Little Giraffe Foundation Impact

Since 2011 we’ve had a big impact in three areas: Hospital Holiday Gift Deliveries, NICU Support Grants, and Neonatal Research Funding.

Thanks to the generous support of our donors, the Little Giraffe Foundation continues to brighten the lives of thousands of preterm babies in multiple ways. Since our founding, we have delivered over 29,000 gift bags to an array of neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), awarded NICU support grants to dozens of hospitals across the country, and funded over $300,000 in neonatal medical research.

The kindness and generosity of our supporters across the country has helped sustain support for hospitals and health professionals, especially during these last few challenging years. While they navigated unique and unprecedented challenges to provide life-saving care to the most vulnerable of patients, the Little Giraffe Foundation continued to offer support. As we continue to support these tiny preemie patients, here is a clearer picture of how your donations improve the lives of so many of NICU families.

Hospital Holiday Gift Deliveries

The Little Giraffe Foundation has partnered with 21 Chicago-area hospitals (and one in Colorado) to provide gift bags that bring hope and help NICU families celebrate the holidays throughout the year. Each gift bag contains a hard plastic toy that is easy to sterilize and helps the baby develop through play. Every gift bag also contains a book that encourages NICU parents to read to their babies, who often cannot be held and benefit from hearing their parents’ caring voices. Those books include favorites like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Corduroy, and Goodnight Moon.

You can help choose the toys and books we provide to NICU families by donating through the Little Giraffe Foundation Amazon Wishlist.

See Our Holiday Hospital Deliveries >

NICU Support Grants

The Little Giraffe Foundation funds NICU Support grants to hospitals across the country to extend our work into hospitals we cannot regularly reach. Some examples of recent grants include:

  • The “Very Merry NICU Christmas” Project by Carter G. Cares, Inc., which hosts a Christmas Eve luncheon and provides Christmas baskets for NICU families at the MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center in Baltimore.

  • The “Precious Preemies” program at Abington Hospital in southeast Pennsylvania, which provides breast pumps and car seats for NICU families in need.

  • The “NICU Sibling Support Program” at the Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns in San Diego, which provides books to older siblings of NICU babies that help them understand and cope with the baby’s hospitalization.

We are thrilled to support these programs, and other deserving initiatives, because they share our mission and serve NICU families that we otherwise could not reach.

See Our NICU Support Grant History >

Neonatal Research Funding

In addition to funding holiday gift bags and NICU support grants, donations finance medical research into promising treatments for many of the serious conditions that threaten the health of babies born prematurely.

Over the last several years, that research has resulted in published articles on topics including bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a common lung disease affecting premature babies; necrotizing enterocolitis, a serious gastrointestinal issue that affects preterm infants; and investigation into treatments that may prevent one of the leading causes of blindness among premature babies.

See Our Neonatal Research Funding History >

See the Journal Publications Featuring Little Giraffe Foundation Funded Research >