Thinking of donating your stimulus check? Here are some ways to help children & families in need

This week, a good portion of Americans will start to the $1,200 coronavirus relief check show up in their bank accounts. For many, this will be a welcome relief during a trying time. For others, who fortunately haven’t seen the crisis affect their finances, this may be an opportunity to pay it forward. If you find yourself in that latter group, we have attempted to provide a few ways to support organizations that are working to help children and families who need help in this uncertain time.

To ensure this list was relevant, we have made sure to include national organizations, but we also encourage folks to seek out local chapters or community-based organizations in your own neighborhood if those options are available to you.

Also, If you have other worthy causes that you think should be included, we would love to hear them, shoot us an email here.

CDC Foundation: Supports the critical health protection work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is raising emergency response funds to enable the CDC to respond to COVID-19.

Center for Disaster Philanthropy COVID-19 Response Fund: Supports nonprofit organizations working in areas identified as having high numbers of affected individuals and those working with the most vulnerable populations. Areas of emphasis include helping health-care workers with purchases of masks, gowns, gloves and other protective equipment; supporting quarantined and vulnerable individuals, and hygiene promotion campaigns to limit the spread of the virus.

Direct Relief: Works in the United States and internationally to equip doctors and nurses with lifesaving medical resources. The organization is delivering protective masks, exam gloves, and isolation gowns to health-care organizations in areas with confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Feeding America: With a nationwide network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries, donations to its COVID-19 response fund will help food banks across the country support the most vulnerable communities affected by the pandemic — you can also find your local food bank here.

World Central Kitchen: Founder Chef José Andrés is turning the kitchens in some of his restaurants into community kitchens offering free to-go lunches for those in need.

No Kid Hungry: Deploys funds to ensure access to free meals continues for children in need, especially with schools closed. It is providing $5 million in emergency grants immediately — with more to come — to help schools and community groups feed kids during the outbreak and making sure families know how to find meals while schools are closed.

Feed the Children: Works with thousands of partner agencies across the country including food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, and churches.

National Diaper Bank Network COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund: With your help, the National Diaper Bank Network (NDBN) is actively supporting our 200+ member organizations’ response to the Coronavirus epidemic. Every dollar donated to the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund will help diaper banks serve the specific needs of their community.

First Book: Donations will help deliver 7 million books to children in need who don’t have Internet access or home libraries to keep learning.

Boys & Girls Clubs of America: Helping feed kids participating in its clubs and is providing virtual academic support.

Free Wheelchair Mission: Provides children and adults with disabilities and their caregivers with critical medical supplies and mobility aids.

Blessings in a Backpack: This organization helps feeds school children across the US, and is partnering with districts that have summer feeding programs to extend services while schools are shut down.

Save the Children: Providing children in America’s poorest communities with nutritious meals, books and other learning resources during the outbreak closures.

United Way: They are using their COVID-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund to stock food banks with essential staples to help feed children who rely on schools for meals.

UNICEF USA: Delivering medical supplies to health workers around the world. They are also providing hygiene and medical kits to schools and health clinics to help keep children safe. 

World Vision: Providing children in low-income families and schools with emergency kits of food and cleaning supplies and supporting health care workers on the front lines by distributing protective equipment in the US and abroad.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline: The Hotline is the only national, full-service hotline that answers the call for both victims and survivors, along with concerned friends, family, co-workers and others seeking information and guidance on how to help someone they know. The Hotline provides confidential, one-on-one support to each caller/chatter/texter, offering crisis intervention, options for next steps, and direct connection to sources for immediate safety. 

RAINN: Now, more than ever, it’s crucial that survivors can get help. Many people are staying at home in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Those experiencing intimate partner violence or child sexual abuse are at particular risk. For example, children have lost critical social support structures due to school closings and isolation from adults who regularly look for signs of abuse and exploitation. Mandated reports of child abuse across the country have been dropping as schools, daycare centers, after school programs, and other places where children would interact with adults who may spot the signs of abuse have closed due to the virus. Having a place to turn is critical and, for the first time ever, minors accounted for the majority of visitors to RAINN’s online hotline in the month of March.