In Kind Boxes

You are loved

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November Update

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We kicked off November with the announcement of our gift box donation drive. The holiday season brings a large demand for our gift boxes. As always, we want to help as many families as we can, so we asked for extra help from you. Your donations are important because we use those funds to purchase the products that go inside our boxes. Donated gift boxes contain the same items as the ones we donate. We believe very mama and baby deserves the same high standard of care. To make donated gift boxes extra special, we are including a special card that wishes mamas hope and joy for the holidays~ and it’s signed with the name of the mama it was donated on behalf of, or the name of the generous business who made a donation to In Kind. We are so grateful for our kind and supportive community.

The day we posted about our donation drive, something wonderful happened. Cat & Nat shared about In Kind’s mission in their Instagram stories!!! We had an outpouring of support over the coming days and weeks. Our second and third biggest days on record for website traffic came because of that act of kindness from them. We are so grateful to Cat & Nat for giving us love. We love following Cat & Nat on social media. They are such a source of laughter and fun, and they set an amazing example of being kind, and lifting others up along with them.

Here is a random fact for you about our Instagram audience- Toronto, Canada is ranked #2 in our top locations of followers. Portland, Oregon is #1, and Sherwood, Oregon (where we’re based) is #3. We’re very thankful to these special Ontarians Cat & Nat, and Sarah Nicole Landry of @thebirdspapaya for sharing about In Kind this year. That may have something to do with it 😉

In November we made gift box donation deliveries to several organizations. Baby Blues Connection does amazing work with moms and families experiencing depression, anxiety or stress and provides them with support. At baby Blue Connection our gift boxes are given to mamas needing an emotional boost. Our gift boxes help mamas feel loved, cared for, and not alone. Next we made a delivery to PDX Diaper Bank. The diaper bank has a cloth diapering program they offer to families, which is a great resource for reducing waste, and diapering on a budget. Families receive our gift boxes as participants in the program to supplement the cloth diapers they receive. What a great gift to new parents!

Our next delivery was to the SHARE- Sherwood Family Resource Center. I was lucky enough to get a tour of their new space while I was visiting. The ladies there have been working really hard to make a great “shopping” experience at their clothing closet. The SHARE center is a resource through the local school district, and we’re so happy to provide young families with gift boxes, to help get them off to a great start. Our final gift box donation was to the Domestic Violence Resource Center. The DVRC provides education, support and empowerment to survivors and their children, who are affected by partner violence. They offer counseling, advocacy, shelter services and community outreach. New or expecting mamas seeking support from DVRC are given a gift box as part of the support they receive.

Other items we were able to pass along to the DVRC were dozens of full size sticks of Earth Mama Organics deodorant. Megan from DVRC mentioned how thankful they are for these because they have a current need for deodorant to add to the hygiene kits they give to families. We’re very thankful to Earth Mama for donating several boxes of deodorant, baby oil, and other miscellaneous products. We’ve been working hard to pass these items along to local families, and other organizations in our community.

We gave multiple boxes of deodorant to Rahab’s Sisters in Portland, boxes of deodorant to families displaced from the forest fires in Otis, who are currently living in hotels. South Portland Young Lives received three boxes including deodorant, and several items for new mamas and babies. Possible with God donation closet also received a box of deodorant. This time of year is when many organizations are in need of hygiene items. We were so happy to pass these products along to those in need. If you are a local organization in need of deodorant please let us know! We would love to get some to you. Reach out to us via email at info@inkindboxes.org.

In November we gave thanks to the wonderful businesses who donated their products to include in our gift boxes this year. We featured a new business each week for the first three weeks of November, highlighting their item as a bonus. Thank you to Bumkins Baby for donating your waterproof bibs, Hvnly Boutique for donating your handmade gemstone earrings, and Lamaze Organics for donating your organic cotton onesies. Your generosity means so much, especially during the craziness that was 2020.

In November we also celebrated our one year anniversary of our first gift box donation delivery. On November 15, 2019 we made our first delivery to the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center Women’s Clinic in Hillsboro. We can’t wait to see them in December! We also celebrated picking up our largest order of boxes from production at Packaging Resources Company in Tualatin. The look on their faces when we pulled up to the warehouse with our minivan and SUV was pretty priceless. Next time we’ll have to bring something larger… fingers crossed!

