88. ‘Birthday Box Foundation’ and Making it Possible for Every Child to Celebrate Their Birthday (with Founder and Executive Director, Emily Buss)

While navigating her husband’s sudden job loss, Emily Buss wanted to still be able to provide a fun birthday for her daughters…but after looking around for community resources didn’t know how she could do it. A friend ended up anonymously sharing a list with the community, and packages started arriving on Emily’s doorstep…even down to the cute cat napkins her daughter had requested. From there Emily realized there was a real need in the community to provide birthday supplies to other families walking through difficult times, and that was the beginning of her nonprofit, The Birthday Box Foundation.

Emily shares some sweet stories of those who have served the foundation and those who have been recipients of their birthday boxes. She also has a lot of great insights and advice for anyone starting their own nonprofit.

The Birthday Box Foundation truly believes that birthdays are more than just cake and balloons, but a cornerstone of childhood memories. And they are committed to helping families be able to make those memories together, even in the toughest of times.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Birthday Box Foundation Website

Birthday Box Foundation Instagram

Birthday Box Foundation Facebook

Follow the podcast on social media:

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Do Something More Facebook

Do Something More YouTube

Transcript

Melissa: Today's episode is featuring the Birthday Box Foundation, a nonprofit that provides birthdays in a box to children and families in need. And I really thought it was so inspiring to hear this is a newer nonprofit and I loved hearing how the community has really rallied behind them and the support that they've gotten in just the first year that they've been around.

And I think also that my guest, Emily Buss, has a lot of great advice to share for anyone that is in the trenches of starting a new nonprofit and learning how to navigate those things.

So here we go, the Birthday Box Foundation.

Welcome to the Do Something More podcast. The show all about service where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more. If you're passionate about nonprofits or looking for simple ways to volunteer and give back to the causes that matter to you, this is the podcast for you.

I'm your host, Melissa Draper. Stick around and I'll show you all the many ways anyone can truly make a difference in our world today.

Welcome to another episode of the podcast. And today we are featuring a pretty fun nonprofit, I think, for what they do. It's called the Birthday Box foundation, and they provide birthdays in a box to children and families in need or navigating difficult, difficult times.

And I am looking forward to learning more from my guest this week, Emily Buss. She is the founder and executive director of Birthday Box Foundation. So, Emily, welcome to the podcast.

Emily: Thank you. We're excited to be here.

Melissa: Why don't we just start off with you doing a little introduction of yourself and then we'll go into how you started your foundation, which I know kind of has a personal story attached to it.

Emily: Yeah. So I am a mom of three. I have been a stay at home mom for about 11 years and I've got a degree in marriage and family therapy, and I've got a lot of experience working with local nonprofits.

And we've had a lot of fun getting the community involved and having something that our kids can always work on to give back to kids locally.

Melissa: Yeah, that's great. Well, why don't we go into how you originally started this foundation and the story behind that.

Emily: So my husband was laid off right after we moved into our dream home.

And it was a big nightmare waiting for unemployment to come through. And we had two little girls who had been anxiously waiting epic birthday parties,

and we had nothing. Still waiting for unemployment to come through.

And a neighbor anonymously shared a wish list that I had put together with some gifts and decorations and theme supplies for them. And she shared it anonymously. And then within a week, everything showed up from Amazon, just a steady stream and even down to the cat napkins and paper plates.

And it was the best birthday either of them have ever had to this day.

Melissa: And how I'm sure as a mom, the feelings that you experienced with that as well.

Emily: Yeah, it was, it was just really incredible to witness how there were so many other people struggling with layoffs and unemployment at the same time.

Lots of little notes on the Amazon gift receipts, but people had little encouraging messages to us adults knowing how hard it is just trying to get by. And as someone who has a holiday birthday, birthdays have always been extra special and important to me.

So it was really important that we kept things as normal as possible and made it a big deal for them, even though it was a really hard time for us still.

Melissa: So from there, when did the inspiration strike that you were like, hey, this is something that we could repeat and do for other people.

