Members Alliance Community Impact Fund
Expanding positive local impact by facilitating employee, MembersAlliance member, and community giving to local nonprofits.
Details
MembersAlliance Credit Union exists to inspire financial wellness and have an empowering impact on our community.
The long-time credit union motto of people helping people, means banking services designed to maximize the positive impact on members, but it also means making a positive impact in helping build and sustain a stronger community.
MembersAlliance's strength is our community. Since January 2021, through partnerships, sponsorships, and educational programs, MembersAlliance has partnered with over 50 local organizations, and contributed over $50,000 and 475 hours to making a difference in our community. Along with their corporate efforts, their Employee Enhancement Committee (EEC) selects local nonprofit organizations to which employees can donate time, money, or supplies. 
Alone, MembersAlliance can do some good, but together, we can make a real difference. In establishing the Community Impact Fund, they hope to help facilitate these efforts and expand the positive impact within our community. In addition to facilitating employee giving, MembersAlliance members and community members can now also help further this cause, by donating funds to this Impact Fund.
Below, MembersAlliance has highlighted some of the local nonprofits the EEC will be raising funds for 2023 and when those fundraising efforts will take place. The online donation date or the check date will determine to which campaign it will be applied. Please consider joining in supporting these worthwhile organizations. Join them in their commitment to being a positive force within our community.
Would you like to support MembersAlliance Community Impact Fund?
Use the orange "Donate" button to make a secure online donation!
Prefer to mail or drop off a check? Our mailing and physical address is:
Community Foundation of Northern Illinois
946 N Second Street
Rockford, IL 61107
Checks must be made out to the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois. Please make sure the date of checks falls within the dates listed for the campaign you would like to support. Thank you!
2024 Scheduled Campaigns | |
January 1 - February 29 | K Cancer Softball | |
| There are 75 local families (Greater Rockford Area) battling Childhood Cancer. As of today, there are no Pediatric Oncology facilities in the State-line area. This means that local families who are battling Childhood Cancer have to travel out of town for treatment. This creates a host of financial and logistical problems that make a bad situation worse, just because they live in the state-line. When a state-line family receives the news that they are facing a battle with childhood cancer, K Cancer Softball wants to be there to help! What makes them different from the typical not for profit: Part two of their mission is unique. Four players from their original baseball team of 13-year-old boys expressed an interest in business. They were provided training in general business concepts and were involved in everything from the creation of K Cancer Baseball business inception documents to regular board meetings where asset allocations and business focus are determined. All too quickly, the boys of K Cancer Baseball turned into 17-year-old young men who were heading off to college! A decision was made to bring on a girls travel softball team 4 years younger than the guys so that the guys could mentor and hand the organization off to so that the work will continue. The girls have gone through their business training and are getting ready to take the reins of the organization. In a year or two, as the girls close in on college, a younger boy's baseball team will be brought on board and the process will be repeated. The Youth Board is not isolated to just players from our baseball and softball teams. We have community members who are interested in learning and applying business concepts and are committed to our cause. |
March 1 - March 31 | Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary | |
| Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary was founded and incorporated by a small group of residents from Rockford, IL, on April 30, 1978. Their primary concern was humane care and population control. There have been over 30,000 animals that have been aboard the ark. Each year over one thousand animals come to Noah’s Ark in need of a warm bed, good meal, and most importantly a forever home. The dedicated staff and volunteers work hard to ensure each animal receives the best care possible during his/her stay. They receive no government funding and rely on the support and kindness from our community, private donations, bequests, fund raising, events, grants, and volunteer help to complete their mission. Noah’s Ark does not euthanize animals to make space to house others. We are a no kill shelter and preserve life whenever possible |
April 1 - April 30 | LIVE R.E.A.L. | |
| Relational. Empathetic. Authentic. Loving These four qualities are the missing link to a world where people have support instead of shame. We believe that it is the key to building trauma resiliency and to decrease the amount of negative self-medicating that is leading to addiction and opioid overdoses. To live R.E.A.L. is to always keep building relationships with empathy, authenticity and love in the forefront of every decision. Live R.E.A.L. Foundation will advocate, educate and inform communities on the connections between trauma and substance use through support groups, community events and education programs and seminars. The mission of Live R.E.A.L. Foundation is building a network of community resources to increase trauma informed resiliency skills by teaching the dangers of mental illness and substance use stigmas, the vulnerability around cyber use, the truth about new millennial drugs, and training individuals on opioid overdose death prevention. The vision of Live R.E.A.L. is to see a significant decrease in death due to mental illness and drug use in Rockford, Illinois & Metro Communities by the end of 2026. To date they have trained over 270 people distributing over 700 doses of Narcan. They have talked with thousands of people about how opioid deaths do not discriminate. They have met hundreds of people that share a common sorrow of losing a loved one to this senseless epidemic. |