At our board meeting this month, we had the difficult task of selecting two winners for the doula/midwife gift box sponsorship program we’re starting in 2021. Applicants were asked to tell us about their work, and how their programs currently give back, and support families in their communities. We chose one local (Oregon) applicant, and one from another US location. We are excited to announce that Annie from PNW Doulas is our local winner, and Doula Kaytee from Minnesota. Congratulations to you both! We can’t wait to get your first gift boxes on their way!!

I am always so blown away by the kindness, love and generosity In Kind receives. We are so grateful for your support, in all the ways you choose to give back. Thank you for taking the time to read this!

~Maria

Gift Box Donation Drive

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As we head into the holiday season, our nonprofit partners have reached out to us to provide the mamas they serve with gift boxes. In November alone, we have gift box donations scheduled with Baby Blues Connection, PDX Diaper Bank, and Raphael House PDX, totaling over 30 gift boxes donated. We have almost double that scheduled for December. To be able to meet this high demand, we are hosting a donation drive. We would love to donate as many gift boxes as needed, to bring joy to mamas during this especially tough time for families.

Since we are a volunteer run organization, all funds you donate go directly back to furthering our mission to help moms. When you make a donation of $50 or more we are able to donate a box to a mom in need. To make your donation extra special, we will be including a lovely card from you to the gift box.

If you are a business, and would like to donate $50 or more, as an extra incentive we will select a post from your business’ Instagram page to share in our Instagram stories, and thank you for your generosity. We love sharing and supporting our favorite small businesses.

Thank you for helping us help moms in need with your donation!

We are so grateful for your support.

October Update

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We had a great month filled with big gift box donation days, and breaking records in sales thanks to Sarah Landry (@thebirdspapaya). Sarah very graciously shared an unboxing of our gift box in her Instagram stories. In doing so, we had five times our biggest day ever in website traffic, and our biggest day in sales. Even bigger than when we were on the local news around Mother’s Day.

We are always so grateful when women with such a large audience such as hers chooses to share about us, because it has a major impact on our nonprofit. The exposure, and support we gain is amazing. It matters in instances like this because we know that with large influence comes a larger demand from organizations/small shops/brands who want to work with Sarah. It means so much to us that she chose to share about In Kind.

You don’t need to have a blue check or thousands of followers to make an impact. Any time someone chooses to share about In Kind, and our mission to help moms is greatly appreciated. Even the smallest acts such as a follow, like or share means a lot to us. We’re thankful for all of it.

This month we partnered with LGBT Mummies Tribe on Instagram to give away a gift box. They are a community organization connecting women’s families worldwide. They’re working to educate, share and celebrate. We were excited to offer their wonderful community of mamas a gift box.

A second giveaway happened during an Instagram Live with Dr. Jessica Shepherd, and LeToya Luckett. The two ladies discussed pregnancy, delivery and postpartum in a real, honest, and hilarious way. There are so many things that were brought up that you can only learn in conversation with other moms- things you won’t find in pregnancy books. It was a really great Live and is posted on LeToya’s feed on October 18 if you want to go back and watch. During the event Dr. Shepherd discussed our gift box with the audience, and why it makes such a great gift for a new mom. She then offered the gift box as a prize to one lucky participant!

We had a few gift box donation days in October. Virginia Garcia’s Women’s Clinic received their 4th delivery this year, totaling 100 boxes to them so far in 2020. We were also able to deliver to the Mother and Child Education Center in Portland, and a special gift box donation to Sunshine Division. Sunshine Division is working with families displaced from the recent fires in Oregon, and we wanted to help. We donated gift boxes to be given to new/expecting mamas receiving support from Sunshine Division during this crazy time.

We recently decided to start a new program next year. We wanted to help reach more moms, and support the amazing work of doulas/midwives in the process. Our application for the gift box sponsorship program for doulas and midwives was open all month. We are excited to read through the submissions from all over the US. 2 winners will be announced by December 1, 2020. Winners will be receiving a gift box a month in 2021 to support their work with parents within their community.

