WomenCARE - Volunteer or Donate

As a non-profit, community based organization whose services are all FREE, WomenCARE relies on the volunteer efforts and financial contributions of individuals and institutions.

Donations are tax deductible and can be made directly to WomenCARE online, by calling us at (831) 457-2273, or by sending a check to:

WomenCARE
1001 41st Avenue
Santa Cruz, CA 95062

Volunteer

Volunteers are at the heart of WomenCARE. Volunteers make it possible for us to survive and thrive. Through the generous gifts of time and support from our volunteers, WomenCARE is able to offer the many FREE services that are provided to women with cancer and their friends and families. Please call WomenCARE at (831) 457-2273 to contribute as a volunteer.

WomenCARE is seeking SISTERS OFFERING SUPPORT volunteers.
If you are a cancer survivor, you’ve had an experience, an education that no woman ever wants, but the wisdom and insight you have gained might be a precious gift to another woman. In ever increasing numbers, newly diagnosed women are requesting the valuable support of women who have walked before them on the cancer journey.
We would love to have you join our WomenCARE team as a peer support volunteer. You must be at least one year beyond your own diagnosis AND treatment.
For more information, please call LaVerne: 457-2273

Volunteer positions and internship opportunities are available in the following programs:

Certified Bodywork Practitioners: Massage, energy work, acupuncture, yoga, and related services.
Licensed Body Care Providers: make up, make overs, hair care.
Office Assistance (4 hours a week minimum): Volunteers provide phone counseling and resource referral for clients, work on special projects, and help with general maintenance of services.
Practical Support (1 - 3 hours a week): Volunteers provide meals, child care, transportation, light housekeeping, and related practical support for women who are receiving cancer treatment.
Sisters Offering Support (SOS): Trained cancer survivors offer one-on-one peer support to a newly diagnosed woman with any kind of cancer.
Speakers Bureau: Trained speakers offer education and outreach to the community.
Special Events and Special Projects
Support Group Facilitation (4 - 8 hours a month): Volunteers need not be licensed therapists to provide structure and guidance for groups where women with cancer and their families explore their feelings and receive understanding support.

For more information about each program, please call us at: (831) 457-2273 or e-mail our Director of Volunteer Services at: volunteer@womencaresantacruz.org

Volunteer Voices

I'm inspired by the strength and tenacity I see in the faces and hear in the voices of the caregivers in my group. I love working with them. I was one myself for too many years. I want to share what I know with them. My wife's spirit lives through my work at WomenCARE.
--Andy Todd, Friends and Family Support Group Facilitator

WomenCARE is truly a grass roots organization: It comes from the community, and goes back to the community. You can really feel the heart that everybody puts into it.
-- Maribel Cuervo, Entre Nosotras Facilitator

I continue to be enriched and inspired by the women I have worked with at WomenCARE, and I've made a lot of good friends too.
-- Sylvia Brown, cancer survivor and long time versatile volunteer
As agencies go, WomenCARE is warmer, more compassionate. Other organizations I've dealt with were more corporate, less personal. They offered resources, but not the amazing connections women so quickly find here... I'm rewarded by being here... It's very special to be involved in WomenCARE.
-- Maggie Tranchina, cancer survivor and 3+ year office volunteer

Donate

In 1992, five women made a decision that would transform lives. They didn't know where they would find the time, the energy, or the money to create an organization like WomenCARE. They acted anyway, knowing that without their passion and strength to make a change, women living with cancer would continue to suffer in isolation.

Throughout its history, WomenCARE has been blessed with generous and quiet angels. They rarely take center stage; they are in the wings supporting our programs with their gifts of time, energy, and resources. As a non-profit, community based organization whose services are all FREE, WomenCARE relies on these contributions from both individuals and institutions.

We feel deep gratitude for all the gifts that have passed through our small office, for all the warmth those gifts have engendered, for all the ways those gifts have made it possible for healing to happen in the lives of so many women and loved ones over the years.

We invite you to get involved and create unique gifts of your own. Here are some ideas:

Donate Your Car or Other Vehicle

Do you have a car you want to get rid of? a truck? an RV? a motorcycle? a boat?
You could get an IRS tax deduction and WomenCARE would get a percentage of the proceeds from its sale.
Click on the link to find out how!cars4causes.net

Connie Batten Legacy

A special fund has been created to honor Connie Batten, WomenCARE’s Executive Director and Clinical Supervisor from 1998-2005. It is a restricted fund that will designate your contribution to train volunteers for our Sisters Offering Support (SOS) program. These trained volunteers are at least a year out of their own diagnosis and treatment (western medical, complementary, or both), and are matched with a newly diagnosed woman, offering peer support. It is an opportunity for the newly diagnosed woman to gain wisdom and strength from the experience of a woman who has already navigated these rough waters. To give to this fund, click "Donate" and enter "Connie Batten Legacy" in the "Purpose" line.

Birthday/Holiday Donations

Carolyn Coleman: "As my birthday approached last December, I felt blessed to have reached fifty and to be healthy. At the same time, I had been close to several people who had dealt with cancer and for whom WomenCARE had provided a vital link in the community. It's so important to have community that I invited fifty friends to help me celebrate life as well as honor those who have died by donating to WomenCARE on my birthday."

