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.

CaringBridge Web site: www.caringbridge.org/


Congratulations to the two other finalists in this category:

African Development Center of Minnesota: www.adcminnesota.org 
Companies to Classrooms, Inc.: www.companiestoclassrooms.org

 


The Minnesota Nonprofit Awards are a joint project of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and MAP for Nonprofits.

Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
2314 University Avenue West, Suite 20
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114
651-642-1904
info@mncn.org

MAP for Nonprofits
2314 University Avenue West, Suite 28
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114
651-647-1216