I have spent this month trying to prepare myself for the holiday shopping season. It’s hard to know how it will go as I don’t have much to compare it to. Our first gift boxes were available for sale right before Thanksgiving last year. With COVID this year, it will be interesting to see how it all goes- especially with shipping!

We have some fun things planned for the coming weeks so stay tuned.

Thank you for being here and for your support.

~Maria

September Update

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In September we were proud participants of the Born This Way Foundation’s #BeKind21 challenge. We spent September 1-21 focusing on acts of kindness we could do for ourselves and for others. It was a great event, and we can’t wait to do it again next year. As part of BeKind21 In Kind was featured in an article by Channel Kindness, and the Born This Way Foundation!! It was very exciting for us and we are so thankful to both organizations for their support!

We also got to donate boxes to one of our newest partners- Clackamas Women’s Services. CWS provides a wide range of support for women, children and families including shelter, crisis support line, counselling and support groups, community education, and culturally specific programming wherever possible. 

In September we hosted two giveaways. The first was with The Conscious Kid. For those who aren’t familiar with The Conscious Kid, they are an education, research, and policy organization dedicated to equity and promoting healthy racial identity development in youth. The Conscious Kid is doing amazing things to help people during this crazy time of COVID like rent relief, mattress donations for kids, book donations to teachers and more. We are so happy to have been able to partner with them to offer gift boxes to their followers.

The second giveaway was with Mapel Boutique. The owner of Mapel is a local mama, and we were so excited to partner with a women run business for this event. Mapel carries many products made by women in the US as well. It’s so amazing when we can come together and support one another for giveaways like this.

At the end of September we posted about an opportunity for Doulas and Midwives to be sponsored in 2021 with a gift box a month for the year. This is a chance for birth workers to provide an extra level of support to families in their care. We’re excited to read all of the entries as they come in! The application deadline is November 1, 2020, and the winners will be notified by December 1, 2020.

Thank you for your continued support of what we do. Your purchases and donations make a true impact. I couldn’t do what I do without you.

-Maria

Gift Box Sponsorship Application

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Applications are now closed.

Midwives and doulas are such a valuable resource to parents. We want to support their work by providing them with one gift box a month for a year. Two applicants will be chosen to win. We look forward hearing from you, and we hope you’ll tell your friends!

August Update

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We started off August with a donation delivery to Virginia Garcia’s Women’s Clinic in Hillsboro. This was our third delivery to them this year! We love supporting the amazing work they do at VG. Moms receive an In Kind gift box during their postpartum care visit there based on need. 

Another organization we donated to this month was The Mother and Child Education Center. The women there have been working extra hard during COVID, offering support in a variety of ways. The Mother and Child Education Center provides prenatal & parenting classes, supplies such as diapers, clothing and food, and access to additional resources through community partners. They strive to empower clients to gain healthy parenting habits, to understand safe sleeping for infants; and to achieve personal goals such as self-sufficiency, a healthy environment for children, and a voice for advocating for themselves and their children.

We started a new partnership with Road to Hope. Road to Hope provides housing, help and hope to pregnant mothers in crisis. We love that they offer moms emotional support, help them set and achieve personalized goals, and address barriers to their success. They provide the connections to needed community resources and walk alongside our mothers on their Road to Hope.

Another thing we love to do besides donation deliveries, is host giveaways!! This month we were so grateful to partner with Cat & Nat, and offer a signed copy of their MomTruths Game along with one of our gift boxes. It means so much to us when people want to support our mission to help moms.

This month we also had the pleasure of attending the opening of OnPoint Community Credit Union in Sherwood. There we were presented with a donation for $2500. We’re so grateful to have local businesses in our community who care so much about giving back.

During August we registered for the #BeKind21Challenge. We look forward to sharing our daily acts of kindness in September. Go to the Blog post dedicated to the event for more information, and to print your copy of our kindness calendar. 

We’re regularly asked how people can support us. There are several ways, and not all of them cost money, only a moment of your time.

*Donate- we rely on funding to purchase the supplies that go into our boxes. We are a volunteer run organization, so all funds we receive go directly back to furthering our mission to help moms.

*Purchase- our shop has three items available for purchase. If you don’t know anyone who is expecting, but would like to order something, our “You are loved” sticker is a great option.

