In Kind Boxes

Because every mom deserves quality postpartum care.

Blog

February Update

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  • Total impact this month: 49 boxes donated
  • Total impact to date: 1,249 boxes donated

We donate an average of 50 postpartum boxes a month, depending on the need of our local partners. Locally, we provided gift boxes to the Domestic Violence Resource Center and the Mother and Child Education Center.

For the second year in a row we helped our local school district celebrate staff appreciation week. We provided gift boxes to expecting and newly postpartum staff. We are so grateful for teachers, and how hard they work to make school special.

Outside of Oregon, boxes are shipped monthly through the following partnerships:

Activity:

Mapel Boutique hosted a Shop For a Cause fundraiser for us on February 10! 20% of full priced sales were donated back to In Kind. We’re grateful to everyone who shopped during the event.

Our Mamas Making an Impact series continued on Instagram. We met with Jenn Wirth from @momsmaternal health. She opened up and shared with us about her own journey with postpartum mental health. Jenn states the importance of asking for help when you need it. She also goes into a lot of detail about postpartum mood disorders. Click here to watch!

For Black History Month, we highlighted Black moms and women in history who made a positive impact on the world through reels on Instagram. We shared about Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, Dr. Mayme Clayton, and Katherine Johnson. Find @inkindboxes on Instagram to learn more about these amazing women in Black history.

Upcoming:

We’re looking forward to participating in the Earth Day Oregon statewide fundraiser in April. We are excited to have 2 of our 3 partners confirmed- The Hungry Hero Dessert Co, and Fat Milo’s Family Kitchen. Oregon based businesses, we need your help! We need one more partner with us for this event. If you can help us, send an email to: info@inkindboxes.org

Thank you!

We couldn’t do what we do without you. Thank you for showing up for moms in need.

January Update

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We started off the New Year with a bang, having our partnership with the Washington County District Attorney’s office featured in the Sherwood Gazette! Click the link to read the story, or go to the “Media Mentions” section of our website to find out when we’ve made the news!

We have big plans for 2022:

  • Move into our own space (increased storage, and capability to have volunteers come and help pack boxes).
  • Get Sponsorships and grants (to help cover costs for our new space, and donation of even MORE postpartum boxes to moms in need this year).
  • More press coverage (shining a light on our work increases the support we receive to then help more moms in need).

If you know of someone who could help us reach these goals, please reach out! We couldn’t do what we do without your support.

Upcoming fundraiser

We are looking forward to participating in the statewide fundraiser Earth Day Oregon again this year. We had our first meeting with the EDO Director this month. We’re excited to share more about what we do, and how it relates to Earth Day, and the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals.

If you are an Oregon based business, who is interested in partnering with us for the event, please reach out. We need 3 business partners is order to qualify for the event.

Donations

We donated 49 postpartum boxes in January to moms in need all across the United States including: 20 donated to the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center Women’s Clinic, 19 donated to NICU families in need through the Colette Louise Tisdahl Foundation, 5 to refugee families in California through Miry’s List, and 5 to refugee families in New York through New Neighbors Partnership.

If you would like to provide postpartum essentials to a mom in need, please donate today. We would love to meet or beat our goal of donating 700 boxes this year!

What else we’ve been up to:

In continuation with our “Mamas Making an Impact” Instagram Live series, we had on Miry’s List Founder, Miry Whitehill. Miry shared about how she got started with her nonprofit work supporting refugee families in California, and about her new book set to come out in March titled: “Our World is a Family”.

Maria also had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Carlene Link. They had an honest discussion of what it can be like for postpartum moms to return to the workplace. Carlene explains why she decided to make some changes in her career as a result of her own experience. And, why she started a business to help others do the same. Go to our Instagram page to watch!

Stay connected with us on Instagram (@inkindboxes) where we share all about postpartum, our work, and more. We’re grateful to have an amazing community of support over there.

Thank you

As each new year passes, we strive to help more and more families. The need for our boxes is great. Thank for donating to In Kind Boxes, and showing moms in need the love and support they deserve. We couldn’t do what we do without you.

Special thanks to Juna for offering 1 year free membership to their app- “the only app you need for motherhood”. 100 donated gift boxes have special inserts which include a code for moms to login to the app for free.

Your 2021 Impact

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Because of your kindness and generosity, In Kind Boxes was able to not only meet our goal of 600 donated boxes in 2021, but BEAT it!!! We donated 651 postpartum boxes to families in need all across the United States.

The majority of those were donated locally, to families in need in the greater Portland Metro area. We partner with organizations that offer support services to new and expecting moms- our postpartum gift boxes supplement the care they receive.

We were excited to reach more families across the US by continuing to grow our nationwide partnerships! Click here to see who we are currently helping. If you have suggestions of organizations you’d like to see us donate boxes to, please feel free to reach out to us at: info@inkindboxes.org.

We couldn’t do what we do without you. Please continue to donate, and share about our nonprofit mission. Together we are making an impact by showing moms in need that they matter, and that they’re not alone.

To become part of our online village, connect with us on social media @inkindboxes.

November Update

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What a month! We are still waiting on some final fundraising numbers from social media channels, but from what we know so far, you helped us raise $2,945 this month!!!! That is postpartum gift boxes for approximately 54 families in need! This time of the year is especially hard for families. You really showed up for them!

Thank you for being part of our village. We are SO grateful for you.

How We’ve Helped:

This month we made donations of twenty gift boxes to both of the following local organizations- Ronald McDonald House Charities of Oregon & SW Washington, and Washington County’s Maternal, Child & Family Program. Through our nationwide gift box donation program, in partnership with the Colette Louise Tisdahl Foundation, we shipped out 28 gift boxes to families in need all across the United States including several to North Carolina, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa and New York.

This month we reviewed applications for our Doula/Midwife gift box sponsorship program, and are excited to be working with both Angelica Miller of Rowan Midwifery, and Community Doula Alliance– a fellow Portland area nonprofit. These applicants were chosen based on the kindness they choose to spread to families in need within their communities. We are so grateful for birth workers. They do amazing work, and we are happy to be able to support them, and the families in their care, with monthly shipments of our postpartum box for 2022.

In Other News:

If you haven’t already heard, we’ve opened an Etsy shop! This is another way for us to fundraise. We have put together a kindness calendar as a fun tool to help you teach your children about kindness and empathy. The calendar is available as a digital download. Proceeds from the $3 sale are donated to In Kind Boxes, which we put towards purchasing the natural and organic essentials we fill our gift boxes with.

As Seen In:

We are so grateful to have been included in Holiday Gift Guides by:

–Working Momkind, Stroller in the City, First Time Parents Magazine and Fourth Trimester Foundations.

Our founder Maria Berglund was also a guest on The Limitless Pregnancy podcast, and The Nonprofit Jenni Show podcast this month, as they too were highlighting their favorite gifts to give.

We are always so grateful when we’re given the opportunity to share about our work. The more awareness we can bring to our mission, the better. As In Kind’s village of support grows, so does the number of families we can help.

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

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

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