Emily: So when my husband was first laid off, I was researching to see if there was anything like toys for tots or sub for Santa, but just for birthdays.

And I discovered there in some other really large cities in like Texas and California, New York, there were organizations that focused on homeless youth birthdays,

but that was it. I couldn't find anything anywhere remotely near Utah or for families who are just experiencing a sudden short term income loss. So I just decided,

well, this is something I can do. I'll figure it out.

Melissa: Yeah, that's great. So where did you go from there? You've been around for about a year now, right?

Emily: Yeah, we've been kind of working behind the scenes, just obsessively researching how to do everything nonprofit wise for a year before officially getting our 501C3 status. But I took some nonprofit consulting classes, a bunch of workshops, just kind of dove into the research aspect of it and had a big plan put together before I presented it to other people to make sure I knew what I was talking about before I tried to recruit a board.

Melissa: Right.

Emily: But yeah, it's been, it's been a fun adventure.

Melissa: I love that. From there, I would love to just have you take us through the logistics. What exactly do you put in a birthday in a box? How do you go about gathering donations?

Do you take in kind donations as well as the others you receive? Just kind of walk us through that process.

Emily: Yeah. So we have three components to the birthday box. There's the birthday cake in a bag, and that's just everything that a food insecure family needs to Bake and decorate a birthday cake at home.

And that includes like a disposable cake pan, frosting, sprinkles,

cake mix. And then we also have birthday candles, of course. And then the second component is the party supply pack, and that includes a birthday banner, streamers, balloons. Sometimes we'll have tablecloths and utensils that match party plates and napkins.

We have that all packaged together.

And then we have gifts. So every child receives at least something they want, something they need, and something to read, which is always at least two books. And then we have recently been able to incorporate stem steam gifts in every box.

And that's an emphasis that we hope to continue providing as long as funding allows.

Melissa: And I think that I just love that your birthday box is so complete. So you came to the Hundred Women who Care meeting.

I gotta hear a little bit about your foundation then. And that was something that really stuck with me, was originally I was thinking, oh, there must be some gifts or, yeah, maybe this or that or the other.

But the fact that you had everything for a cake and everything for some fun decorations and everything for presence, that it truly is like a full circle thing that you're offering this family.

Emily: Yeah. And growing up, my mom, she was always like the queen of savings and would always have all these thoughtfully put together odds and ends to make perfect care packages for, like, newlyweds or people who are moving into their first house or going to college.

And it was just like everything you could possibly need that you wouldn't even realize you needed for a complete experience, getting settled in. So that was where the inspiration came from.

Melissa: Yeah, I love that. As someone who's kind of simple sometimes and not quite that exciting,

I admire that. And I love seeing the easy way that you provide that for those families.

And I think it kind of goes in with this quote that I saw on your website that I. I really love to emphasize the importance of what you do. It said, more than just frosting and balloons.

Birthdays are cornerstones of childhood memories. So you're not, you're not just gifting stuff here. You are gifting memories and experiences and things that really are an essential part for kids.

Emily: Yeah. Whether it's a good birthday or a bad birthday, kids remember it when they're adults. Those are just memories that are always with you, no matter what your situation was.

Melissa: Birthdays stick with you, and you're providing and helping to make those birthdays good and memorable experiences.

So we love to always hear stories here on the podcast. Do you have any that you could Share with us about some of the families you've helped or even personal experiences you've had as you've done this work with your nonprofit.

Emily: Yeah. So one of our kind of big breakout to the public stories, I guess, is the Live youe Dream Foundation. They had a mother who had just left a domestic violence situation, and it was the day before her daughter's birthday,

and they were in a different county with nothing, and they had no resources to celebrate. Nowhere safe to celebrate.

And we typically, we need a few weeks notice for an application so that we can gather everything and arrange transportation.

But I just thought this is a horrible time in this family's life and birthdays don't wait,

so let's try to make something positive while we can.

And this was when we. We hadn't even officially started taking donations yet. So I just posted on our city Facebook page, said, we have an emergency application come in.

This child needs some clothes and a few gifts and her birthday's tomorrow. And the post went live, like at dinner time.

