About Tapped Foundation
Bringing community service back to local communities in Rhode Island
Our Purpose
The Tapped Foundation was created to bring community service back to local communities in the state of Rhode Island. We will work with veteran’s groups with an emphasis on things such as women and minority veterans, the Providence Clemente Veteran’s Initiative and others, and work with veterans at risk of homelessness in order to help prevent it. We will also work with local families that have unforeseen expenses due to a family member suffering a stroke or heart attack, whether military connected or not.
Making a Difference
The goal of the foundation is to SEE the difference you make in someone’s life. To touch your heart, while helping someone else fill theirs. To “tap into” the goodness within people to help those that find it hard to ask for it and are used to providing it. Maybe that’s buying books for one group, maybe it’s helping a veteran buy food for themselves or their service animal. Maybe it’s buying a veteran a coffee and sitting down with them to talk when no one else will. It could be helping with a down-payment on an apartment to help a veteran obtain safe housing. The foundation aims to be a positive difference you can see and feel.
Board Members
With a board of directors that have either personally served in the armed forces or are actively contributing to veteran’s programs, our connection to and understanding of the issues facing veterans is first-hand. No donation is too small for us; because every little bit helps, and every single person matters equally.
Jeremy Bergantini
Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer
Mark Morse
Board Member
Rachael Garcia
Board Member
Our Standards
We are a TRUE non-profit. The money we take in will not be used to pay board members, provide perks, or anything of the sort. When the foundation was created, we did so with it written into our bylaws that no one gets paid for their time, we are strictly a volunteer outfit. The proceeds we raise will cover operating costs only, and the rest will go toward our causes.
Events run specifically for a family (as opposed to general fundraising for future endeavors) will go TO THAT FAMILY. If we raise $10,000 from something like our hallmark event (Jack’s Strokes “FORE!” Strokes) and it cost us $1,000 to put the event on, the family will receive $9,000 with only the cost of putting on the event being deducted.
General fundraisers will be clearly identified along with everything else we do. Transparency is of the utmost importance to us. You need to know where your donation is going, and who/how it’s helping!
About The Founder
Jeremy Bergantini
The founder of our group is Jeremy Bergantini, an Iraq war veteran with his own story of survival and overcoming physical wounds from his service while battling PTSD to this day. But, if you ask him, his isn’t the story that matters. In his words, he’s “Just a guy that didn’t die”, and who wants to use his second, third…tenth chance at life to make a positive impact on others.
After watching his father suffer a series of 11 strokes in 45 days, spending time as a homeless veteran himself, battling survivor’s guilt and PTSD, and seeing the disparity between male veterans and women or minority veterans, it dawned on him how many other people must be dealing with these or other hardships outside of his own little bubble. He decided it was time to do more than just think about how to help people, it was time for action.
He conceived of the foundation after speaking to a national organization while trying to put together a local fundraiser in conjunction with them and realizing there just wasn’t enough money going to the people who need it most. The majority of the funding stays with those large organizations, their overhead is unreasonable, and the direct benefit to the families and people in need was minimal. That bothered him, and didn’t seem like community service, it seemed like self-service by those organizations.
Thus, the Tapped Foundation was born.