In Kind Boxes

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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

Pop Up Baby Shower Event

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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!

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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

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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

Mamas Making an Impact with Sara Annapolen

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Earlier this month I got to meet with Sara Annapolen for an Instagram Live. The “Mamas Making an Impact” series is all about highlighting moms who are paying kindness forward through their work. This installment was especially fitting because May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and postpartum mental health was something we covered during our conversation. If you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, I hope you do! Go to In Kind Boxes page on Instagram to check it out.

Sara has very graciously donated some of her beautiful hair bows for us to include in gift boxes, while supplies last. Another way that Sara is giving back to In Kind, is by donating partial proceeds from the sale of her Exhale Flower Collection through her shop’s Joy + Justice program. We are so grateful to Sara supporting our mission to help moms in need on their postpartum journey. We hope you’ll go and check out her shop, and support a fellow mom run business.

hair ties with colorful bows tied to them
Gift box filled with organic essentials for new mom and baby

April Update

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This month had many highlights for us. One of the main events for the month was Earth Day Oregon. Earth Day Oregon is a fundraising event for Oregon nonprofits. In Kind’s Sustainable Development Goals are at the heart of our mission. Our two main goals are:

  • Good Health and Well-being
  • Reduced Inequalities

Earth Day Oregon is a way for us to highlight our third goal, which is partnerships for the goals. We were very lucky to have three amazing local businesses step up and support In Kind Boxes this year. We are thankful to Urban NW Homes, Elephant’s Delicatessen, and A to Z Wineworks as our business partners. These businesses brought awareness to our mission on Earth Day via a social media blast, and we are so grateful for their support.

Leading up to Earth Day, we were given the opportunity to be featured on a morning news segment with Jenny Hannsson, and Emily Burris on KOIN AM Extra. Maria was on Live news on April 20th, with A to Z’s Sam Tannahill to discuss why our core values as businesses make a great match for the event. Please click here to watch.

On Earth Day, Rex Hill donated 10% of their online and tasting room sales to In Kind Boxes! Stay tuned to see how much they raised. Again, we are so grateful to our business partners. We know this past year has been tough for businesses, and the fact that they said yes to us, and wanted to support our mission to help moms means a lot.

You have been supporting us in your own way as well. Thank you to friends of In Kind Boxes who hold fundraisers for us! We see your Facebook birthday fundraisers, and it makes our hearts feel so full that you choose In Kind to support. Nike staff, thank you for donating through the Benevity portal. Nike is matching donations made to nonprofits through there, and your support means so much!

If you didn’t know, donations make up the largest part of our funding. Without your donations, we wouldn’t have been able to donate the nearly 200 gift boxes we have in 2021. Every amount, no matter the size, is helpful. We use those funds to purchase the products we fill our boxes with.

Speaking of donations, we were able to send gift boxes to moms in need across the United States because of our Nationwide Gift Box Donation Program. We supported Jace’s Journey, Bottoms Up Diaper Bank in Alabama, and BeLoved Black Birth Centering in California.

Something fun we started on Instagram in April is our IG Live series called “Mamas Making an Impact”. We are using it as a way to build community, and share stories of postpartum to help moms feel less alone in their journey. We are also highlighting women in business who are spreading kindness through their work and giving back. If you don’t follow us on Instagram please do! It’s the best way to stay up to date with what we’re doing.

I couldn’t do what I do without your support. Thank you!

~Maria