In Kind Boxes

You are loved

Blog

September Update

by

Being kind to ourselves, and spreading kindness and love through out our community is important. It’s something we strive for all year, but love highlighting it with you during this challenge. We loved sharing our Kindness Calendar with you for the #BeKind21 Challenge in partnership with the Born This Way Foundation.

During our Instagram live series Mamas Making an Impact, we got to have some wonderful conversations with amazing moms who are making a positive impact on the world through their work.

In September we chatted with:

This IG Live series has become a favorite part of the content we share on Instagram because of the real and raw conversations we’re having about motherhood. If you haven’t been able to watch one live, don’t worry! We have them all saved to our IGTV. Watch them here.

Our Founder, Maria Berglund, was up to some interesting things this month including:

  • A panelist speaker at Social Media Camp’s Social Media for Non-Profits Summit
  • A guest on MORE Magazine’s Founder to Founder series with MORE’s Founder Arianna Cruz. Find that interview here on their YouTube channel.
  • Ashlie Behm, a local Portland photographer featured Maria in her Womxn Warrior Blog series. Find the full interview here. Ashlie takes amazing photos, and we’re so grateful to be able to share these with you. If you are local please check her out!

We are always so grateful for the opportunity to share about our charity work, and our mission to help moms feel seen and supported on their postpartum journey. If you would like to help shine a light on In Kind Boxes’ work, please feel free to reach out to us! Email: info@inkindboxes.org

This month we donated nearly 50 gift boxes locally!! 30 boxes were donated to Ronald McDonald House in Portland, which will also be distributed to their Bend location, as well as to the Sherwood Family Resource Center in Sherwood, and Raphael House PDX. Donation delivery days are our absolute favorite!!! We also sent gift boxes to Maternity Journey in Houston, Texas to support mamas displaced by hurricane Ida.

Thank you for donating to and supporting In Kind Boxes! We couldn’t do what we do without you.

~Maria

August Update

by

This month we were very fortunate to have been the recipient of fundraising efforts by Kemi Oladimeji and Kendra Scott. We are always so grateful when people and businesses want to support our nonprofit work.

Did you know August 17th is National Nonprofits Day! Thank you to everyone who highlighted our work, and helped us with donations that day!!!

Our Mamas Making an Impact series on Instagram was graced by some amazing moms making a difference in the world. Our guests include: Kemi Oladimeji, Anne Trobaugh, and Nikki Gause. Go and check them out on Instagram. They are saved to In Kind Boxes’ IGTV.

Gift box donations this month went out to Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center Women’s Clinic, Mamas for Mamas, BeLoved Black Birth Centering, Bottoms Up Diaper Bank, Hiya Baby, and Tree of Life Miami. All of these organizations are doing amazing work to uplift families in need in their area, and show moms the love and support they deserve.

On top of those donated boxes, we sent our our monthly gift boxes that are sponsored. These include boxes to Chicago Birthworks Collective from Chicago, Illinois and to Babies of Homelessness in Bellevue, Washington. Boxes have been sponsored privately, by folks wanting to support postpartum moms in need in their area.

In Kind sends monthly gift boxes to 2 doulas we sponsored this year. Doulas do amazing work supporting families. Recipients of our sponsorship program have programs themselves that offer their services to families in need in their area. Kaytee Crawford helps families in Minnesota, and PNW Doulas are based in Salem, Oregon. Sponsorship application forms will open back up at the start of October, so keep your eyes open for that!

Together we are showing moms that they are not alone, and that they matter.

Thank you for your continued support!

~Maria

21 Days of Kindness with In Kind Boxes

by

In partnership with the Born This Way Foundation #BeKind21

#BeKind21 is an invitation for you to practice kindness toward yourself and others each day from September 1 to September 21 to build kinder, more connected communities that foster mental wellness. This a movement of over 200 partners, 7 million participants, and 160 million pledged acts of kindness on a mission to build a kinder, braver world that affirms and celebrates everyone for who they are. 

See our list of 21 acts of kindness below.

Follow along with us on Instagram to hear about why this event is so important to us.

We hope you’ll participate during the event, and tag @inkindboxes using the hashtag #BeKind21 when you do.

To learn more about #BeKind21, and sign up for yourself, please click here.

July Blog

by

This month we celebrated our 2 year anniversary!! We thought it would be fun to spread some extra love in July by showering a bunch of mamas with love. To do that, we enlisted your help- thank you to everyone who donated to our fundraiser!!

We held a Pop Up Baby Shower to help local families in need, in collaboration with two of our local nonprofit partners, Baby Blues Connection & Mother and Child Education Center. Families were welcomed to join us in North East Portland, to pick up their postpartum gift boxes, mini bouquets of flowers, have their portraits taken, and take home goodies, books, handmade blankets, and other supplies donated to our organizations. It was amazing to finally meet families in person! And to shower them with the love and support they deserve. We hope this is the first of many Pop Up Baby Showers to come for Portland families.

Our “Mamas Making an Impact” Instagram Live series had some amazing guests this month. Maria had the opportunity to chat with Linda Fruits @fruitsofmotherhood on the 9th. Linda is hilarious, and so fun to chat with. She has a way of making us all feel less alone on our motherhood journey. Be sure to follow her on Instagram if you don’t already. Linda also has a podcast to check out too!

Other wonderful guests we had on were Camille Joy of @momentsofjoypodcast, Chelsea Skaggs of Postpartum Together, Eissa Love of @eizzybaby, and Molly Kranovich of M.K. Namaste. All four of them share their amazing stories of postpartum, motherhood, and offer tips and support for new moms. We love doing this series where we can highlight moms making a positive change in the world. We hope you have a chance to watch!

