After the frenzied shopping of Black Friday, Shop Small Saturday and Cyber Monday comes Giving Tuesday, a day that’s much more about putting your money to work in a way that impacts our community, not just the economy. This Giving Tuesday, we’ve selected several area non-profits and organizations to get the spotlight!
11 Milwaukee Organizations to Support This Giving Tuesday
Obviously, there are literally dozens and dozens of organizations in the Milwaukee are that are doing amazing things for the community who are well-deserving of support this holiday season.
For our spotlights, we wanted to zero in on those that are related to parenthood, families, and investing in the lives of kiddos & moms in particular. For this year’s features, we asked our incredible writing team for the local organizations that they support and recommend! We’ll look forward to spotlighting even more in 2022!
2021 Giving Tuesday Spotlight Organizations
Milwaukee Diaper MIssion
Milwaukee Diaper Mission empowers families in need by supplying a reliable source of free diapers and period supplies. Believing that reusable personal hygiene products should be accessible, affordable, and achievable for everyone, MDM offers the option for cloth diapers and reusable menstrual items too.
As Milwaukee’s basic needs bank, Milwaukee Diaper Mission partners with local social service agencies who then distribute the basic essentials to the families and menstruators they serve. MDM’s partners include food pantries, mutual aid groups, home visiting agencies and organizations that support families through pregnancy, birth and postpartum.
Pre-COVID, 1 in 3 U.S. families struggled to afford diapers for their babies and toddlers. Recognizing the rising need locally, the Milwaukee Diaper Mission opened in 2020 and has since distributed more than 175,000 diapers and 100,000 period supplies.
Because MDM is 100% volunteer run, every dollar you donate goes directly to supporting families and menstruators with the products they need.
Unity in Motion (Kindred MKE)
Serving Milwaukee Youth for more than 20 years, Unity in Motion seeks to fight the segregation in our city, through leadership development of diverse groups of kids from all over the Milwaukee area. Here, you find an experiential youth development program built to disrupt the cycle of segregation in Milwaukee and a community founded on the belief that all children deserve the opportunity to connect with one another, and to harness their limitless potential.
We develop new generations of diverse, culturally competent, empowered leaders equipped with the skills, values, and relationships necessary to disrupt the cycle of segregation by building just, equitable, and loving communities.
GPS Education Partners
GPS Education Partners helps students transition from the learning environment to the working environment by providing first-hand experience in meaningful technical careers. This early career exposure prepares students for life as working adults and creates opportunities for schools, businesses and communities.
Safe & Sound
At Safe & Sound, neighbors and the community at large come together to unite resident, youth, law enforcement and community organizations to build safe and empowered neighborhoods. Our vision is a safe neighborhood for everyone in Milwaukee.
Safe & Sound was founded with the theory that improvements in public safety require the combination of law enforcement, community organizing and youth development.
Love + Lift
If you’re part of a KidsCycle Page on Facebook, you’ve likely heard of Love + Lift, since they are the ones making those spaces run. But the Love + Life mission goes far beyond creating these online swap communities. In 2020, Love + Lift started a MicroGrant program where they collect goods and give funds to families in need. They also arranged to deliver meals to families with kids spending time at Children’s Hospital (or after they get home after a stay) and do small things to “lift” people like send flowers or other small gestures. Love + Lift’s mission is to Build Community and Inspire Beautiful.
The vision of Love + Lift is to strengthen the bonds within our local communities by making it the societal norm to do something kind or selfless for no other reason than to lift someone else.
Bridge Builders
For Bridge Builders, community development means getting our hands dirty in the soil of a neighborhood. We inspire inner-city innovation that will holistically transform neighborhoods one block at a time.
We’re tackling Milwaukee’s struggles from the bottom-up. Our plan partners residents with local governments, businesses, foundations, churches and community groups. Milwaukee’s central city neighborhoods have been fragmented by a lack of generational wealth, crime, the failure of local businesses and bad governance. While some groups look at top-down solutions, Bridge Builders invests directly in the lives of the people on the block.
