One of the very rewarding ways to give back during the holiday season is to sponsor a family or child in need. The following organizations allow for this opportunity through giving programs that involve you purchasing the gifts that they will deliver on your behalf. Watch the deadlines, though! They need time to collect and distribute. If you can't make the deadline, they are always happy to receive monetary donations.
The holiday season is one that is supposed to be filled with joy and happiness, but that is not the case for many of our friends and neighbors in Bucks County. Lenape Valley Foundation (LVF) hopes to help make the holidays a little brighter for those in need through its Holiday Assistance Program, an annual effort organized by volunteers. You can help by 1) "adopting" a person or family (form must be submitted by Nov. 24); 2) donating money to help; 3) donating gift cards of any amount to local grocery stores, Amazon, Walmart and Target. Gift cards can be dropped off between 11/30-12/5. See website for details.
We all know how stressful this time of year can be, but when you care for a seriously ill, injured or disabled child, the extra expenses involved make it very difficult to provide a warm, enchanted holiday you dream of for your children. The families reached through the Kelly Anne Dolan Memorial Fund Holiday Adopt-a-Family Program have children who are suffering from a variety of conditions including cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, severe disabilities or serious injuries. These families are under immense financial strain and are brought to their attention by social work departments in hospitals and social service agencies. You can make a tax-deductible monetary donation which will be used to purchase gift cards on your behalf.
Help local in-need children by adopting them into your hearts this holiday season. Wish lists are obtained from the New Hope-Solebury School district along with local organizations such as Fisherman's Mark, a private social service agency in Lambertville, NJ. This year they have added some Super Seniors who are local seniors-in-need whose wish lists are also obtained through Fisherman's Mark. The wish lists come from children and seniors who don't have very much, and they really need your help. You will be provided with their essential information such as age, clothing sizes, hobbies, and interests, as well as their ultimate wish. You do the shopping and the Key Club will deliver the gifts! The estimated cost of each child's wish list is about $150 and $75 for a Super Senior. This is how it works: you register and select a wish list from our website, purchase items from that list, drop off your gifts at New Hope-Solebury High Schoo and our Key Club volunteers deliver them.
This annual program runs from November 8 through December 15, 2023. The Giving Tree will be in the lobby of the Hatfield Building, located at 1950 School Road. Gift tags on the tree are labeled with an age, gender, and gift request from a local child in need. People are encouraged to stop by during regular business hours to select a tag from the tree, and purchase the item(s) on the tag. They can then bring the new and unwrapped item(s) to the Township building before December 15, 2023. For more information, check out the website at www.hatfield.org or call the township at 215-855-0900
This Montgomery County food pantry collects $25 gift cards (Target, Walmart, Amazon, Wawa or Burlington) for local families in need. All gift cards will need to be dropped off at the cupboard (150 N. Main Street, Ambler, PA 19002) as soon as you can or by December 8, 2023 at the latest. Please click here for gift card details or call the cupboard at 215-628-3002 for more information. Thank you so much for helping us make the holiday season a little easier for our families this year.
They also distribute full Thanksgiving and Christmas meals and are collecting items for that program. Details can be found on the website.
Every year, hundreds of older kids and teens in Bucks County are overlooked during the holidays. You can make sure they have a bright holiday this year by donating to our Holiday Gift Card Drive. When money is tight around the holidays, it's often the older children that go without. Toy drives provide the right gifts for kids under 11, but not much for their older siblings. Our Holiday Gift Card Drive specifically serves teens and tweens. Gifts of any amount are deeply appreciated, but we try to give each kid about $35 for food and clothing.
Holiday Hands provides holiday gifts to thousands of Hunterdon County low to moderate income families, elderly residents, and individuals with special needs. To do this, we reach out to these individuals in our community and ask them what they most need and wish for. We then create shopping lists that are available through our website for local purchasing, or via wish lists on Amazon for online shoppers. Generic and store-based gift cards are also accepted, with our more frequent requests coming from retailers such as Walmart, ShopRite, Kohl's, Burlington, and Marshalls (with a preference for $25 denominations). We also accept and encourage donations of new and unwrapped toys and household goods to add to our holiday store.  You can find links to our clients' wish lists on our website at www.uwhunterdon.org/holiday-hands starting from November 1st.  Making a monetary donation here allows us to fill the gaps as needed and shop on your behalf.
All purchased items are sent to our Volunteer Center which is transformed into a holiday store where clients can shop and select items for themselves and their family, allowing the dignity of choice!
The Pennridge FISH Organization is grateful to receive donations from the community, churches, school and scouting groups, businesses and organizations for its annual Christmas program.
