Posts Tagged ‘website building’

NPC: Tell us a little bit about your organization, CaringBridge. Why was it started?

Sona Mehring: CaringBridge is a charitable nonprofit organization providing free websites that connect family and friends to share information, love and support during a serious health event, care and recovery. Its mission is to bring together a global community of care, powered by the love of family and friends, in an easy, accessible and private way. CaringBridge saves time and energy by centralizing communication and easing the burden of updating everyone during a health event. Each CaringBridge website is unique – authors select their website design and add health updates and photos to share their story while visitors leave messages in the guestbook, creating a network of support for the patient.

CaringBridge was created when my close friend suffered a life-threatening pregnancy. To keep family and friends informed about the critical situation, I created a website. The site allowed family members to communicate information to a wide circle of people without disturbing the mother’s need for rest or placing additional demands on hospital staff.

NPC: Who does it serve?

Sona Mehring: CaringBridge is available for anyone facing a serious health event such as cancer, premature birth, accident/injury, surgery and heart attack. It helps patients who are isolated and caregivers who are faced with the time consuming burden of keeping family and friends updated.

NPC:  How long have you been in operation?

Sona Mehring: Since 1997

NPC: How many people did you serve your first year? And, this year?

Sona Mehring: In 1997 there were 50 personal websites. We now have more than 183,000 websites that connect nearly half a million people each day.

NPC: What is your most difficult challenge as a nonprofit?

Sona Mehring: To not chase every good idea and good intention.

NPC: What was your most difficult challenge starting out?

Sona Mehring: Start-up nonprofits have all the same challenges as any start-up.  Not enough time and not enough money.  It is the passion – which, I believe is seeded very deep for nonprofit causes/missions, that easily carries through the difficult challenges.

NPC: What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a nonprofit?

Sona Mehring: Don’t go into it half-hearted.   You must love what you are doing and have belief in what you are doing.  People can see through someone who is not authentic – being authentic is vital for a nonprofit.

NPC: How can people get involved?

Sona Mehring: The most important thing people can do is recommend CaringBridge to someone in need. You can find information on our website on how to spread the word to a friend or your broader community – http://www.caringbridge.org/shareourservice.

NPC: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Sona Mehring: A CaringBridge website should be a part of every health journey. CaringBridge provides basic human needs of hope, healing and connection during a time when people most need it – during a health crisis.   We never want to hear “I wish I would have known about CaringBridge when….”  — Help us make sure that doesn’t happen by telling other’s about CaringBridge.org.

Sona Mehring is the Founder and Executive Director of CaringBridge. For more information, please visit the website at www.CaringBridge.org.