courageous heARTS

Amount Awarded: $20,796 ($15,796 member donations + $5,000 Schulze matching donation)

creative heARTS’s mission is to illuminate youth as leaders and inspire creativity, courage, and collaboration throughout the whole community.  Community members will discover, heal, and strengthen their hearts so they can thrive as active, engaged, and courageous leaders in their world.

Learn more about courageous heARTS at: www.courageous-hearts.org

courageous heARTS was the selected charity for September, 2018.

 

Tamarisk

Amount Awarded: $21,162 ($16,162 member donations + $5,000 Schulze matching donation)

Tamarisk’s mission is to create a caring presence and a safe haven for the thoughts, feelings, and concerns of persons, and their families, faced with the end stages of terminal illness. We attend to our companions’ non-medical needs, while simultaneously providing much-needed respite to caregivers.

Learn more about Tamarisk at: www.tamarisk.org

Tamarisk was the selected charity for June, 2018.

Ruth’s House of Hope

Amount Awarded: $22,347 ($17,347 member donations + $5,000 Schulze matching donation)

Ruth’s House of Hope, Inc., was founded in 2003 in Faribault, Minnesota, with a mission of providing help and hope for women and children in crisis. They provide transitional housing in a safe, supportive and healing environment to help women and families on their way to a new beginning.

Learn more about Ruth’s House at: www.ruthshousemn.org

Ruth’s House of Hope was the selected charity for April, 2018.

Options for Women East

Amount Awarded: $24,196 ($17,582 member donations + $6,614 Schulze matching donation) and a $950 donation to the Breakthrough Twin Cities

The mission of Options for Women East is a life-affirming, non-profit pregnancy clinic. Our free programs available to these women include: pregnancy testing, STI testing and treatment, limited obstetrical ultrasounds, Prenatal Care, prenatal and parenting education and life coaching.

Learn more about Options for Women East at: www.ofwepartners.com

Options for Women East was the selected charity for December, 2017.

Jack’s Basket

Amount Awarded: $32,404 ($19,268 member donations + $13,136 Schulze matching donation)

Jack’s Basket is a non-profit organization that’s mission is to celebrate babies born with Down syndrome. We strive to ensure that every new and expectant parent is provided resources and avenues of support within the community. We aim to educate medical providers on how to discuss the diagnosis in an unbiased way in hopes that the birth of a child with Down syndrome is celebrated like any other.

Learn more about this organization at: www.jacksbasket.org

Jacks’s Basket was the selected charity for September, 2017.

Mobile Loaves Twin Cities

Amount Awarded: $31,521 ($18,907 member donations + $12,614 Schulze matching donation)

Providing food and clothing while respecting human dignity, Saint Joan of Arc Mobile Loaves & Fishes (ML&F) volunteers serve homeless and working poor individuals and families. Armed with fresh warm sandwiches, fruit, needed toiletries and socks, the ML&F catering truck ventures out into the community nearly every night of the week to serve our brothers and sisters in need. The truck serves meals four or five days or evenings each week. MLF is part of SJA’s Sustainable Partnerships program and operates jointly with Knox Presbyterian Church in South Minneapolis. Together, we are the Twin Cities franchise of Mobile Loaves & Fishes based in Austin, Texas, mlf.org.

Learn more about this organization at: www.saintjoanofarc.org

Mobile Loaves Twin Cities was the selected charity for June, 2017.

Breast Milk for Babies

Amount Awarded: $31,287 ($18,891 member donations + $12,396 Schulze matching donation)

Breast Milk for Babies was formed in 2012 with a goal of establishing a human donor milk bank in Minnesota to provide a safe and reliable source of breast milk for premature and newborns with other medical challenges. With no paid staff, the 6 member volunteer board of directors has spent countless hours providing education and creating community awareness on the importance of human donor milk.  Breast Milk for Babies has established 4 milk collection depots and is ready to take the next steps toward opening a Mother’s Milk Bank of Minnesota so the collected milk can be processed and distribued to babies in need here in Minnesota. Funds provided by the Power of 100 Twin Cities Women Who Care will be used to contract a director to help secure a location for the milk bank and leverage additional funds for equipping, supplying, and supporting the development of a nonprofit human donor milk bank.

Learn more about this organization at www.breastmilkforbabies.org.

Breast Milk for Babies was the selected charity for March, 2017.

Making a Difference – The Power of 100 Twin Cities

Published in North Oaks Living magazine – March, 2017

Edited by Tara Myers

North Oaks resident Lisa Mattson loves spreading the word about The Power of 100 – Twin Cities, an organization she founded with several women from North Oaks and the Shoreview area in 2012. Lisa explains, “The Power of 100 is a giving circle for women who are interested in collectively giving to charities in our local communities. Any charity that is a 501(c)3 is eligible to benefit from donations given by members of The Power of 100 – Twin Cities.”

So how did The Power of 100 get started?

“This group of women had volunteered together for years at our children’s schools and sports associations,” Lisa says. “As our children got older, we were looking for new ways to support our local community.” A group got together and started brainstorming about ways to collectively give back. Through a quick Google search, the ladies learned about a group in Ohio called 100+ Women Who Care that was bringing women together to help address the financial needs of charities in their area. Lisa and her group used their model to create The Power of 100 – Twin Cities in 2012. “I am delighted to be a founding member of an organization that has such a simple, powerful, and effective concept!” Lisa shares. Since then, The Power of 100 has fostered the development of three new chapters in the Twin Cities; in addition to their group in the east metro, there are now chapters in Eden Prairie, Lake Minnetonka, and Maple Grove.

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Ampersand Families

Amount Awarded: $27,746 ($17,582 member donations + $10,164 Schulze matching donation)

Ampersand Families is Minnesota’s only nonprofit agency focused solely on meeting the permanency needs of older youth (age 10 years and older) and sibling groups in the child welfare system. We are a resource for youth, families and professionals seeking to promote permanent relationships between teens who have experienced trauma and committed adults who will help them heal. One of five private agencies under contract with Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) to provide adoption services to youth under guardianship of the Commissioner or a Minnesota tribe (often referred to as “state wards”), Ampersand Families provides permanency services at no cost to counties or families planning to adopt a Minnesota youth.

Learn more about this organization at ampersandfamilies.org.

Ampersand Families was the selected charity for December, 2016.

Hope 4 Youth

Amount Awarded: $26,556 ($17,452 member donations + $9,104 Schulze matching donation)

hope-4-youth

HOPE 4 Youth meets the basic needs of young people (ages 23 and under) experiencing homelessness and those at-risk of becoming homeless in the north metro Twin Cities including all of Anoka County and parts of Hennepin County.

On any given night, more than 4,000 homeless young people in Minnesota. We work hard to change the life trajectories of the youth who walk through our Drop-In Center door. Whether they need basic necessities – food from the food pantry, clothes from the clothing closets, a hot shower, a hot, nutritious meal or personal hygiene items – or help finding housing, securing employment, finishing their education or assistance with health referrals, we help put them on a path that allows them to leave their title of “homeless” in the past.

Learn more about this organization at www.hope4youth.org

Hope 4 Youth was the selected charity for September, 2016.