CaringBridge Kicks-Off 20th Anniversary with $50,000 Challenge Grant from the Schulze Family Foundation

Eagan, Minn., (June 7, 2017) — To celebrate the 20th anniversary of CaringBridge, the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation has issued a challenge to CaringBridge supporters — raise $50,000 and the Foundation will match it.

This special opportunity for CaringBridge supporters from June 7 through June 8, honors the nonprofit’s 20th anniversary on June 7. Before Facebook and Google, CaringBridge Founder Sona Mehring created the first CaringBridge website for her good friends JoAnn and Darrin, and their premature daughter. Baby Brighid passed away after only nine days, but her legacy lives on twenty years later.

The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, started by Best Buy Founder Richard Schulze, has issued this challenge to the CaringBridge community. If $50,000 is raised from new donors, or existing donors who give a larger than normal donation, June 7 through the 8, the Foundation will generously match those donations with a $50,000 gift.

“Our donors are crucial to allowing CaringBridge the ability to offer a safe platform for families facing challenging health journeys, free of advertisements, on a protected social network,” CEO Liwanag Ojala said.

CaringBridge will also be celebrating this 20-year milestone by lighting up the 35W Bridge in Minneapolis with the colors of the organization, magenta and orange, on June 7. Along with the celebration, Founder Sona Mehring will officially retire, effective June 30, and plans to follow her passion for connecting people in a positive and supportive way, especially online. She will remain a voice for women in leadership and technology, and plans to continue supporting entrepreneurial initiatives.

Nearly 90 percent of all funding comes from the people who use CaringBridge. A donation helps ensure that personal websites are available for every family facing a health crisis. Donors can have a powerful impact – making health journeys easier for families. To learn more or make a tax-deductible contribution, visit caringbridge.org/give.

About CaringBridge

CaringBridge is a global nonprofit social network dedicated to helping family and friends communicate with and support loved ones during a health journey through the use of free personal websites. Their mission is to amplify the love, hope and compassion in the world, making each health journey easier. Nearly 90 percent of all funding comes from individual donors. Since its founding in 1997 by Sona Mehring, more than 675,000 CaringBridge websites have been created. Combined, they have received 2.1 billion visits. For more information, visit caringbridge.org.

About Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation

The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation is driven to improve the lives of others, particularly U.S. middle- and working-class families, through results-oriented investments in human & social services, education, and health & medicine with a special focus on the seven-county metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul and Lee and Collier counties in Florida. For more information, visit www.schulzefamilyfoundation.org.