Projects & Initiatives
Your support allows us to fund projects that fulfill needs.
Current Events
NICU Stars
Spreading hope throughout the holiday season
Parenting a NICU baby is an emotional and stressful time for families as they balance caring for their infant requiring medical care with family members’ needs at home, busy schedules, and maintaining careers. During the holiday season, the stress of parenting a NICU baby is heightened as families coordinate hospital visits, home and work life, with busy holiday schedules.
For the third year in a row, Maximizing Hope has partnered with Hope City Church North to sponsor families in every NICU bed. Each NICU Star hanging from the tree in the church lobby represents a family in the NICU. Holiday gifts from sponsors will be dropped off in the NICU before Christmas Eve.
For Hope City Church Sponsors:
This year, we are asking sponsors to provide gifts for the baby or their family. For babies, consider gifts such as baby blankets, baby books, stuffed animals, or small baby items. For families, gifts may include cozy items (socks, throw blankets, soft tissues), or restaurant and gas gift cards. Please choose gender-neutral colors and gifts that babies could enjoy once they are home with their families. This minimizes extra work for NICU nurses by not having to match gifts with gender and size. Bring all items wrapped in a gift bag with the NICU Star tag attached to Hope City Church North by Sunday 12/15. Thank you for supporting families in the NICU this Christmas season!
Continuous Fundraising Initiative
Resale Fundraising
Do you have things that seem too nice to give away, but it’s too much of a hassle to try to sell them?
We are collecting donations to sell on websites such as Poshmark and Mercari for our next fundraiser. The profits of everything sold will go towards creating care packages for NICU families.
Our care packages, NICU Hope Baskets, contain comfort items for the bedside that parents can take home with them at the end of their stay.
The type of donations we accept are things that are ideal for resale. This includes new or gently used clothing, shoes, accessories, toys, small home goods, and collectibles. Brand name or designer items sell best. Donations must be small enough to easily ship. Ideally, items should have an estimated value of $15 or greater and weigh less than 15 pounds.
Any donations received that are not successfully resold will be donated to a local donation site.
Your donations are tax deductible based on the fair market value of the items much in the way a Goodwill or Salvation Army donation is tax deductible. A receipt will be provided via email or during pick up.
You can email us at maximizinghopenicu@gmail.com with questions or to set up a porch pick up for donated items. Thank you so much for your donations!
Previous Fundraising Intiatives
NICU Hope Baskets 2024
We assembled 70 care packages for NICU families with 30 more promised this fall.
At Maximizing Hope, we are dedicated to providing support and comfort to parents with babies staying in the NICU. One way we achieve this is through our NICU Hope Baskets program, which relies on generous donations from individuals and organizations. Donating items for NICU Hope Baskets is a meaningful way to directly impact these parents during an emotional and stressful time. Basket items include a blanket, baby book, NICU journal, lotion, chapstick, and extra soft tissues. New this year, we added granola from a local small business, BisKrunchies.
Through our NICU Hope Baskets program, we remember our daughter, Hope, and honor her fighting spirit in the NICU. We also extend a message of solidarity, empathy, and unwavering hope to those navigating the delicate NICU journey.
Annual Holiday Fundraiser
We donated family gifts for 22 NICU Stars.
With the spirit of generosity, friends from Hope Church adopted a NICU Star from the tree to donate gifts for families with babies staying in the NICU through the holidays. Our NICU Star gifts included a variety of items such as blankets, baby books, stuffed animals, baby hats and accessories, and gift cards. Maximizing Hope was able to match gift card donations so that every family received a gas gift card and a restaurant gift card. For the second year in a row, we collaborated with Cara’s Purpose, a local nonprofit supporting families of babies with a terminal illness. Cara’s Purpose donated gift boxes of assorted holiday cookies from Cara’s Cookie Co. Finally, every baby received a hand-crocheted Santa hat. The support provided by the families of Hope Church and our donors brought tangible gifts to families in the NICU and also served as a powerful reminder that they are not alone in their journey.
