Ruby Tuesday and Cultivate Wines Give $50,000 to Memphis-Based Non-Profit, The Morning Center

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--()--Ruby Tuesday and Cultivate Wines are joining together to celebrate and present a $50,000 check to The Morning Center in Memphis, Tenn. The presentation will take place on Dec. 10, 2012, at the Ruby Tuesday on Sycamore View Road at 3:00 p.m.

The Morning Center participated in Cultivate’s third quarter voting campaign and came in first place to win this grant. The Morning Center’s mission is to provide free full-service maternity care to women in urban and under-served areas where quality care is limited and scarce. With this grant, they will be able to purchase medical supplies and equipment essential to maternity care through their mobile care units and full service maternity hospitals. The Morning Center maternity hospitals provide the highest quality of care while fostering an atmosphere of a comfortable birthing center.

“Through partnerships with companies like Cultivate and our own Ruby Tuesday Give Back program, we have an opportunity to positively impact every local community that we serve and become a force for good wherever we go,” said Kimberly Grant, Ruby Tuesday Chief Operations Officer.

By partnering with Ruby Tuesday, Cultivate is able to leverage their unique philanthropic model of giving away 10 percent of all revenue through a democratic voting platform, allowing their consumers to choose where the money is going. This enables small, grassroots, or outside-the-box organizations to have access to funding they typically could not receive through the traditional avenues.

Organizations apply on the Cultivate website, and after vetting them, Cultivate posts between 15 and 30 organizations to their website for voting each quarter. Anyone can vote, and at the end of the quarter, the money generated is distributed to the top vote-getters. Together Cultivate Wines and Ruby Tuesday have already given more than $359,000 to 35 organizations across the U.S.

“We are incredibly proud of the difference we’ve made so far, but our bigger goal is that other companies will follow suit and copy our model. Especially in this era of government funding cuts to education, family services, and more, we need companies to step up to the plate,” said Ali Banks, Cultivate’s founder. “If we all join together, we can use capitalism to heal our country and revive the American Dream, all while still turning a profit!”

About Ruby Tuesday:

Ruby Tuesday, Inc. has Company-owned and/or franchise Ruby Tuesday brand restaurants in 45 states, the District of Columbia, 12 foreign countries, and Guam. As of September 4, 2012, we owned and operated 712 Ruby Tuesday restaurants and franchised 78 Ruby Tuesday restaurants, comprised of 34 domestic and 44 international restaurants. Our Company-owned and operated restaurants are concentrated primarily in the Southeast, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest of the United States, which we consider to be our core markets.

About Cultivate Wines:

Cultivate is a grassroots, American company that is part of the movement for "connected capitalism”— the belief that a company should not only exist to make a profit, but also to do good in the world, and that that should mean more than just writing a check to a national foundation for the sake of “corporate goodwill.” As such, Cultivate Wines gives 10 percent of gross revenue to non-profits supporting education and basic human needs through a democratic online voting platform where anyone can vote. Since launching in November 2012, Cultivate’s “GIVE” has donated $359,000 to 35 different organizations. In each of the last three rounds of the GIVE, the 1st place winner received $50,000 and five runners-up each received $10,000.

About The Morning Center:

The Morning Center project was founded to provide free full-service maternity care to women in urban and under-served areas where quality care is limited and scarce. They provide maternity care through mobile care units and full service maternity hospitals. The Morning Center maternity hospitals will provide the highest quality of care while fostering an atmosphere of a comfortable birthing center. All medical staff will be trained professionals who are focused on the needs of the mother and her baby. Morning Center mobile units will serve the needs of women in their neighborhoods, through partnerships with local churches and community organizations.

Contacts

Ruby Tuesday
Sabrina Green, 865-379-5700
mediarelations@rubytuesday.com
or
Cultivate Wines
Eliza Coleman
eliza@cultivatewines.com
or
The Morning Center
Elysse Baumbach
elysse@morningcenter.org

Release Summary

Ruby Tuesday and Cultivate Wines are joining together to celebrate and present a $50,000 check to The Morning Center in Memphis, Tenn.

Contacts

Ruby Tuesday
Sabrina Green, 865-379-5700
mediarelations@rubytuesday.com
or
Cultivate Wines
Eliza Coleman
eliza@cultivatewines.com
or
The Morning Center
Elysse Baumbach
elysse@morningcenter.org