows for HIKE. She has continued to raise money for the charity. She and her mom make all the hairbows themselves, and all proceeds go to the HIKE Fund. Check out her facebook page for more details.
