Giving Back Guide 2024

’Tis the season for holiday warmth! For the most discerning recipient or relative who doesn’t want “another thing,” there’s a perfect gift — a donation in their honor to help someone in need. Fuzzy Christmas pajamas, winter heat, warm beds and hot meals feel good to the giver, recipient organization and ultimate beneficiaries.

Here are five community nonprofits you can make even merrier.

GRANDFamilies of Chester County

GRANDFamilies provides info, resources and support groups to help guide families through their journey of being a kinship or “grandfamily” — relatives or family friends raising others’ children. A program of the Coatesville Center for Community Health, it offers services to meet ongoing needs: healthcare, legal and special assistance to give kids a loving home.

Ways to Give: $50 Walmart gift cards buy kids’ presents or fleecy PJs. $100 donation helps with legal fees. 610-246-2261; CoatesvilleCenter.org (designate GRANDFamilies)

Stroud Water Research Center

Stroud protects the water of our region and beyond through “K through gray” educational programs, research and watershed restoration. Clean, safe water — for drinking, farming and canoeing or splashing in the Brandywine — is a gift for the community today and tomorrow.

Ways to Give: $25 sends a student to a full-day educational program. Corporate groups can plant trees. StroudCenter.org

Thistle Hills

Thistle Hills is Chester County’s only residential program specifically designated for women survivors of human trafficking. Medical and mental healthcare, holistic therapies, vocational and life skills training, and a safe place to call home all help a survivor reclaim her life and self-sufficiency.

Ways to Give: $35 Wawa gift cards fill the tummy or gas tank. $100 donation helps pay for heat. ThistleHills.org

Community Volunteers in Medicine

Thanks to volunteers, CVIM provides free healthcare, hope and healing to thousands of local, low-income, uninsured working adults and their children. Founded in 1998, the organization offers medical and dental care, behavioral health services, medications, and health and nutrition education to those eligible.

Ways to Give: $100 provides a mammogram. $250 covers fluoride treatments for 250 local schoolchildren. CVIM.org

Family Promise of Southern Chester County

Keeping families with kids together, Family Promise aids families experiencing homelessness and housing instability by providing a roof, warm beds and hot meals. Last year it impacted the lives of 364 people.

Ways to Give: Donate a meal or ingredients for one. Monetary gifts of any amount can help with heat and lights. 610-444-0400; FamilyPromiseSCC.org

Give gifts that keep the glow going.