Little Giraffe Foundation Names 2020 NICU Support Grant Recipients


Little Giraffe Foundation

“The mission of The Little Giraffe Foundation has always been to fund neonatal research and support the patients and parents of the NICU. We see this mission in every one of these institutions and the work they are doing for their NICU communities.”

Little Giraffe Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to funding neonatal research and supporting families and premature babies in the NICU, announced today the 17 recipients of the foundation’s 2020 NICU Support Grants.

“This year has been especially difficult for the families we serve, caring for their loved ones in the NICU on top of a global pandemic. That’s why the Little Giraffe Foundation board of directors is pleased to fund 17 NICU support grants to help parents and families,” said Amanda Santoro, co-founder and president of the Little Giraffe Foundation. “Every single one of these grant recipients put a lot of thought and care into how they are going to help support their respective NICU, and we look forward to seeing these programs and projects come to fruition.”

This year’s Little Giraffe Foundation’s NICU Support Grant recipients are as follows:


  • Abington Health Foundation, Abington, Pennsylvania — to receive $1,000 to help families acquire the items they need to have a safe transition from the NICU to home.
  • Akron Children’s Hospital, Akron, Ohio — to receive two grants of $1,000. One to fund parking, travel passes, food cards. And one to purchase memory making items for families who have experienced the loss of a baby while in the NICU.
  • Catawba Medical Foundation, Hickory, North Carolina — to receive $1,000 toward one large neoBLUE blanket LED Phototherapy System.
  • Norton Children’s Hospital Foundation, Louisville, Kentucky — to receive $1,000 for gas gift cards for parents traveling over 50 miles one way to visit their baby in the NICU.
  • Edward Hospital, Naperville, Illinois — to receive two $1,000 grants. The first for the ‘Beads of Courage Program,’ which provides NICU patients and families with a strand of beads to help tell their story of courage during their NICU stay. The second to give families voice recorders, used during their NICU stay.
  • AMITA Health Saint Joseph Hospital, Chicago, Illinois — to receive $1,000 for HALO SleepSacks and Joey Bands for NICU admissions of less than 32 weeks gestation.
  • Lourdes Foundation, Inc., Lafayette, Louisiana — to receive $1,000 for Lullaby Sound Spas and portable Sound Machines for families to take home.
  • Franciscan Health Foundation, Indianapolis, Indiana — to receive $1,000 for the purchase of gas cards for families visiting their babies in the NICU.
  • Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso, Texas — to receive $1,000 for meal cards for breastfeeding mothers.
  • Nationwide Children’s Hospital Foundation, Columbus, Ohio — to receive $1,000 for Compact Swings for babies at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital.
  • North Colorado Medical Center, Greeley, Colorado — to receive $999 to provide graduation celebrations for NICU families.
  • Franciscan Health Foundation, Crown Point, Indiana — to receive $1,000 for insulated cooler bags for breastfeeding NICU mothers.
  • Northeast Georgia Medical Center, Gainesville, Georgia — to receive $1,000 for gas cards, meal tickets, grocery gift cards and hygiene items for NICU families.
  • Franciscan Health Foundation, Olympia Fields, Illinois — to receive $960 toward Pack ‘n Plays for NICU/SCN infants.
  • The Tiny Miracles Foundation, Darien, Connecticut — to receive $1,000 for the stocking of food in family rooms and providing in-hospital meals for parents during the holiday season.

“The mission of The Little Giraffe Foundation has always been to fund neonatal research and support the patients and parents of the NICU. We see this mission in every one of these institutions and the work they are doing for their NICU communities,” said Mike Santoro, co-founder of the Little Giraffe Foundation. “We are proud to offer these 17 support grants so that they can continue funding valuable programs that help children and families in need. The entire Little Giraffe Foundation community would like to thank our monetary donors and volunteers that make this funding possible. With the current climate being stressful for many families, we look forward to providing even greater support to programs like these in 2021 and beyond.”

To learn more about the Little Giraffe Foundation and its efforts to aid in NICU patient and family support, as well as neonatal medical research, please visit: http://www.littlegiraffefoundation.org/ and follow the organization’s news on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/LittleGiraffeFoundation.

About the Little Giraffe Foundation:

The Little Giraffe Foundation is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Chicago, dedicated to supporting parents and patients of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Since 2011, the foundation has delivered more than 19,000 holiday gift bags and funded over $320,000 in neonatal medical research and NICU support grants.

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