2009 Recipient of the Nonprofit
Mission Award for Innovation
CaringBridge
CaringBridge
offers free personalized Web sites that allow people
to stay in touch with family and friends during
a serious health event, treatment or recovery. The
website provides a place where the user can post
journal entries and photographs and also receive
messages of hope and encouragement in their guest
book. These websites allow patients and their families
to keep in touch and lift one another’s spirits.
To provide a more user-friendly experience, CaringBridge
now provides its services in English and Spanish,
as well as offering streamlined page designs and
improved style templates, a new text editor that
is compatible with multiple web browsers, “Quick
Note” which allows authors to post a brief
update or important message, and also enabling authors
to upload photos and post them in journal entries.
Since
their founding in 1997, CaringBridge has developed
nine partnerships with local nonprofits and 31 partnerships
with local hospitals, allowing them to gain more
understanding and connect more families and friends
through their websites. In June 2008, CaringBridge
developed a partnership with the Centers of Disease
Control and Prevention, which allows their users
24-hour, online access to CDC libraries of information
on specific medical conditions, so they can better
understand and care for their loved one. These websites
reduce isolation and relieve stress in a particularly
difficult time, and they are considered sacred space,
so they are uncluttered with no ads, banners, pop-ups
or spam, but focus on providing love and support
for the author. Other social networking sites reach
everyone, but CaringBridge is private, allowing
compassionate connection with family and friends.
CaringBridge
has also positively impacted the Minnesota economy.
In a time when most companies are downsizing, CaringBridge
actually increased their staff size by more than
50 percent in 2008.
Authors,
visitors and donors of the website live in all 50
states and more than 215 countries/territories.
Almost 155,000 personal websites have been created,
connecting over 30 million families. In the past
12 months, over 30 million people have visited CaringBridge.org,
and since their founding, nearly 1 billion visits
have been made to personal CaringBridge websites.
A user-satisfaction survey, conducted by MORI Research
found that 90 percent of patients using CaringBridge
said it helped them in their actual healing process.
CaringBridge websites connect half a million families
each day, and is thus the largest, oldest and fastest
growing website of its kind.
