Heartbeat Ministries, Inc.

Our organization is still trying to provide help to many needy north of Boston families who are expecting a baby or who have recently had a child.  We want families to know there is caring help available to moms/families who choose to parent their children.  We want babies to have the clothing, equipment and food they need to thrive.  We want the moms and sometimes dads to be encouraged in their parenting and to parent with assurance and peace of mind, knowing that they are not alone.  Our client card has a picture of a young Hispanic woman, with the phrase"Pregnant?  You are not alone!"  We want to maintain the funding and volunteer support to be able to provide help for all of the needy north of Boston families who are in this situation who contact us or are referred to us.  We do not want to turn away truly needy families in our area who do not have what they need for their babies.  During the next three - five years, we want to raise enough funds each year to pay for the items we need to purchase for the families.  We already purchase the items at amazingly low cost, enabling us to serve many families on a small budget.  We also receive many donated items. We define long-term success as remaining here, doing what we are doing, and not turning truly needy families away, but providing them with caring help.

Our strategies to make this happen are to continue to make contact with parishioners at churches that may be able to help with fundraising, to continue to send thank-you letters that inform the donors as to the important impact their donations are making in helping needy families, and to continue bargain hunting to make the most impact for the families with the donated funds.  We also make this happen by showing caring for the moms, dads and children.  I have recruited more Hispanic volunteers to help with translating.  Before the pandemic, I often received and gave hugs to the moms when they showed their thanks for the help we provided.  We are still trying to show our caring. We offer additional help when providing the assistance we provide and show excitement about their babies.  We continue to maintain extensive computer files so as not to lose anyone's registration information.  We try to provide help at least a month before each mom's due date, so they have help and peace of mind before their babies are due.  All these strategies benefit the needy families and serve as building blocks for future success.

With God's help, we are capable of doing this.  It is more difficult due to church slowdowns. We are planning bulletin announcements in church bulletins and a mailing to committed donors.   We have many committed volunteers.  We have a donated space that keeps us from having to spend  much on overhead.  We have more volunteers than in previous years to deliver to needy families who cannot come to us.  We have been very successful in procuring baby items at much less than families would have to pay for them. We are also looking for more grant opportunities.

We have accomplished a great deal.  We served the families of 410 babies born in 2018 and 518 born in 2019.  We are continuing to raise funds and purchase baby items and equipment, along with providing donated items.  We purchase on-line and with discounts at some stores to provide for the families.  We found that sending mass-mailings to all donors is too time consuming to be of value.  We found that fundraisers at churches with letters of thanks to individuals and families builds relationships with donors that continue to provide  assistance to the ministry.  We found that meeting with individuals in parishes who can promote the fundraisers in their parishes is effective.  It is helpful to talk to people who come to donate items to us about fundraising possibilities, showing them our space and level of service.  We have changed our strategies for fundraising to fit with our need to keep fundraising from taking up much of the volunteers time and to be more effective.  We purchase many more items online now to require less time shopping in stores, to make the time commitment possible.  All of these strategy changes help us to progress toward our ultimate goals.  We are meeting our goals to keep on serving more needy families and are raising additional funding to make our ultimate goals possible.  We know the needs will never go away.  The goals we have not yet realized are to raise enough funds each year to pay for all the expenses.  The obstacles to achieving our goals are difficulties raising the funds necessary, keeping enough volunteers committed to serving to complete the work needed in sorting, purchasing and assembling the needed items for the families (especially during the Covid 19 pandemic) and continuing to occupy enough space for the work we do and storage needs.  We added an additional storage unit a few years ago and are successfully sharing the space we have in the building we partially occupy.  We will continue to face new challenges as they arrive, hopefully with enthusiasm and creativity.