Giving Back - Open Your Karma Bank

At the beginning of every year, people make resolutions on how to better themselves.  My resolution began at the end of last year.  After watching CNN Heroes, I was inspired and an idea popped into my head.  While I blog about products that are made in the USA, I also believe in giving back. We are a community and, as such, we help out one another by sharing our time, talent and treasure.  My idea is to feature a charity here the first Friday of every month.

The first charity being featured is Giving Diapers, Giving Hope.

This charity resonated with me because we have been through hard times.  If it weren't for our cloth diapers, I'm not sure what we would have done to be able to afford diapers.



Giving Diapers, Giving Hope is a non-profit organization that provides education, support and cloth diapers to low income families in the continental United States. This enables families to conserve money that would have been spent on disposable diapers and use it towards other necessary expenses. It also reduces the environmental impact that disposable diapers have on landfills. We are devoted to a greener planet and empowering families and thus, primarily focus on cloth diapers.

Giving Diapers Giving Hope was founded in May of 2011 by Kristen McCarthy and Emily Glover.  Faced with the end of her unemployment assistance, Kristen reflected that were it not for cloth diapers she would not be able to diaper her two girls.  Out of playdate discussions, Kristen and Emily realized that there were other families who were likely unable to afford diapers and could not afford to invest in cloth diapers as an alternative to disposables.  From that point, the ladies talked about how they would figure out a way to meet the needs of these families.  They attended the Great Cloth Diaper Change in 2011, and asked families in attendance to donate diapers to support their cause. The ladies collected at least 60 diapers from that event.  With the additional diapers donated from Kim Rosas from Dirty Diaper Laundry, the ladies began lending diapers.  Initially, Giving Diapers Giving Hope was planned to be a local cloth diaper lending agency serving Eastern Massachusetts.  However, after mention by bloggers during the Flats Challenge in May 2011, Giving Diapers Giving Hope received many emails from individuals across the nation looking for assistance in obtaining diapers.  It was then that the decision was made to open the applications to national clients. 

How the program works:

Potential clients apply via the Giving Diapers Giving Hope website.  The application asks for information about family size and income as well as the sizes of the children the applicant wishes to cloth diaper.  Applicants must upload income verification and proof of the children they wish to cloth diapers.   Applicants are able to specify their first and second choice of diapers, for example the first choice might be all in ones and the second choice might be pockets.  We don’t guarantee that we can meet client’s specifications, but we try. 

What are our income guidelines?

We use the Federal WIC income guidelines.  If families are very close to qualifying but their income is just a bit over, it is likely we will still approve them.

What happens once applications are approved?

Once an application is approved the client receives an email letting them know that they have been approved as well as an invoice for postage.  Clients pay flat rate postage of $35.00.  This covers the cost of getting the diapers to the client as well as return postage for when the client is finished cloth diapering.

How many diapers do we send?

We typically send between 12-14 diapers to a family.  If a client is applying for a newborn, we send 20 newborn diapers.   Diapers can be switched out as the child grows. 

Where do we get our diapers?

Diapers are donated by individual families, retailers and manufacturers.  We rely solely on donations for our diaper inventory. 

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Giving Diapers Giving Hope now serves clients in the 48 contiguous states as well as overseas military bases.  To date Giving Diapers Giving Hope has assisted almost 200 families (that’s roughly 2800 diapers!).  The day to day operations are still done by Kristen and Emily.

If you want to donate to Giving Diapers Giving Hope, please go to their Home Page {scroll down about half way down} or if you want to donate diapers and/or accessories please go to their Donate Page for information on how to help.  If you are unable to donate, grab their button and help spread the word.

Karina

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