The Founding Story
Pain Became Purpose. Service Became Connection. Hope Became Action.
The Good You Give Foundation started with me. Not because I had everything figured out, or because I had always known exactly what my purpose would be. It started because I knew what it felt like to struggle, to lose hope, and to wonder whether life would ever feel different.
I have faced my own mental health battles. At one point, those struggles became a mental health crisis that brought me dangerously close to losing my life to suicide. I understand what it means to feel overwhelmed by your own mind. I understand what it feels like to need relief, support, and just one reason to believe that tomorrow could be better. I also understand that not everyone who is struggling looks like they are struggling. That was me.
Throughout my life, I have noticed the people who are overlooked: the person standing alone, the family trying to hold everything together, the man who was taught to stay silent, the service member carrying more than anyone realizes, the first responder who keeps showing up for everyone else, and the person who desperately needs help but cannot access it.
Even when I was younger, I knew that I wanted to help people. I could see the need around me, but I did not yet understand what my role would be or how I could make a meaningful difference. For a long time, I struggled to find a clear sense of purpose within myself. Over time, my own pain began to answer that question.
My experiences taught me that hope cannot always be treated like a simple idea or an encouraging phrase. Hope sometimes looks like access to counseling, having a safe conversation, a community that notices you, help paying for care, or someone willing to stand beside you during the hardest season of your life.
I kept seeing barriers everywhere: barriers to mental health care, to relief, to human connection, and barriers that prevent people from feeling like they belong. Too many people are told to reach out for help while facing systems that are expensive, confusing, unavailable, or simply not built to meet them where they are.
Then I started looking more closely at the numbers. What I found made it impossible for me to see these struggles as isolated experiences. The need is real, measurable, and far bigger than any one person or community
Those numbers stopped being numbers to me.
Behind every statistic is a person. A service member. A Veteran. A police officer. A firefighter. An EMT. A spouse. A parent. A son or daughter. A friend. Someone who may have been carrying far more than the people around them ever knew.
The data reinforced something my own life had already taught me: we cannot wait until someone reaches their breaking point before we decide they deserve support.
The Good You Give Foundation was born from the belief that we can do better. It is rooted in my personal journey, but it is not only about me - it is about you. It is for the people who are still searching for hope. It is for those who feel unseen, unheard, or forgotten. It is for Veterans, service members, military families, law enforcement officers, first responders, civilians, families, and communities who need support, connection, and a reminder that they do not have to face life alone.
My military service has strengthened my belief in responsibility, resilience, and service to something greater than ourselves. It has also shown me that strength does not mean suffering in silence. Real strength can mean asking for help, offering help, building community, and choosing to show up for people when life becomes heavy.
The Good You Give Foundation is the heartbeat of everything I hope to build. It exists because I survived long enough to discover my why.
My why is to help remove the barriers that leave people without care, relief, connection, or hope. It is to create spaces where people feel seen and valued. It is to turn compassion into real action. It is to help people find support before they reach the point of believing there is nowhere left to turn.
I cannot change every painful experience someone may face. But I believe we can make sure fewer people face those experiences alone. The Foundation is built on a simple truth: the good we give matters. A conversation can matter. A therapy session can matter. A community can matter. A small act of compassion can become the reason someone keeps going.
This foundation is my way of taking what I have lived through, what I have witnessed, and what I have learned, and using it to help create something better for others. It is where pain becomes purpose, where service becomes connection, and where hope becomes action.
It is where good grows.
Michael Fisk
Founder
Source Notes for Statistical Data
These notes identify the data behind the statistics used in the founding story. Dates refer to the most recent data available from each source as of September 2026.
1. U.S. Department of Defense. Calendar Year 2024 Annual Report on Suicide in the Military, released March 31, 2026. Reports 471 Total Force suicide deaths in 2024 (302 Active, 64 Reserve, 105 National Guard), a Total Force rate of 23.2 per 100,000, and 146 military family suicide deaths in 2023 (98 spouses, 48 dependents).
2. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 2025 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, released in 2026 and based on national death-certificate data through 2023. Reports 6,398 Veteran suicide deaths in 2023, an average of 17.5 per day, and that 61% of Veterans who died by suicide had not received VA health care in the final year of life.
3. Tanksley et al., The Lancet Regional Health - Americas (2025). Mortality among law enforcement officers in the United States: a population-wide analysis of National Occupational Mortality Surveillance data, 2020-2023. Reports an age-standardized suicide mortality rate of 36.4 per 100,000 among male law enforcement officers, compared with 24.7 per 100,000 among working-age men in the comparison population; suicide represented 8.2% of all male law enforcement deaths in the study.
4. Singh et al., Preventive Medicine (2026), available through CDC/NIOSH Stacks. Suicide Mortality in United States Urban Career Firefighters and Emergency Medical Service Providers. The study included nearly 45,000 career responders. Overall suicide mortality was not elevated compared with general populations, while PTSD and depression symptoms among FDNY responders were each associated with a suicide-risk hazard ratio of about 5.4.
5. CDC National Center for Health Statistics. Mortality in the United States: Provisional Data, 2025, published July 2026. Based on more than 99% of 2025 death records received and processed as of May 10, 2026. Reports 48,789 provisional suicide deaths in 2025.
6. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released in 2026. Reports 13.9 million adults with serious thoughts of suicide, 4.9 million who made a suicide plan, 2.3 million who attempted suicide, 54.6 million adults with any mental illness, and 18.2 million adults with serious mental illness in 2025.
Note on recency: Some authoritative datasets are released with a lag. For example, the Department of Veterans Affairs' most recent national Veteran suicide report uses 2023 mortality data, while the Department of Defense has released 2024 service-member data and CDC/SAMHSA have released 2025 national data. The founding story uses the newest reliable year available for each population rather than mixing in less reliable unofficial estimates.
Our Organizational Status
The Good You Give Foundation is an emerging nonprofit organization being built with intention, accountability, and a commitment to long-term community impact.
We are currently completing the organizational, governance, and regulatory steps necessary to establish a strong foundation for our work, including the process of seeking federal recognition as a tax-exempt charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
As we build, we believe it is important to be transparent about where we are. Our programs, partnerships, leadership structure, and operating practices are being developed thoughtfully so that we can serve our communities responsibly and grow in a way that remains true to our mission.
At this stage, we are not representing financial contributions to The Good You Give Foundation as tax-deductible. Supporters will be clearly informed of our current tax-exempt status before making a financial contribution.
As our organizational status develops, this page will be updated to reflect important milestones and publicly available information.
Our Commitment to Transparency & Stewardship
Trust is essential to the work we hope to do.
The Good You Give Foundation is committed to responsible governance, ethical leadership, financial stewardship, and transparency with the people and communities who place their trust in our organization.
Resources entrusted to the Foundation will be used to advance our mission, strengthen our programs, support responsible organizational development, and create meaningful opportunities for connection, service, and hope.
As the Foundation grows, we are committed to maintaining appropriate governance and accountability practices, including:
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Responsible oversight by an independent Board of Directors
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Clear financial controls and recordkeeping
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Conflict-of-interest standards for leadership and board members
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Ethical fundraising and donor communication
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Appropriate safeguards for volunteers and program participants
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Responsible use of Foundation funds and resources
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Evaluation of our programs and community impact
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Public access to applicable organizational and financial information as it becomes available
We know that trust is not created by a mission statement alone. It is earned through the way an organization operates, the way it treats people, and the way it uses the resources entrusted to it.
As The Good You Give Foundation grows, our commitment is simple: build responsibly, serve with integrity, and remain accountable to the communities we exist to support.