In Kind Boxes

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Teaching kids kindness and empathy this holiday season.

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Every year when the holidays start to roll around, I make it a point to do kind acts with my kids. It is important for me to impart kindness and empathy in them because to me, that’s what matters most about my job as their mother- that they grow up to be kind humans.

I’ve put together a calendar of some of the favorite kindness activities we do together, and posted it on Etsy. This calendar is a great way to get kids doing kind acts at home, school or in the community.

It’s available for you to purchase now. When you do, it will instantly download. You can then print it, and put it up on your fridge (or at least that’s what we do).

Have fun picking out kind acts to do with your kids each day. When you find your favorite, we’d love it if you’d share it on social media, and tag @inkindboxes so we can see!

The $3 fee for the calendar is donated to In Kind Boxes, and will be used to purchase products we fill our gift boxes with.

I hope you have as much fun with this as we do!

~Maria Berglund, Founder of In Kind Boxes

Kindness Rocks Fundraiser

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Are you looking for a beautiful gift that gives back this holiday season? We’re here to help!

We’re so excited to announce this partnership with Elyse Ryan Jewelry! Elyse has designed this beautiful “Kindness Rocks” bracelet, to shine a light on the work we’re doing to support postpartum moms in need. For every bracelet sold, $10 will be donated back to In Kind Boxes.

Featuring a Swarovski crystal, and 14 karat gold beads, this bracelet makes an amazing gift! If you’re looking for an extra special gift to give this holiday season, please consider shopping with this incredible mom owned business, and give the “Kindness Rocks” bracelet. To learn more about Elyse, and her passion for helping others through her jewelry please tune into our “Mamas Making an Impact” series on Instagram Live Friday, November 5.

October Update

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We have officially donated 500 boxes in 2021, and 1000 gift boxes since our first boxes were available in November 2019!!!

We started our month with a delivery of 20 gift boxes to the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center Women’s Clinic. We also sent 6 gift boxes to the BeLoved Black Birth Centering program in California. The Mother and Child Education Center in Portland was given a donation of 10 gift boxes. We ended the month with a new partnership! We’re excited to be working with the Washington County District Attorney’s Office in support of their Cribs for Kids program. We donated 20 gift boxes to pair with the cribs and other materials their office is providing.

In honor of the amazing work that Doulas and Midwives do for families, we re-opened the application for our gift box sponsorship program. This program is for birth workers who offer their services to families in need in their community. We are offering three doulas/midwives a gift box a month for 2022. The deadline to apply was November 1. Winners will be notified by email by November 30.

Our Instagram Live series “Mamas Making an Impact” continues with more amazing guests this month. In this series, we love to highlight moms doing good, and giving back in some way. We also have very real and honest conversations about motherhood, and postpartum. Click through to watch conversations with Bethany Braun Silva, Trae Bodge, and Aliza Friedlander. We were also lucky to have local photographer Ashlie Behm join us for our “Let’s Talk” series where she shared her best tips for taking photos of our kids using our phones.

And finally, we got wonderful news from Fred Meyer, that In Kind Boxes has been accepted into their Community Rewards Program. If you’d like to support In Kind Boxes while shopping at Fred Meyer, please log into your rewards account, and find the Community Rewards section. Simply search for In Kind Boxes, or use code: YS234.

As we head into the holiday season, the demand for our donated boxes increases. We are in need of your support in order to keep up with demand. Please consider donating, and help us show postpartum moms in need that they matter, and that they’re not alone.

Thank you for being part of our village of support. We couldn’t do what we do without you!

~Maria Berglund, Founder of In Kind Boxes

September Update

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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