We connect people living on the block with people giving to the block.
Arts @ Large
Since 2001, Arts @ Large has engaged Milwaukee’s students, their families and the community in arts-rich experiential learning. Arts @ Large is committed to providing equitable access to educational experiences that include the arts. Arts @ Large works to provide programming that is equitable and inclusive and reaches a diverse audience.
Now more than ever Arts @ Large needs your support to continue to engage students, families and the greater Milwaukee community.
Moms Mental Health Initiative
Moms Mental Health Initiative is an initiative aimed at transforming maternal mental health care in the Greater Milwaukee Area.
The cornerstone of MMHI is mom to mom support. MMHI facilitates a private, judgement-free online support group for moms in our community who are experiencing PMADs. The moms behind MMHI know that moms suffering from these illnesses are often hesitant to talk about their symptoms. They know something is wrong, but they don’t always have enough information to recognize they are suffering from common and treatable mental illnesses. There’s also the stigma that keeps moms from seeking the help they need.
Moms Mental Health Initiative works to break down these barriers to treatment. A mom can come to MMHI first, and through talking with other moms who have experienced something similar, she can begin to see that she’s not alone, and that with the right help, she can get better. MMHI hopes to provide the education, support, and hope she needs to get on a path to recovery.
1 in 7 women will experience postpartum depression or a related illness, in a disparate area like Milwaukee County, that number is likely MUCH higher.
Moms Mental Health Initiative’s staff and volunteers are the boots on the ground — supporting moms and helping them find professional treatment so they can get better and their families can thrive.
Help us reach more moms by donating to Moms Mental Health Initiative.
OneHope27
The number of children in foster care in the U.S. has grown from an average of 200,000 to currently over 437,000. To help battle this crisis, OneHope27 has worked to connect local churches and communities to provide hope and support to those involved in foster care.
“Our organization has focused on providing basic material items that children in foster care often lack, including pajamas, clothes and a proper bag to transport their belongings. We also connect and mentor individuals wanting to get involved with foster care, have hosted career fairs for youth in care and created a resource to help individuals engaging in foster care as well as those who are supporting them.
In 2020 we will open a support home for young moms with children removed from their care for the first time to build community and connection. We believe this will lead to quicker and more successful reunifications, resulting in stronger families and a stronger city. We are for families and we are for Milwaukee.”
Make sure you listen to the episode of our podcast, Milwaukee Momcast, where Charonne Ganiere of OneHope27 is a featured guest this December and you won’t want to miss it!
Urban Ecology Center
Care for the Planet Begins with a Love of Nature at Urban Ecology Center!
You can help make Giving Tuesday, December 3, very special for Milwaukee, urban nature, and kids!
How do we raise children who are caring enough to steward the earth? We surround them with nature as an inspiration and people who can share their own passion with these young minds. A perfect combination between curiosity and knowledge, questions and answers, is a great start.
Every $42 you give helps a young person enjoy a Young Scientist Club after-school experience.
Whether they’re finding caterpillars, learning to fish, or going on an outdoor adventure, you can give the foundational experiences that build our next generation of environmental stewards!
Please consider donating to the Urban Ecology Center on Giving Tuesday!
PEARLS for Teen Girls
PEARLS is a unique leadership development program serving girls in middle school through high school, and beyond, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
They empower girls to live out the PEARLS values: Personal Responsibility, Empathy, Awareness, Respect, Leadership and Support.
In support of the mission to empower girls to achieve their goals and dreams, PEARLS is committed to equipping girls with the knowledge, resources, and tools they need to define and successfully navigate their academic and professional path through offering Collage and Career Readiness programming and career development through their Leadership Development curriculum.
No matter what issues are at the forefront of your mind, there is a way to show your support this Giving Tuesday. Would you rather put boots on the ground and lend your support in person? Check out our list of Holiday Service Opportunities to find the right fit for you and your family!
