HELD YOUR WHOLE LIFE INC

Held Your Whole Life is determined to acknowledge the precious lives of babies gone too soon. We aim to support parents by gifting free memorial jewelry that will be a small reminder that their children matter and they are so very loved. We hope to give these most vulnerable of parents something tangible to hold onto when they are feeling empty and to build a community of support so they know they are not alone on this journey. Specifically, HYWL is ready to serve families from the moment they receive the worst news via brochures provided to hospitals/birthing centers/Doctors Offices and memorial jewelry materials included in established memorial program memory boxes or the like. Free memorial requests may be made through our Shop 24/7/365 using the published memorial request code, so that whenever parents decide they are ready, so are we. Furthermore, we will cultivate an online community of support to carry families throughout the years and connect them with others who have experienced similar life paths.

1. Maintain an inventory of materials to build and distribute free memorial necklaces and keychains in a timely manner once they are requested by the parents. 2. Coordinate volunteer power to build and ship pieces worldwide.
3. Continue to partner with hospitals/birthing centers/prenatal programs to bring our mission and materials directly to families in their time of need. 4. Track all efforts (money in vs. money out, sales/product trends, and fundraising activities) on a monthly basis to accumulate accurate, timely information which will be used to make necessary adjustments quickly and precisely.

Held Your Whole Life is fortunate to have a dedicated Board of Directors who work to seek out good leadership and sustainable funding sources. Since we take no administrative fees or pay, 100% of our shop proceeds and donations go right into filling free memorial requests for families around the world. We are able to recruit extra volunteer help as needed to fill large requests; we see mission support from loss families and non-loss families alike. The Director shops sales and develops a good working relationship with suppliers so that we are able to stretch our dollars further in acquiring the necessary supplies to build our pieces. When you work hard to reduce base costs, build pieces in a timely fashion, and ship them with accuracy and love, the feedback received is nearly 100% positive, making the work both purposeful and productive. Maintaining a positive sense of community and support will help to prevent burnout amongst the busiest volunteers in leadership. Held Your Whole Life belongs to the loss community and has already witnessed a successful transition from the founding family to another loss family to carry on the work. Our capabilities lie in our collective experiences, both in the nonprofit sector as well as the business community and babyloss community. All efforts (money-in vs. money-out, new product launches, and fundraising activities) are tracked on a monthly basis so we can view our work with open eyes and make precise adjustments as necessary to assure our work is both efficacious and sustainable.

In 2018 we expanded our free memorial request period from the first 24 hours of each month, to 24/7/365 availability! During the transition to taking full-time memorial requests, I wrote the Board of Directors explaining, "By [keeping memorial requests open all month long], we have been able to serve families right when they need us most. I see this reflected in a very concrete way each month as I build these special pieces for families: instead of having a rush of orders on the 1st of the month, I get a few each day throughout the month. There has been a shift from seeing the majority of requests asking for the previous months birthstone, to families asking for the current months birthstone. Since they dont have to wait until the 1st of the next month to request a memorial piece, families are able to seek our assistance within hours or days of their loss. This means that we are able to give them something, anything, to hold onto during their most difficult time. The work we do is small, both in size and price, but the meaning it has for these families in the midst of their despair is great. The memorial pieces that we all work so hard to provide may be the only physical reminder they have of a life loved and lost." In 2020, despite slower shipping times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we remained open for free memorial requests every single day; filling over 400 parent requests at an average of 35 families per month. We shipped our heartfelt pieces all over the world in order to bring a small measure of comfort to families by acknowledging the lives of their precious children gone too soon. We know we can't stop the losses from happening, but we will work tirelessly to continue our mission. As more families come to live on this side of the veil, we will remain steadfast in our support of them. Providing free memorial jewelry, giving them something to hold onto, and a community in which to safely land.