After a holiday weekend of gratitude, we know that many of you are seeking gifts that give back. On #GivingTuesday, we want to highlight a few of our partner organizations with gifts to share and fundraising goals to reach. 

Christmas Cookies

A tin of Felix’s Famous Cookies make a perfect Christmas present for anybody who likes cookies – a good way to check a lot of people off your list! Even sweeter – a portion of the proceeds for all cookies bought this month benefit Fresh Start Caring for Kids, a non-profit that transforms the lives of disadvantaged infants, children, and teens suffering from physical deformities caused by birth defects, accidents, abuse, or disease through the gift of reconstructive surgery and related healthcare services. Watch the Felix’s Famous Cookies story here, and shop online for cookies here. 

Coffee with room for dreams

Curt’s Cafe (Small Forces story here) is a training cafe that empowers at-risk young men and women with practical workplace skills. And more so, it’s a cafe serving up delicious coffee, smoothies, and freshly baked treats. 

If you’re out shopping in the Chicago area, consider stopping in to Curt’s for sustenance to keep you going. The money you spend in the Cafe goes directly back to the programming that benefits the youth of the community. Curt’s Cafe has two locations: 2922 Central Street in Evanston, and Curt’s South at 1813 Dempster Street in Evanston.

Curt’s also has a #GivingTuesday campaign launching. Your donation will help sustain their training programs for at risk young men and women. You can donate here. 

Coming soon CrowdRise

Soon we will share with you the story of the Farmer Veteran Coalition, an organization that cultivates a new generation of farmers by mobilizing veterans to feed America. 

This #GivingTuesday, they are promoting a CrowdRise campaign, which you can find here. Their three-year goals with the money raised are 1) to create a national veteran-to-veteran peer network that provides or facilitates access to training, education, internships, jobs, mentors, referrals and resources for beginning veteran farmers 2) to increase the agricultural capacity of beginning veteran farmers, and 3) to increase the number of beginning veteran farmers entering into farming. 

Consider supporting Farmer Veteran Coalition towards their $10,000 goal on #GivingTuesday, and be on the lookout for the Small Forces story on December 7. 

More worthy organizations

We’ve highlighted a few organizations here, but there are so many that are worthy of your support. We strongly encourage you to visit our Stories page and watch the tales of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in their communities – you might find a new organization to love and support.

Happy Holidays from Small Forces!