And after dinner, my husband was like, have you seen this post is blowing up.

And we had so many people who just wanted to help however they could. And we were able to get a professionally baked and decorated, beautiful cake, all the decorations. We set up a little surprise party at my house with my two daughters who were close in age to her,

her daughter's age, and just throw a sweet little surprise 8th birthday party for this girl. And it was. She came over 12 hours after I asked the community if anyone had anything they wanted to contribute so we could do just something.

Melissa: Wow. Such a great response and shows that a lot of people recognize the importance of birthdays and also want to help in those situations as well.

Emily: Yeah, it was. It was really sweet just being able to provide this mother and daughter with a positive experience and just somewhere safe that they could celebrate and try to provide a sense of normalcy in such a difficult time.

Melissa: So you mentioned using another nonprofit in that experience to help you find a child that you wanted to help. How do you normally find the families and children? Is it just through requests or do you work with other organizations often?

Emily: So we are working on building a lot of community partnerships and helping to expand to social service agencies throughout the county.

But we initially we kind of had to launch before we were ready to launch because so many people had heard about us and were just kind of referring people by word of mouth because there was such a need and no other organization to help.

So we partner with Tabitha's Way and the Cedar Valley area School district, part of Alpine.

And so all of the community resource liaisons at the schools, they are all aware of us and they will refer families to us. We have an application on our website and we're on Just Serve.

People find us online all the time. We have people from out of state find us somehow.

Melissa: Yeah. That's how I first learned about you was on Just Serve, but you mostly service there in where you are based in West Utah county, kind of in your local area.

Is that right?

Emily: Right. We, when we first started, we just said Eagle Mountain only because I'm doing all the deliveries personally with my family's only vehicle. So if I need to make a delivery,

no one can have any extracurriculars or work or anything going on. So we started out just Eagle Mountain, which most people aren't aware is booming.

Just between Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs. It's almost like 150,000 people. So we expanded to include Saratoga Springs, Cedar Fort and Fairfield in December. And then in January, we launched a partnership with the Ronald McDonald House family room in Lehigh.

So now families who are at the Lehigh Primary Children's Hospital are able to celebrate birthdays with their family. So not just the child who is the patient,

but a sibling, a parent, anyone who's there so that they can celebrate together as a family.

Melissa: Yeah. It really sounds like you have gone in so many different situations that families are experiencing. Originally started with that idea of your husband having a job loss, but now you're going into all these different areas and ways that families, for whatever reason, might be going through a hard time.

Emily: Yeah, it's been a really wonderful experience just being able to help people throughout various challenges because there is nothing else that can really do what we do right now.

Melissa: So you mentioned your family there. Do you involve your kids a lot with what you do with either making boxes or delivering them or.

Emily: Oh, yes.

Melissa: How does that look for your family?

Emily: So my basement is basically a 2,000 square foot warehouse for the birthday box.

So they. Yeah, My. My daughters really love helping with everything.

They want to help with every delivery, help putting everything together, taking inventory, organizing supplies.

But because of like the confidentiality of personal information.

Melissa: Right.

Emily: Our board of directors personally delivers every box. So we, we manage all of the delivery, everything from start to finish.

Melissa: And that makes sense. Wanting to respect that confidentiality and not expanding it more.

Emily: Yeah, just for a lot of people, they don't ask for help because it's so uncomfortable. So we try to keep it as confidential and private as possible so that it's easier for people to ask for help because it's for the kids and that's all that matters.

Melissa: Yeah, that's a great, great perspective. Well, how can people get involved or help with your foundation? What are some of the ways that they can get involved and help you?

Emily: We have a lot of people who find our service projects on Just Serve. We are always accepting in kind donations. They do have to be new and unopened. So people will host toy drives.

They'll do a family or neighborhood workplace service project, collecting supplies to assemble their own birthday boxes.

Or we had a family reunion who assembled something like 50 party supply packs. Another family reunion decided to assemble the birthday cake kits. And a lot of people also who've lost a child, they will do some type of a service project with their friends and family, collecting supplies to give back to another child who shares a birthday with the child that was lost.

