Share Our Spare

Given the existing lack of leadership in this space, there is an extraordinary opportunity for Share Our Spare to emerge as the lead diaper bank and community resource for essential items for children ages newborn to five in the Chicago metro-area. And not to simply distribute items, but to galvanize our community of families, social service agencies, corporate partners, and other key stakeholders to raise the visibility of the issue of diaper need by advocating for policies and programs that will dramatically reduce that need.

In 2018, Share Our Spare donated over 200,000 diapers. This year we are on track to double that. Based on reporting from our agencies, we anticipate the need to actually be closer to more than 300,000 diapers PER MONTH to provide an adequate monthly supply of diapers to each child in our existing Early Head Start, Head Start, and home visiting programs. We would seek to gradually reach this number over a two-year period through the following initiatives:

• Increase our network of community-based donation sites to 100+;
• Establish partnerships with B2B and other local brands, including Abbott, Medline, and Walgreens, to significantly increase in-kind donations and secure vendor supply contracts that would allow us to purchase diapers at wholesale prices;
• Roll out a Share Our Spare truck pick-up and delivery service, enabling us to deliver diapers (in larger quantities) directly to our agency sites, reducing the period diapers are held in our warehouse;
• Initiate critical first steps and incur costs necessary to ultimately transition to a larger warehouse space, allowing us to easily accept and store large diaper drops.

Share Our Spare has a comprehensive 3-year strategic plan to expand the scope of our programs, amplify fundraising efforts, enhance communications, expand community engagement, and marketing. Our Mission-drive comprehensive strategic plan will enable Share Our Spare to emerge as the lead diaper bank and community resource for essential items for children ages newborn to five in the Chicago metro-area. And not to simply distribute items, but to galvanize our community of families, social service agencies, corporate partners, and other key stakeholders to raise the visibility of the issue of diaper need by advocating for policies and programs that will dramatically reduce that need.

Share Our Spare has a sustainable network comprised of 38 agency partners, serving all 77 Chicago neighborhoods, 35 corporate sponsors, and more than 10,000 community members to collect, organize, and distribute essential baby items to Chicago families living in poverty. Our distinguished and dedicated Board works in tandem with a small but fierce staff of highly qualified, Mission-driven individuals.

The addition of a new truck delivery program will enable us to exceed current operations and double our impact.

Share Our Spare has distributed:

1.125 millions diapers to Chicago families living in poverty
2.6 million essential baby items throughout Chicago's 77 neighborhoods

to serve 23,670 infants and children under the age of 5 who are living poverty.

Share Our Spare has 38 agency partners with an additional 20 agencies on our wait list. Expansion of programs, services, corporate and community partners will allow us to serve more children and families throughout the Chicago metro area.

Our next steps include implementing a truck delivery service to better serve our agency partners as well as plans to relocate our ShareHouse to a larger facility.

Strategic and tactical community engagement, communications, marketing, and fundraising plans will fuel the amplification of our services.