HOPE STRENGTHENS FOUNDATION

Launched in 2010, HSF is a 501(c)(3) public charity that works directly with individuals and families to offer them customized financial and personal support to help address the needs and challenges that are not covered by other available support networks. This can be something as simple as helping to cover the costs of physical therapy or transportation to the hospital for treatment. Most importantly, HSF is about providing support based on the self-expressed needs of the families that reach out to us. We accomplish this through a community of individuals and local businesses who both donate resources and offer constant encouragement to beneficiaries.

Hope Strengthens Foundation (HSF) has developed a plan for building core capacity. HSF's Board of Directors is actively engaging in a fundraising plan to secure the resources required to commence full-time operations.

Through the efforts of a 10-person volunteer Board of Directors and our family and neighbors, Hope Strengthens Foundation has established a successful platform for providing targeted financial support to individuals and families facing live-threatening illness or recovering from traumatic injuries.

Our highly-personalized process for receiving funding support and engaging with our beneficiaries appeals to individuals in a way institutionalized giving and formal programs may not. Just through launching our website and reaching out to our community, we have received inquiries for support from individuals across the United States, and have built long-term relationships with them as they return to normalcy in their lives.

In addition, our HSF team combines a range of skills that include personal and professional experience in the healthcare sector—including management of patient service programs, leadership of public service campaigns, fundraising and nonprofit development, and sales and marketing in the technology sector. We may be a small team, but like our individual donors, we believe that our combined talents and experience put us in a unique position to build a powerful organization for supporting families and individuals on the road to recovery from long-term illness and injury.

To date we have directly helped more than one hundred families, established scholarship programs with the University of New Hampshire and Northeastern University, and partnered with high-impact organizations, like the Dana Farber Cancer Institute's Pediatric Resource Center and Martin O'Neil Cancer Center to reach additional families in need. Collectively, these efforts have mobilized nearly $300,000 in targeted financial support to individuals and families facing a life-threatening illness, disability, or recovery from traumatic injury.

This includes helping people like Meg Hajjar, whose son Neil is battling against Moyamoya disease, which affects blood circulation to the brain and is fatal without complex neurosurgery. Meg and her family have kept hope even in the face of countless challenges, and a recent brain surgery is now starting to improve circulation in Neil's brain. While the surgeons are the real heroes here, HSF has worked directly with Meg and her family, providing financial support, but also constant contact and encouragement, which we think is the advantage our model of direct care and engagement offers.