*Add us to your Amazon Smile account. The Amazon app even allows for you to add your amazon smile recipient. Find that option under settings.

*Host a Facebook birthday fundraiser for us. Help spread awareness for In Kind, and raise money for a great cause!

*Support us on social media. Follow along with us on Instagram or Facebook, and like or comment on our posts. 

Thank you for following along with us, and for your continued support!

~Maria

#BeKind21

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We believe kindness is a verb. This year we have joined Born This Way Foundation’s #BeKind21challenge by pledging to do one act of kindness a day for 21 days this September!

Whether you’re advocating, signing a petition, donating, or educating, you’re doing an act of kindness. Ready to make kindness a habit? Join @btwfoundation’s #BeKind21 challenge and do something kind for your mind, body, or community every day from September 1st to 21st! bornthisway.foundation/bekind21

We would love for you to join us! Find our calendar of kindness below, and follow along with us on Instagram and Facebook.

#BeKind21 Calendar ~Download

July Update

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In honor of our first year I want to share with you a bit more about the process of getting In Kind going, and how it all started. In July last year we had all the official paperwork completed to create In Kind, and get it registered as a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Each step took a lot of patience, and thought. At the time we weren’t even sure what our gift boxes would look like, or what exactly would go in them. I just knew I wanted to give a gift to moms to help them during their fourth trimester.

My goal for gift boxes was for moms to feel loved and cared for. I wanted to give a gift that was high quality, substantial and lasting. We’ve all seen free gifts given with samples and coupons- I was looking for the opposite of that. Those gifts are very wasteful, and they don’t make a true impact on the family receiving them. I wanted our gift boxes to be filled with items that moms could use for the first months after baby’s arrival, if not longer. I also wanted to be proud of what I was giving- to be confident in saying that I would purchase and use those items myself.

I am so proud and thankful to say that we have achieved our goal. We are so grateful to Earth Mama Organics, Kindred Bravely, and Workman Publishing for their willingness to partner with us and support our mission to help mamas. They said Yes to us, when we had heard so many No’s. It’s tough being so new and small, and asking people for help. All I can say is perseverance is key. Just because someone says no to you, doesn’t mean you’re not worthy. It just means they’re not for you.

While we were trying to find products for our boxes, I was also trying to figure out how big the gift box itself would be. Not only that, but in order to have boxes made, we also needed a logo to put on the box. So many little things all had to come together- what felt like all at once. I am so thankful I had the support of the Board to bounce ideas off of. Being open to discussion and feedback about ideas can seem like a scary idea, but it has been an important part of how it all came together.

In July we were able to go back to Ronald MacDonald House and do a gift box donation. They had been closed due to COVID, and we’re so thankful they’ve been re-opened and are now accepting donation deliveries. They have two locations in Portland, and our boxes get divided between the two, so mamas at both places can receive gift boxes as needed. We’re so happy to be able to give mamas the gift of essentials, especially in situations when they’ve ended up at RMH unexpectedly- not having their delivery bag/diaper bag on hand.

This month we were very excited to receive a grant check in the mail from the City of Sherwood. We had applied for a grant through the Community Enhancement Program, which would help us to further support the Sherwood Family Resource (SHARE) Center over the coming year. We can’t wait to make a delivery to their new space in the Fall.
We also had some really fun giveaways including one with Kristina Kuzmic. She is someone I have been following for a long time. Her videos on motherhood always make me laugh, cry and everything in between. Kristina recently released a book, and was supposed to be on tour right now but COVID had other plans. She has since been hosting weekly giveaways on Instagram. We’re so thankful Kristina chose our gift box as one of the prizes to give away. That kind of exposure for us was amazing!! I’m always grateful to people who show us support in this way by sharing what we do. With more exposure, comes more support for In Kind, and means we can help more mamas!

Thank you for being here. We are so grateful for your support. Your donations, purchases, social media support (follows, likes, shares) matter. They all help us further our mission to help mamas. Even the smallest things mean so much! I couldn’t do what I do without you. I was telling Cheryl recently that I finally feel like I’ve found what I’m meant to do. In Kind is my fourth baby. Helping people is my passion. I can’t wait to see where this all goes. I’d like to be able to help every mama who needs it. Cross your fingers that one day we can!

~Maria