Gifts in Action
Over the years, your donations have made an amazing impact on the lives of others. Take a moment to read some of our stories.
Created at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Feed the Front Lines Program recognized the efforts of our front-line workers. While this initiative has come to an end, we’re very proud of the work were were able to do.
In partnership with five local restaurants, individual meals are prepared, packaged, and delivered to those who are risking their lives to keep our communities safe and healthy during this challenging time. Learn more about Feed the Front Lines.
Mentoring Mentors is a non-profit organization engaging African American adolescents and youth in Baltimore City, with the ultimate goal of supporting their development as mentors into adulthood. More specifically, Mentoring Mentors provides character education and positive youth development services, directed towards youth who have experienced trauma directly and indirectly given their home and community circumstances. The funding they received was utilized to purchase devices, such as Chromebooks, for students to use during the afterschool session. For the curriculum to be successful, students are required to complete certain activities, like journaling, researching, and defining biblical terms. The devices will also be used for homework and the completion of surveys.
Touching Young Lives strives to ensure the health and well-being of infants and children through providing public information on best practices for infant and child care. In addition, we sell and donate Portable Alternative Cribs to give babies from all socio-economic classes a safe place to sleep. With BFGCF’s help, they were able to distribute 8,436 Portable Alternative Cribs in seven jurisdictions, including Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Cecil County, Charles County, Dorchester County, Frederick County, and Harford County. A second grant was also awarded, which was used exclusively for their Safe Sleep All-star pilot programs. This community-based and driven initiative is being led by former Portable Alternative Crib users in high infant mortality neighborhoods.
The Brown Memorial Tutoring Program provides literacy other critical benefits to the children they serve – helping to ensure that a caring adult is a consistent part of their lives each week and exposing them to new ideas and possibilities. Some of the funds they received from BFGCF were earmarked for the purchase of books for children to keep at home, as well as expanding and replenishing the supply of resource materials, like workbooks and readers, in the Tutoring Program's library. Funds can also help with the costs of the van transportation service.
For more than 30 years, the CollegeBound Foundation has helped Baltimore City students realize their dreams of a college education. They work exclusively in Baltimore City public schools using a nationally-recognized college advising model that has transformed the lives of more than 67,000 students. The most recent grant award they received from BFGCF allowed graduates and their families to attend the annual Graduates’ Luncheon. Also, thanks to their previous Champion in Life Grant Award, CollegeBound they were able to employ and trains eighteen full-time college advisors – five more than the prior academic year – who deliver full-time and part-time college access advising in middle and high schools in Baltimore City Public Schools.
Sisters Circle provides long-term mentoring to foster meaningful and sustainable change in the lives of girls and young women in Baltimore. The grant award they received from BFGCF allowed them to match rising seventh graders with 1-to-1 mentors, offer after-school programming for students in grades sixth through eighth, organize year-round mentor-mentee monthly events focused on strengthening these relationships, provide mentor training and on-going support, specifically for mentors of rising 9th graders, develop a new college and career-readiness program called Ready, Set, Go!, hire a part-time College and Career Advisor, and much more.
The mission of The Baltimore Station is to turn lives around. They are an innovative therapeutic residential treatment program supporting veterans, and others who are transitioning through the cycle of poverty, addiction, and homelessness to self-sufficiency. The BFGCF grant helped them to address several priority needs, like finishing our meditation room, purchasing supplies for our new music therapy program, and finishing our flooring.
Hurricane Harvey, a devastating Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, caused catastrophic flooding, homelessness, and death. BFGCF took action, raising thousands of dollars in a matter of days to support those in need.
St. Vincent’s Villa provides services to 192 children experiencing a crisis. A significant barrier to care for these children is transportation. The funds received from BFGCF helped to support 361 trips for families to attend therapy sessions, treatment team meetings, and/or support group meetings that improved clinical outcomes for the children receiving services.
Our Daily Bread Employment Center and Christopher Place Employment Academy (CPEA) received grants from BFGCF which allowed them to support 424 meals at Our Daily Bread as well as about five (5) weeks of housing and comprehensive employment services for a formerly homeless CPEA participant.
Head Start of Baltimore City improves the economic conditions of the families it serves by providing high-quality learning experiences for low-income pre-school children in Baltimore City. The grant awards they received from BFGCF were used to provide educational field trips for their students.