North Texas Giving Day, the largest giving day in the nation founded by Communities Foundation of Texas, is back on September 14, 2017! In eight years, North Texas Giving Day has generated $156 million for the community. Learn more about some of the thousands of participating nonprofits here on BubbleLife from now until Giving Day. Read more about today's featured nonprofit, Mommies in Need, below.
Mommies In Need was founded by accident. At least that’s how I jokingly explain it at social gatherings. I was a stay-at-home mom to twin toddlers when I went through a series of debilitating health problems including five major surgeries, the removal of three organs, and cancer. I had help from friends and family, and we were able to pay a nanny part time. Then, a friend of mine found herself facing a colon cancer diagnosis with a two-year-old and a four-year-old. Unlike me she did not have the means to hire a nanny. I visited her in the hospital and will never forget hearing her say that her plan was to have a friend watch the kids on chemo days and that she would “do it herself” the rest of the time. Every bit of me cried out that I couldn’t let her go through that, so I started sending a nanny who had helped me over to her house, and fundraising like crazy to pay for it. The gift of providing childcare for a sick mom resonated with so many people that we were able to create the 501(c)3 organization, Mommies In Need, just a few months later.
Mommies In Need had been around less than six months when I went to an information session at Communities Foundation of Texas about their grant application process. I quickly found out we were years from being qualified for that, but it was there that I learned about North Texas Giving Day.
One of the beautiful things about North Texas Giving Day is that you don’t have to be a big, nationally known, organization to participate. They level the playing field and establish prize categories for non-profits of all sizes. That first year, our little organization got almost half of our yearly budget from that one day! Today, just two years later, we are steadily growing and proud to say that we have just accepted our 20th family and have provided over 8,000 hours of free childcare to moms going through a health crisis.
This September will be our third year participating in North Texas Giving Day and our goal this year is to raise $50,000, which will allow us to provide over 2,500 hours of free childcare to sick moms in North Texas!
To donate to Mommies in Need on September 14th, please click here. To find out more about North Texas Giving Day, please visit www.NorthTexasGivingDay.org.
Blog authored by: Natalie Boyle, Founder and President, Mommies in Need.