Foster Care Awareness: Corporate Gifting that help Children in-Need

Every single day in the United States, more than 700 children are removed from their homes and placed into the foster care system. Most of them leave with nothing more than the clothes they’re wearing. Some carry their belongings in a trash bag.

That’s the reality for approximately 320,000 children in foster care across the country right now. May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, and for companies looking for corporate gifts that support children in foster care, the need has never been clearer.

Through Gifts for Good, companies have already provided over 3,050 backpacks, 8,739 blankets, 3,226 dental kits, and 2,023 books to children in foster care through our partnership with Comfort Cases.

In 2025 alone, our clients helped deliver 1,594 backpacks, over 1,100 books, and a record 7,686 blankets to children on the day they entered care.

Something as simple as a backpack can change the way a child experiences one of the hardest transitions of their life.

Here’s how your gifting program can make a real difference.

When a child enters the foster care system, they often arrive at their placement without personal hygiene items, something warm to sleep with, books, or even a bag to hold it all together. these are basics most of us have never had to think about.

Organizations like Comfort Cases work to fill that gap.

Rob Scheer founded Comfort Cases in 2013 after adopting four children from the foster care system. When his children came to him, they arrived with their belongings packed in trash bags—an image he couldn't let go. Rob himself had spent years in foster care as a child, which gave him a direct understanding of what those first days feel like. Comfort Cases was his answer: backpacks filled with comfort items, blankets, books, dental kits, and toiletry kits, delivered to children on the day they enter care. No child should carry their life in a trash bag.

Through the Gifts for Good platform, companies can choose to support children in foster care directly select the gifts that matter most to them, and see exactly where the impact goes. For companies building a broader gifting program, we also carry a range of corporate gifts that support children in need.

But the need for support extends well beyond that first day. Organizations like Old Skool Cafe support at-risk youth over the long term.

Program members of Old Skool Cafe jumping for a photograph

Teresa Goines founded Old Skool Cafe in San Francisco in 2003 after years working as a juvenile probation officer, watching young people cycle through poverty, homelessness, and incarceration with few paths out. She opened the cafe: a 1940s supper club-style restaurant staffed entirely by at-risk youth aged 16 to 23, many of whom have experienced foster care or street life. Old Skool Cafe became a place where young people could rebuild stability on their own terms. It provides job training, mental health coaching, and a structured environment grounded in dignity.

To date, Gifts for Good clients have helped fund over 2,600 hours of that support through their gifting programs.

Comfort backpack from Comfort Cases

For a child who has just been separated from everything familiar, a brand-new backpack with their own blanket, a book, and a toiletry kit inside sends a message: someone thought about you.

Comfort Cases understands this because the organization was built by someone who lived it. The items inside each backpack are chosen with intention. A blanket provides warmth and comfort during a frightening first night. A book offers an escape. A dental kit and toiletry kit restore a sense of normalcy and personal dignity.

When your company chooses a charity impact gift that provides backpacks, blankets, or books to children in foster care, you’re giving a child something to hold onto during a moment when everything else feels uncertain.

Corporate gifting programs are uniquely positioned to create real impact at scale. Here’s how:

• Choose charity impact gifts that go directly to children in foster care. Options include backpacks, blankets, dental kits, toiletry kits, and books. Each one maps to a specific number of children served.
• Use our platform to let your team choose their own impact. When employees select a charity impact gift through your gifts, they become part of the story. They choose the cause, and they see exactly what their gift provides.
• Tie your program to Foster Care Awareness Month. May is the perfect window for a company-wide campaign, internal communications around foster care awareness, or a team-building moment centered on collective impact.
• Scale it for your team size. A team of 500 employees choosing charity impact backpacks provides 500 backpacks to children entering care. That’s tangible, reportable, and meaningful.
• Share the impact story internally. After your program runs, you’ll receive impact data you can use in CSR reporting, internal newsletters, or leadership presentations. The numbers tell a story your team can be proud of.

Children painting with watercolors

The foster care statistics in the United States paint a clear picture of where support is needed most:

• Approximately over 320,000 children are in foster care on any given day
• Over 700 children enter the system every single day
• The average age of a child entering foster care is 8 years old
• More than 15,000 young people age out of foster care each year without a permanent family
  
  

These numbers represent real children in real communities. And while systemic change takes time, providing immediate comfort and dignity to a child on their first day in care is something any company can do right now.

National Foster Care Awareness Month is a reminder that a backpack, a blanket, and a book are small things that carry enormous weight for a child navigating the unknown.

Ready to gift at a scale? Explore the our platform to see how your gifting program can support children in foster care, or reach out to our team to build a program around this cause.