Donor Nexus Sponsors Sip & Shop for Hope with the Hopeful Mama Foundation

Our partnership with the Hopeful Mama Foundation

Hopeful Mama Foundation held its fourth annual Sip & Shop for Hope in Cedar Rapids last month, and Donor Nexus was back as the presenting sponsor. The event is a morning of coffee and local shopping that doubles as the foundation's yearly fundraiser, and this year it raised $6,000 for the grant program that helps women with an infertility diagnosis pay for treatment.

What is the Hopeful Mama Foundation?

Emily Patel founded Hopeful Mama Foundation after she was diagnosed with premature ovarian failure at 25, and she has shared her story on our blog about what that diagnosis did to her expectations of motherhood and how she built her family anyway. The foundation she runs now offers grants, education, and support groups for women in the same position. The Hopeful Mama Grant covers medication, IUI, IVF, and donor conception.

We're honored to be a part of this community 

The organizations we support are almost always founded by women who have experienced infertility themselves and found hope through donor eggs, and who then built something so the next person would have more support.

The amount of vulnerability that takes is not lost on us, and we are deeply moved by their stories and advocacy.

Finding financial help for fertility treatment

If you are somewhere in the middle of this yourself, the Hopeful Mama Grant is one of several grants that can help with the cost of treatment. We also keep a running list of fertility grants on our IVF grants page, where current and upcoming grant cycles and application deadlines are all in one place.

You aren't in this alone

Today, there are many resources for intended parents, including grants, support groups, online communities, and counselors, but many people don't find them until they are well into their journey. We want to help change that by getting these resources in front of parents sooner, which is why we're so grateful to Emily and the Hopeful Mama Foundation team for having us back again this year.  

What to read next

They told me I'd never have children of my ownHopeful Mama founder Emily Patel on a premature ovarian failure diagnosis at 25, and the family she built after it.Read more →Find your tribe: donor egg support groupsWhere to find other women using donor eggs, online and in person, most of them free to join.Read more →What happens after IVF failsGrief, next steps, and what donor eggs look like after cycles with your own eggs.Read more →