2023 NICU Hope Baskets
We assembled 60 care packages for NICU families.
This past January, your donations supplied 60 NICU Hope Baskets to families with babies staying in the NICU at Atrium Health Cabarrus Hospital. We deeply appreciate your continued support as we honored our daughter Hope on what would have been her fourth birthday.
For the second year in a row, the first grade team at Odell Primary School chose NICU Hope Baskets as their first grade community fundraiser. We are immensely grateful to the teachers, students, and families who donated to our fundraiser. Each NICU Hope Basket included a blanket, a journal, a baby board book, lotion, chapstick, masks, and extra soft tissues in a reusable tote bag.
NICU Feeding Kits
We donated 25 NICU Feeding Kits.
NICU Feeding Kits are for families with babies who need support with bottle feeding. Each kit includes a baby book, two burp cloths, a bib, and a Dr. Brown’s bottle set. NICU Feeding Kits are provided as needed to support families with babies in the NICU.
NICU Graduate Kits
We donated 100 NICU Graduate Kits.
Leaving the NICU may evoke feelings of joy, anxiety, grief, fear, excitement, and often all at once. Our NICU Graduate Kits were created for families to honor their journey and celebrate their baby’s homecoming. Each baby receives a crocheted graduate cap, two baby books, a bib, and a graduation certificate.
NICU Graduate kits are provided regularly to help families celebrate their baby’s incredible milestone, going home.
2022 NICU Hope Baskets
We assembled 120 care packages for NICU families.
In January 2022, your donations supplied 100 NICU Hope Baskets to Atrium Health Cabarrus Hospital for the year in memory of our Hope. We delivered an additional 20 NICU Hope Baskets to Atrium Health University City Hospital in memory of our friend’s twin boys Vetri and Nesan. Thank you for supporting us to honor our babies this way.
Nursing NICU Moms
Through your generous donation we were able to gift the NICU with 20 Nursing NICU Kits, enough for each bed. In total we delivered, 20 Boppy pillows, 20 extra Boppy pillow covers, 20 wooden stools, 20 fleece blankets, 60 muslin blankets, 80 flannel blankets, 80 boxes of extra soft tissues. Nursing NICU Kits remained in the NICU for families to use while their babies were being cared for in the NICU.
We were also able to supply the funds to purchase two additional hospital grade breast pumps.
These donations helped the NICU as they worked to achieve their quality initiative to improve breastfeeding and breastmilk supplies in the NICU.
Wave of Light
Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month
The Wave of Light is a global event that commemorates pregnancy and infant loss. Every year on October 15th at 7:00 pm local time, a candle is lit at each event creating a “wave of light” across the world.
We held a Wave of Light ceremony at Hope Church Charlotte to remember and honor all types of pregnancy and infant loss including infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss. Loss parents and NICU parents along with their families and close friends joined our ceremony by lighting candles and remembering their babies together.
This will be an annual event held on October 15th each year. Our ceremony will begin at 6:30 and the Wave of Light will commence at 7:00 pm. Anyone who has experienced or supported a family through any type of loss is invited and welcome to attend: Hope Church Charlotte, 4100 Johnston Oehler Rd, Charlotte, NC.
2021 NICU Hope Baskets
We assembled 150 care packages for NICU families.
In January 2020, 60 Hope Baskets were supplied to the Atrium Health Cabarrus Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital NICU. In January 2021, 75 Hope Baskets were given and as the patient volume increased in 2021, we delivered another 15 baskets in October 2021. NICU Hope Baskets include a blanket, a journal, a baby board book, lotion, chapstick, masks and a box of extra soft tissues.
Help us help them.
Interested in contributing to our cause? Your donation goes directly to the most present need as indicated by the NICU team. We are an official 501(c)3 tax-exempt, nonprofit organization.