Card Donations: questions, resources, and sharing

Just wanted to thank joblackford for starting this thread and for all the wonderful peas who have suggested organizations/drives in need of cards. I have enjoyed making cards for Bring Smiles to Seniors and Cards for Hospitalized Kids in the past year.

I recently started making cards for Letters Against Isolation (LAI) and wanted to suggest it to any peas who are looking for a new drive. It's a relatively new organization that was started by 2 sisters last year to help lonely seniors. Volunteers sign up with the organization and are sent a link to a google drive document every 2 weeks that they then use to sign up for sending cards/letters to seniors residents of assisted living facilities and care homes in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and Israel. They are always looking for new volunteers and have a pretty active facebook group where volunteers share their creations, ideas for messages and words of encouragement. I have been sending a couple of cards with messages every 2 weeks. Sometimes there are special requests for helping a senior celebrate a milestone birthday and those are fun to design. I have made 3 so far.

Good Morning from Sunny Florida. Last year, my senior neighbor, who volunteered 6 days a week, had a big health downfall. Because of Covid, she wasn't able to volunteer. She literally could not walk and had great difficulty with thought processing. So, I took her to her doctor. Blood work was done. She was deficient in a few nutrients. However, it did not fully explain her condition. After all, she was active, on her feet for a few hours a day, helping other people. I knew I had to do something. After some PT, she is able to walk again.

So, I told her we are going to make cards for resident in nursing homes. She was never a creative or crafty person. Since last year, 2 other ladies have joined our card making venture. We have given out 2500 cards to local nursing homes.

Most of these homes have residents who cannot read a card and have memory issues. Reports from staff have given us great happiness The residents love walking/wheeling around sharing their cards with other residents and staff. One staff person told me she was filled with joy to see residents out of their rooms; sharing their cards.

Another staff member, from another facility, told me no one can visit due to COVID. He said the cards are their only link to the outside world. I was in disbelief and tried to grasp the reality of the situation. Now, the residents can share cards with another and show family members. The staff member said they keep their cards on a bulletin boards or on their nightstand.
We are an informal group of card makers. 3 out of 4 of us were unexperienced. One is a phenomenal oil artist. She loves the break from painting and often giggles showing us her cards. Another says she saves every scrap. She purchases some supplies at the Dollar Tree and makes her Dollar Item last! The scraps are used for cute cards! My neighbor's thought process is much better. She is my #1 person to correctly line up everything on the cards. Because of our efforts 3 of us were the top voluteers in our city. It was nice to receive an award. Honestly, hearing the stories from the staff is the greatest reward. Having my neighbor back is an even bigger reward.
We are not a legal non profit. I don't think I would want to become one. We have flexibility now. We were unable to create Easter cards due to my MIL passing away a few months ago. The facility staff understood. Our cards can look like a pro did them or look like a child did them. We found shortcuts to get us through the Oct-Dec holidays. Thank you for letting us share our story.

I hope it encourages people to make cards. One thing we did, which really helped our productivity, is purchase foam shapes. We had spiders, Happy Halloween, witches, Christmas trees, snowpersons, ornaments........you name it. This is something kids can do during the summer months! We purchased from chain stores as well as online.
Also, the Dollar Tree has incredibly cheap stickers for cards. Parents can take their children to the store to purchase stickers. Who cares if it's childish. It's coming from a child's heart. People can challenge themselves to make one card a day. Just sit down for a few minutes and do it. One card a day adds up!

Nothing in particular, but it's definitely on my radar. I uncovered a stash of cards I made a few years ago that I would love to see go to good use. I have it marked on my calendar in March to research the different organizations to see where they might be a good fit.

I like this one bearly.art/pages/cfc
I made over 170 cards last year and I'm going to make cards this year too. I don't have a lot of kids in my life so this is the perfect opportunity for me to use up pp that is childish and to use my cutesy stamps I have .

I don't know if they will or not. I believe it was one of their designer who organized it.
You can always email them.
mailto:support@bearly.art

I sent them 8 kits, packed with paper, glitter glue, stickers and unwanted pens.
It was nice to be able to send them.

I'm working on my Cards for Cubs now and am so excited to be doing this one again. Thanks for the tip on the regional box!

I have a new one to share that a friend of mine does:
www.moreloveletters.com
it's encouragement centered for women and my friend has done this one for quite a while.

Another one is Cards for Hospitalized Kids, I don't know much about this one but thought I'd pass it on anyway.

Tell me more about this, please. If this is not the right thread, feel free to reply elsewhere and direct me there....

I think you're saying that if you receive a handmade card, you cut the front off, using it as a card panel, and attach it to a new card to donate.

I'm less clear on how you use store bought and free charity cards in this process -- and I have a multitude of both!

I don't think I have an Insta, but trying to create one is not going well....

Aha! First, I can't believe that I didn't notice that you replied again. I did make an Insta account and was coming back with more questions...which are answered in your last post, which I had missed until now. Sigh.

The piece of information I was missing is that not all charities are looking for handmade cards.

Is there a summary anywhere in this thread of who takes what in those kinds of general terms? Cards for Kindness wants only handmade, Bring Smiles to Senior takes any usable card...I'm guessing all the others range somewhere between those extremes.