FROM ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TO PHILANTHROPY
…AND STILL SOME ROCK ‘N’ ROLL.
Charity Bomb was founded in January of 2018 by twin brothers and musicians in Madina Lake, Matthew & Nathan Leone. While on break from touring, Matthew was attacked when he intervened in a domestic dispute on the streets of Chicago. The outpouring of love from the local community and the global music industry was overwhelming.
Notably, The Smashing Pumpkins performed a benefit show at Metro, and Warped Tour founder, Kevin Lyman (who now sits on Charity Bomb’s Board of Advisors) organized a festival-wide fundraising campaign for Matthew while he was in a coma. Inspired by such profound kindness and generosity around the world, the twins decidedly devoted their lives to giving back.
In the wake of a year-long rehabilitation, they spent several years learning about mental health and the charity space. The Leone brothers lifelong curiosity about traditional IQ-based curriculum being devoid of EQ education evolved from a passion project, into a career, after discovering the manifestation of childhood trauma and dysfunction into adulthood.
In January of 2018, the twins launched 501c3 Charity Bomb. Since then, Charity Bomb has produced seven Strange benefit concerts raising over $230,000 for a variety of mental health organizations.
“We looked for outlier organizations like 320 Changes Direction, Give an Hour and The Beat of Life, who we felt were providing the most impactful mental health services and leveraged our artist relationships to produce immersive fundraising concerts.”
While these organizations do great work to serve the symptoms of mental illness, Charity Bomb was interested in the potential for preventative measures that could thwart their onset, before they take hold.
During their research, the Leone’s discovered an unambiguous correlation between mental illness and a lack of EQ, or emotional intelligence. In 2020, Charity Bomb launched #OperationGENzEQ, since changed to #RaiseStrongChildren, an initiative to provide EQ educational tools for children to shore up their mental health as a preventative strategy for issues later on in life.
Our 2018 Strange 80's in Los Angeles raised $60,000 for Give An Hour's mental health awareness initiative, 320 Changes Directions.
Our 2019 Strange 90s in Chicago subsidized treatment for local music icon, Jerry Bryant from JBTV. These funds contributed to his unlikely survival of stage 4 Colorectal Cancer and Jerry is currently living cancer free!
Our 2019 Strange 90s in Nashville benefitted The Beat of Life, supporting the mental wellbeing of prisoners and students through the power of songwriting and music!
The first ever Strange 80's in Los Angeles raised $40,000 for Sweet Relied Musicians Fund to support musicians in need of mental or physical well-being.
Currently, Charity Bomb is bringing EQ education to the forefront of our culture and offering vast resources to fortify the mental well-being of children as a preventative strategy to mitigate mental health challenges.
Our 2022 Strange 90s | When We Were Young Fest Sideshow in Las Vegas raised $8926 for MusiCares safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need.