So we have a lot of. A lot of really beautiful kind of memorial giving opportunities. And that was something I'd never thought of.

Melissa: Yeah. Did that just start organically on its own or how to do?

Emily: Yeah. Someone saw our Just Serve listing for our 911 day of service and asked how they could implement it to host their own service project. For a daughter that was lost recently.

I think it was her first birthday that was coming up. And they organized a big supply drive and just put together a lot of kits and then had a lot of just toys that they donated as well.

And we've had at least a dozen people. I don't have that listed as a service project, but that's something that really, really connects and is really meaningful to a lot of people.

Melissa: That's really beautiful. And that idea of wanting. Wanting to donate in memory of their child.

Well, we also have a lot of people that are passionate about nonprofits or part of nonprofits. And something I noticed is even though you've. You're still relatively young, you've been able to have a lot of corporate sponsors and help that way.

How did you go about doing that and how has that been a benefit for your nonprofit?

Emily: I don't know how, but a lot of our.

A lot of people have just found us and wanted to donate and just reached out. Our. All of our biggest donations from corporate companies. They have all been unsolicited because they heard about us from someone on city council or a friend of a friend told them and they happened to be a successful business owner and wanted to give back.

But I'm also like an obsessive researcher,

so I'm really good at doing my due Diligence to prepare for future grants. And I've just been able to find a lot of smaller opportunities that are open to newer organizations while I'm preparing for grant readiness for our two or three year anniversary.

Melissa: Yeah, that's research. And finding those even small grants can really make a huge difference.

Emily: Networking has been really helpful as well.

Melissa: Most definitely. Well, Emily, it's obvious you have invested so much of your time and your life. You've got your basement that I see you speaking to me from, that you put over to your foundation and you mentioned driving your own family car.

And all this time, are there ever times that you have felt overwhelmed or disgusted, discouraged by this process, or have you just been kind of encouraged and just put one foot in front of the other?

What are, what are some of those real and raw feelings that maybe you felt at times as you've been going through this process of starting and keeping your nonprofit going?

Emily: In the beginning, it was definitely discouraging because people didn't know who we were, so no one wanted to help us at all. But then once we were able to just kind of get in front of just a small group of people and they saw that we were legitimate and like all of a sudden people were like,

okay, we can trust them. Let's give them some toys. So, I mean, we are always receiving so many in kind donations. The challenges, I guess are other than transportation are funding because we have all of the supplies that we need, except for something that the child needs, because that's always a very specific need based on the child's age.

So we don't have those things readily available. So we do.

I mean, we need help fundraising on just donations so that we can cover that cost for every application and then just the transportation related expenses because it's becoming increasingly difficult to do everything with our family vehicle.

So that's our biggest challenge. But I'm. I'm hopeful we'll eventually be able to get ourselves a used delivery van.

Melissa: Right. I was going to say you mentioned that at the A Hundred Women who Care meeting that your next big goal is to hopefully have a dedicated van or transportation source for the foundation.

Emily: Yeah, we need that so that we can get into all of the county resources. Because in Eagle Mountain, we're kind of out here far away from all of the county resources and all of the social service organizations that we're wanting to partner with to really reach the whole county.

Those are all in Provo Orem area.

And if you've ever been to Eagle Mountain, you know, it can be Quite the challenge getting in and out with the traffic.

Melissa: Yes. I've done that drive before, so.

Emily: And our volume is just increased like crazy as well. So our little. Our little SUV can't hold that much anymore.

Melissa: Yeah, you've really. You've really found a true need, and the community's responding to that need.

Emily: Yeah, it's been really. It's been really incredible to witness all of the community support.

Melissa: Well, we always love to end every episode with just some general advice, since I do have listeners from all over.

And so I would love to hear any advice you want to give either for what you do so for how people can support children and families in need, or support doing something like this in their community, or even any advice you want to give for someone that has found a unique idea,

like you did for starting a nonprofit, and what you would tell them to encourage them.