Each year we serve more than 325 families with the fixings for a Christmas meal, including chicken, ham or turkey, and a dessert.
We serve more than 400 children ages 0-16 with new, unwrapped toys/gifts and/or giftcards, hats, scarves and gloves.
Due to the pandemic and building renovations we will be giving only giftcards to parents with children age 16 and under this year. We are looking for Walmart or Target gift cards in the denominations of $25. Please mail or hand deliver gift card donations to FISH no later than December 2 (the earlier the better).Â
Year round, thousands of individuals and families
turn to Family Service for help with a variety of
needs. During the holiday season, needs are
greater and these same people turn to Family Service to help
make their holidays a little brighter. Family Service collects new, unwrapped gifts for children and teens. We put the donations on display and allow people who are actively working with Family Service to select gifts for their children. Gifts are purchased through our online registry by December 11, 2023. You can find more info on their website.
Between Friends Outreach, Inc.(BFO) is a 100% volunteer, faith-based, non-profit 501(c)(3) agency working with homeless, low income & Veterans in our community. They work one-on-one with clients in Bucks and Montgomery County by providing resources to prevent homelessness and to assist clients transitioning out of homelessness. During the holidays, they also supply hundreds of local children with Christmas gifts. "Angel Tags" list a child and what they'd like for Christmas. Angel Trees are located at participating businesses throughout the area. A list of participating businesses can be found on their Facebook page. For more info, call 267-875-9460 or email angeltreebfo@gmail.com.
The Hope for the Holidays program is designed to give parents in the North Penn region a dignified opportunity to purchase gifts they feel most appropriate for their children. Manna will distribute gift cards to parents - $75 for each child participating in the program.
In 2021, with your help, we provided gift cards to 482 children in 208 families. We are asking for monetary gifts only. Any contributions we may receive in excess of our goal will be used as general operating funds to support Manna's programs and all those we serve. Your cooperation and consideration is appreciated as this program enables us to best serve our clients and allow our staff to focus on our core mission of ending hunger in the North Penn region. We encourage you to support Manna families through Hope for the Holidays by making a contribution online. You may also write a check, noting Hope for the Holidays in the Memo Line, and mail or drop off your contribution at 606 East Main Street, Suite 1001, Lansdale, PA 19446.
As a community-based nonprofit serving Bucks and Montgomery counties, Keystone Opportunity Center helps community members in need by offering a comprehensive array of social services that educate, encourage and empower them to become self-sufficient. Donating $25 gift cards allows families to have a special holiday experience by shopping for gifts that truly fit their family's needs. It allows the dignity of doing their own gift shopping. We ask that gift cards for the Holiday Sharing Program are Visa, MasterCard or Walmart, as these are most convenient for our families. These should be dropped off at the Center in Souderton on Mondays in November.
During the holiday season, Boyertown Area-Multi-Service works extremely hard to make sure that local families who are struggling will still be able to enjoy the holidays. The holiday season is normally a joyous season filled with family and friends, delicious goodies and special gifts for loved ones. Unfortunately, many local families are unable to provide Christmas gifts for their children. Our Case Management Program assists client families with Christmas for their children. If you are interested in sponsoring a child through our Christmas Giving Program, please call! All individuals sponsoring a child will receive a personalized wish list for a child and a letter explaining drop off dates and other program details.
The R.J. Leonard Foundation is a privately funded nonprofit organization that provides a Fellowship program for young adults aging out of the foster care system in Bucks County and Montgomery County. They aim to supply these at-risk youth with tools that will give them the same opportunities as their more fortunate peers. For many people, exchanging gifts with family members is an important part of the holiday season. For these Fellows, however, this tradition is complicated. They lack the family structures and support systems so many of us take for granted.
These remarkable young people are hard at work building self-sufficient lives and they too deserve to enjoy the holidays. This year, to help them celebrate the season, the Foundation asked their Fellows to prepare Amazon wish lists for themselves and their children.
Please join us in helping these Fellows celebrate the holiday season.
The holidays are an especially difficult time for the youth and families served by Valley Youth House. The Holiday Gift Drive annually raises funds in order to provide holiday gifts to over 1,500 youth and families served by the agency's programs and services. Now more than ever, non-profit organizations are in great need of philanthropic support to serve their clients. The annual holiday gift drive is a way to show young people who are facing difficult life circumstances that someone is there for them. All proceeds from this campaign will provide holiday cheer to young people who formerly experienced homelessness, housing insecurity, or are currently enrolled in foster care, and now live in a Valley Youth House shelter, group home or apartment, or are receiving important counseling and therapeutic services from Valley Youth House.