Other gift box donations were made since our last blog post to Clackamas Women’s Services, Military Moms Collective, It Takes a Village Foundation, Virginia Garcia Women’s Health Center, Hiya Baby, BeLoved Black Birth Centering, and Bottoms Up Diaper Bank. We are helping postpartum moms in need all across the United States!! Thank you for helping us make that happen. We have donated more than a gift box a day in 2021 so far!

To stay up to date on what’s happening, be sure to follow us on Instagram @inkindboxes.

~Maria

Mamas Making an Impact- Kemi Oladimeji and Kendra Scott Give Back event.

by

We are so excited to announce this shopping event on August 8th & 9th that gives back to In Kind Boxes. Our friend Kemi Oladimeji is hosting an in person shopping event in Dallas, Texas at Kendra Scott in Highland Village.

Kemi from the Kemi Chronicles will be in store supporting the cause on August 8th. Be sure to mention “In Kind Boxes” at checkout so 20% of your proceeds can go back to the organization!

Can’t make it in person? That’s ok! Shop with Kendra Scott online August 8th & 9th and enter: GIVEBACK-AHCKR at checkout (in box marked “code”) so 20% of your purchase can go back to In Kind Boxes!

Thank you so much for your support!!! We couldn’t do what we do without you.

-Maria Berglund, Founder of In Kind Boxes

Pop Up Baby Shower Event

by

Check out our Live segment on KOIN AM News Extra this morning!

We are so excited to collaborate two of our local nonprofit partners, Baby Blues Connection, and Mother & Child Education Center, and host this event for Portland families. In Kind will be donating 20 of our postpartum gift boxes to families who applied to participate in the event. Emails will be going out Monday, July 26th informing those who were chosen.

Along with gift boxes, some other local businesses have donated items as well. Thank you to Elle & Lu Flowers, The Hungry Hero Dessert Co., and Evelynne Gomes Greenberg Photography for your contributions! If you are a local business and would like to donate items to the event, please send us an email, or reach out via DM on Instagram (@inkindboxes).

Event details: July 29th from 11am to 12:30pm, at the Mother & Child Education Center located in NE Portland. (1515 NE 41st Ave, Portland, OR 97232)

How you can help: If you would like to support our nonprofit, and encourage future events like these, make a donation today. All funding we receive goes towards purchasing the natural and organic products we fill our boxes with.

Thank you for your support! We hope this is the first of many events to come!

-Maria

Fundraising Event!

by

In Kind Boxes is coming up on its 2 year anniversary. In celebration of that, we want to give away at least 50 gift boxes in July. We can make that happen with your help!

We are asking our community to help us fundraise. Your donations are the main source of income we use to provide gift boxes to postpartum moms in need.

Did you know that we are a volunteer run 501(c)3 nonprofit? That means that every dollar donated is making an impact. We use those funds to purchase the products we fill our gift boxes with.

A donation of $50 will provide a gift box to a new mom in need.

During this fundraising event, for every $50 you donate, we will include a special card inside your donated box(es) with your name, business name, or anonymous (depending on what you type in the “Name” field when making your donation).

Click here to donate!

We have 50 of these special cards, and would love to see them all sent off with love. Will you help us?

If you want to help, but can’t donate at this time, here are some other ways you can support In Kind Boxes:

  • Add us as your Amazon Smile recipient. Just search for “In Kind Boxes”
  • Follow us on social media, and share about our fundraiser
  • Tell your workplace about our gift boxes, and how they would make great shower gifts for employees. It’s the baby shower gift that gives back!

Thank you so much for your continued support! I couldn’t do what I do without you. I wake up every day feeling so grateful for this job, and for the amazing community of support we have.

Sincerely,

Maria

May Update

by

What a great month May was! We are so excited to have helped some wonderful new organizations via our gift box donation program. We were also lucky enough to be featured in a few Mother’s Day Gift Guides, and we even got a mention in Forbes!!

Organizations we supported this month with gift boxes donated through our Nationwide Gift Box Donation Program are:

Mother’s Day Gift Guides we were included in:

On MSN.com: “Great Mother’s Day gifts that won’t leave you broke” by Trae Bodge

Working Momkind: “Unique Gifts for Mom This Mother’s Day” by Melissa Scheerer

Entreprenista.com “Gift Guide for New and Expecting Moms”

TrueTrae.com: “Mother’s Day Gifts $100 and Under” by Trae Bodge

We are so grateful to our amazing friends Anna Welch Prost & Cheryl Francis who mentioned In Kind Boxes as a local organization that they support or admire. They were recently interviewed for a Forbes.com article titled “Willamette Valley Wine Moms On What Makes Their Region Special” by Jill Barth.

We were very lucky to receive some product donations this month, that we are excited to pass along to you!

Mabels Labels was very generous to send us some of their stickers. They have fun sayings on them “Always tired, Always worth it” & “Mommin’ Ain’t Easy”. These will be included in gift boxes, as well as with swaddle orders. As something special for you, they have offered a discount code to shop in their store!

  • Use code: INKIND10
  • Valid for 10% off sitewide, coupon is not valid on sale, face mask, stamp and reflective products.

We have a very special add on item now available with gift box purchases. Dr. Browns generously donated 300 of their silicone breast pump kits to us!!! We are so excited to be able to donate these to our local partners, along with our gift box donations. Thank you Dr. Browns!

Thank you for your continued support of what we do! We couldn’t do what we do without you.

~Maria