Emily: I would say if you are wanting to get involved in a nonprofit and you don't know where to start or what to do, that'll set you apart.

Just look at your city or neighborhood Facebook pages and what are people asking for help for regularly? Because when I went to post this when I needed help, all of a sudden I became aware of this is happening, like, every month.

I didn't realize that before I was the one who needed help, but people were always asking for help.

So just watch the Facebook pages to see what your community needs.

And then I did a needs assessment, and it was just crazy how many people were all in similar situations or had been in the same situation at one point and had nowhere to turn for help.

Melissa: That is such great, good advice that I don't think we've heard here on the podcast. And as you said that, I thought of my own community page, where, yes, most definitely I have seen those requests and things that come through and how the community responds.

So I love that advice.

Emily: So, yeah, there's. There's always people who are looking for Christmas help, and people always want to help with Christmas, and Christmas ends, but birthdays are every day of the year, and there are always people who will help.

They just have to know that you exist.

Melissa: And it seems like that was your number one hurdle you had to jump over, was kind of making yourself legitimate and letting people know about you. So how did you. What advice do you have for that?

How do you. How do you make yourself legitimate when you're a new nonprofit?

Emily: So we. We started everything the right way from the beginning. We had all of our. We had our 501C3 before we even, like, officially Launched. I know some organizations, they'll operate as a nonprofit.

That's not a 501C3, but our board members are very compliance oriented and wanted to just do things a hundred percent the right way from the beginning.

So we were able to just start with all of that legitimacy behind us. I guess we had to. I had to learn a lot of tech and SEO and all sorts of stuff that I had no idea what to do with.

But partnering with the Chamber of Commerce really also helped give us a sense of legitimacy. And also,

I think in Eagle Mountain, we're really lucky that we have such a good Chamber of Commerce and they have so many community events and they are very focused on giving back to the community and helping nonprofits.

Just working with other organizations that have clients that might need your help. Just having community partners that are already known and trusted really helps as well.

Melissa: Yeah, that's all great advice, partnering with those organizations. And yes, in our world today, everyone's going to go find your website or your social media page to. To see how legit you are too.

So those, those are good things to learn.

Emily: Yeah, there are. And there are a lot of free resources out there if you just look for them. I haven't had to pay for a single training or certificate that I've done, and I've learned so much.

Melissa: Yep.

Emily: So there are plenty of resources that are available.

Melissa: Most definitely. Well, Emily, this has been a great conversation. Was there anything final you wanted to add or you can, of course, share where people can find you as well?

Emily: Yeah. We're on Facebook and Instagram @BIRTHDAYBOXFOUNDATION and our website, BIRTHDAYBOXFOUNDATION.ORG we are also looking for board members and committee members if people are interested. We're at a position where we need to really expand leadership as well.

We are always open to any type of community engagement opportunities as well.

Melissa: Okay, well, I will leave links to all of those in the show notes so people can find you. And I just want to say thank you again for being willing to come on the podcast.

Emily: Yes, thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Melissa: That was my interview with Emily Buss, the founder and executive director of the Birthday Box Foundation.

And as I did that interview, I just kept thinking, wow, it is so obvious that she has put her whole heart and soul into this nonprofit. They have their basement there that they use as a warehouse and kind of a central area for their foundation.

She does deliveries herself with her family's only vehicle. And she's just thrown herself into learning and growing and doing everything she can to help her nonprofit continue to grow. And I'm just, I'm so impressed to learn about the impact that they've already had and the good things that they've been able to do in the year that they've been a non profit.

So if you want to go and learn more, I have links to their website and their social media in the show notes. You can learn more or even donate. As she said, their next goal is to get a dedicated van for the foundation.

They can do deliveries in which I think is a very worthy goal. So that would be a great thing to donate to.

And I want to give the friendly reminder if you enjoyed this episode or another episode of the podcast, please please share it with a friend or anyone that you think would benefit from this inspirational content.

And I would always appreciate a good five star rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And you can always follow the podcast on social media and the links to those are in the show notes as well.

And I hope this week that you can find a way to do something more to help lift, inspire or make a difference.