$18,812 raised by 54 donors
75% complete
$25,000 Goal
Providing support to families and medical teams in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Colorado and beyond. Please consider making a donation to sustain our programs supporting NICU families and the medical professionals who care for them.
Love for Lily services work to fill the need for social-emotional support for parents of NICU babies. While infants receive world-class medical care, there is often nobody there for the parents.
Navigating the NICU comes with immense stress: parents have to leave their baby behind in the hospital and sometimes wait weeks just to hold their fragile infant, all while having to make life or death decisions.
$5 provides a coffee card for parents who stayed up late worrying about their child
$15 provides 1 Essentials Bag with items to help ease the transition for a family admitted to the NICU
$150 funds one facilitated parent group session to support them through the challenges of their NICU journey
Love For Lily serves families with babies hospitalized in or discharged from a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Our mission is to empower, support, and connect NICU families, giving them the assistance they need to ease their NICU journey and to thrive while in-unit and at home. We work closely with and support NICU medical teams by regularly collaborating with them and by offering training and coaching to help improve communication, build resilience, and reduce burnout.
Love For Lily was founded in memory of Lily Cahoon, a beautiful baby girl born at 24 weeks gestation. Lily spent three and a half months in the NICU, and then her parents Sahra and Ted brought her home on hospice. During that time, Sahra was left wondering why there was so little support for the families of these tiny babies. Love for Lily began on Mother's Day 2012 to bring community and resources to families walking a similar path.
2017: We launched "Lasting Love" a post-NICU program designed especially for NICU Moms and their babies for one year after discharge that serves mothers from all Denver Metro Area hospitals.
2018: We launched Love, Camden & Friends, our bereavement support program providing emotional support for families grieving the loss of their child. Offering folders of hope and a weighted stuffy to bring a little comfort to empty arms.
2020: In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we launched virtual support services, expanding our reach across the nation and allowing quarantined families to access support.
2021: We expanded access to our grant program by launching Ryder's Love in partnership with Ryder's Fund of Colorado. Ryder's Love offers a hand-up to families served outside of Colorado who spend four or more weeks in the NICU.
2022: We developed and hosted a Grief & Loss Training, serving 69 medical professionals.
2023: We welcomed Saint Joseph Hospital - Denver into our NICU family.
2024: We added a new virtual support group for NICU dads in collaboration. We welcomed Poudre Valley Hospital into our NICU family. We also launched The Love for Lily Center for Coaching & Education, serving 93 medical professionals as well as beta-testing our coach training curriculum.
2025: We launched our NICU Awareness Month, Purple for a purpose. Our first cohort of CCE NICU parent coaches began training. We began a partnership with Highland Ranch Hospital.
Organization name
Love for Lily
2012
Tax id (EIN)
45-4285961
Category
Human Services, Health Care, Mental Health & Crisis Intervention
Organization Size
Medium Organization
Address
PO Box 18957Mailing
P.O. Box 18957Boulder County, CO, US