May 1 - May 31 | LIAM Foundation | |
| The Liam Foundation is the Stateline’s first and only LGBTQIA+ resource center. “The LIAM Foundation provides services for all persons within our LGBTQIA+ community by offering safe and welcoming facilities and by providing support, services, and resources that take special consideration to the needs of those around us.” While they have a focus on youth, they also support everyone within the LGBTQIA+ community. They have an adult support group of 18+, youth-led groups ages 13-19, and an elders’ brunch for ages 45+. The foundation offers diversity training to help organizations and businesses provide quality educational training on diversity and LGBTQIA+ issues in order to help companies become more inclusive. They also educate the community and provide mentoring for life skills for persons with special needs and/or at-risk behaviors and circumstances. The Liam Foundation creates a safe place for people who do not always feel safe and welcome at home. |
June 1 - July 21 | Jack Baumann Memorial Foundation | |
| Jack was killed in 2022 when he was hit by a car in a parking lot in the 3300 block of Prairie Avenue. The Beloit Police Department said Baumann was wearing cleats and walking in the parking lot when he slipped and fell, out of the line of sight of the driver. Police said the driver was not distracted nor speeding. Jack’s family created the Jack Baumann Memorial Foundation in his memory. The State of Illinois doesn’t fund all pre-k programs and so for students who really could benefit from that, sometimes it becomes financially out of reach. This fund will provide financial support for educational services for those children. The fund also supports other families healing from the loss of a child and first responders. |
July 22 - August 18 | Carpenter's Place | |
| Carpenter’s Place was established in June 2000 by Al and Cathy Barsema. It is a nonprofit homeless day center that helps people suffering from homelessness with everything from their basic needs including showering facilities, storing belongings, a mailing address, phone calls, and laundry services to support through educational groups, spiritual groups, and resources within our local community. They can also help people find jobs and housing. Their approach is one of compassion with accountability. |
August 19 - September 22 | Nikolas Ritschel Foundation | |
| The Nikolas Ritschel Foundation also known as Niks Wish is about bringing Joy to young adults (18-24), and their loved ones, fighting cancer. Nik was diagnosed with cancer just before his 18th birthday and was granted a wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This wish meant the world to him. It gave him hope and happiness in a time of struggle and pain. When Nik discovered that kids over 17 do not qualify, he wanted to help. The night before cancer took his life in 2012, he asked to help them have a wish too. The Nikolas Ritschel Foundation was born. We have seen wishes to celebrate the end of treatment, wishes to encourage patients to keep fighting during treatment, and even last wishes to bring families together to create precious moments of joy. A Nik's Wish carves out a joyful time to laugh, love, and be together - And to forget about cancer for a while. Let’s help them fill the wish gap! |
September 23 - December 15 | Marshmallow's Hope & The Pregnancy Care Center | |
| Marshmallow’s Hope is a nonprofit organization founded in 2018 by Laura Kane. During this time Laura states that words like mental illness, depression, and suicide were unfamiliar to her but became very real when her son, Zachary Ryan Birkholz, ended his own life at only 14 years old. Up until this point she had never really heard these topics talked about very often so she had to take a good look at went wrong. Marshmallow’s Hope’s main focus is the future leaders of America. Our Military, Veterans, First Responders and Youth. They offer a one-on-one mentorship program for kids 9-19 living with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, thoughts of suicide, self harm, as well as youth who are victims of abuse. We know that by creating positive relationships between our HERO mentors and ZOW participants, we are building resilience and positivity. Our efforts are to help break the stigma surrounding mental illness and help prevent Servicemen/Women, Veterans, First Responders and Youth suicides. We also offer suicide survivor support. |
| The Pregnancy Care Center of Rockford is a Christian ministry that provides pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, and STI Testing, plus mentoring and education for women and men about pregnancy, options, and parenting. They also provide mentoring for post-abortive healing—physical, emotional, and spiritual. No Judgement, No Shame, Just Help! Classes offered by The Pregnancy Care Center include Preparing for Childbirth, New Baby – Now What?, Breastfeeding, The ABC’s and 123’s of Infant and Toddler Nutrition, Your Child 0-12 Months, and Occupational Therapy. The center also offers Positive Choices. Positive Choices is a sexual risk avoidance program that uses a holistic approach to teach and empower students to live a life of sexual integrity and to make healthy choices based upon life-sustaining values. Sexual risk avoidance education addresses the risks of teen sexual activity using the same effective public health approach most often followed in addressing other youth risks such as tobacco, alcohol, and drug use. The goal of positive choices is to invite students to see life change as they turn away from risky behaviors and say “yes” to healthy relationships, emotional and sexual health, and their future goals. |
Would you like to support the Members Alliance Community Impact Fund? You can make a donation directly to this fund, to help grow its impact and ability to provide educational resources for students in our community — forever!