Deb Abbott: "A few years ago, I stopped giving Christmas gifts to family and friends who had more than enough 'stuff.' I started donating the money I would have spent to organizations such as WomenCARE where the need is real and where I know every penny will be well spent. I send a card to my family and friends explaining the gift in their name. Many of these folks have also started making holiday contributions instead of buying 'stuff,' which multiplies both the gift and my pleasure in this new tradition."

Plan A Benefit
Here's what some folks have done or are doing...

Hendrik Meerman, a locally-based swimmer, swam across the English Channel in September, 2006, to raise money for WomenCARE. Though only 21 miles across at its narrowest point, fewer people have swum across the English channel than have climbed to the top of Mount Everest. Due to the cold water, unpredictable weather, strong currents, and shipping traffic, crossing the English Channel is considered to be the ultimate swim challenge. To donate in support of this special effort to raise funds for WomenCARE, please send checks to: WomenCARE, 1001 41st Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95062 and indicate "English Channel Swim" on the check.

Program Support

You can also direct a gift to one of our programs or services such as Entre Nosotras (Latina Outreach), Sisters Offering Support, The Peer Navigator Project, or the WomenCARE library. Whether a one-time, a monthly, or an annual gift, program support allows you to help a particular WomenCARE service grow. To give to one of these programs, click "Donate" and enter program name in the "Purpose" line.

Adopt WomenCARE

Mary Ann Kaplan, past President, Soroptomist International Capitola-By-The-Sea: "Our organization chose WomenCare as the main focus for our fundraisers and volunteer time because we value WomenCARE's positive approach to healing, because WomenCARE really does help, and because WomenCARE serves women with all kinds of cancer." This service club has helped print our newsletter and a guidebook for newly diagnosed women, sponsored a bowling team, given us a copy machine, and provided many valuable hours of volunteer time. We appreciate their invitation that we call them whenever we have a need for their help.

Joyce Nordquist, Women Lawyers of Santa Cruz County: "In 1993, a panel of women lawyers formed WomenCARE Advocates because we valued the work WomenCARE is doing in our community. We have provided help with non-profit incorporation for the organization, and with wills and durable powers of attorney, insurance and landlord/tenant issues for individual clients."

Corporate Matching Gift Programs

Your employer may be willing to match your personal donation to WomenCARE. This can double or triple your contribution. Hundreds of companies, large and small, have Corporate Matching Gift Programs.

Follow these steps to request a matching gift from your employer:

1. Ask the human resources representative where you work if there is a charitable Matching Gift program.
If the answer is "yes", ask for a Matching Gift Form and complete your portion. If the answer is "no", talk to the human resources director and suggest the idea.
Include the completed and signed matching gift form with your next donation to WomenCARE.
WomenCARE will verify your gift and return the form to your company, which will then issue a matching gift contribution toWomenCARE.

United Way Giving

While WomenCARE is not an official United Way designee, you can "write in" WomenCARE as the organization to which your donation is directed.

Memorial Gifts

For several years the Joyce Halinar Memorial Fund underwrote a biannual Enrichment Series for WomenCARE's support group facilitators. It was started by Marni Kamzan, a loving friend who said: "Joyce [Halinar] was a good friend and teacher. I miss her a lot. The support groups at WomenCARE meant so much to her. I want to set up a memorial fund in her name to help your facilitators." You could set up a similar fund in memory of your dear friend or family member.

Bequests

Bequests become a legacy that endures. Through our affiliation with the Planned Giving Center at the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz, WomenCARE can help generous people make long-term gifts that will ensure that women living with cancer will benefit from our services for years to come. With a gift of long-term appreciated securities, you pay no capital gains on the transfer and you are entitled to a tax deduction based on the full current market value of the stock.

Giving Plans

Direct Donation: A cash gift that has immediate value
Living Trust: A trust you establish to take effect in your lifetime
Life Insurance: A gift of an old or new policy with WomenCARE named as beneficiary
Retirement Plan: An appointment of WomenCARE as remainder beneficiary after your lifetime
Charitable Trust: Call to find out more about them.

Donations are tax deductible and can be made directly to WomenCARE by sending your check to:

WomenCARE
1001 41st Avenue
Santa Cruz, CA 95062

Please call us at (831) 457-2273 if you would like us to help you design a giving plan.

Foundation Support

Funding for WomenCARE is also provided by the following foundations, whose support we gratefully acknowledge:

the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County
WomenCARE is funded in part by the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County. Founded in 1982, the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County is a public, nonprofit organization created by area residents as a permanent resource for the entire county. Its mission is to promote philanthropy to make Santa Cruz County a better place to live, now and in the future.

This page was last updated 6/16/10.

WomenCARE, 1001 41st Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95062
Until August 1st...then find us at
2901 Park Avenue, Suite A1, Soquel, CA 95073
(831) 457-2273
Office Hours: MWF 9 - 1 and Tu 1- 5
Map and Directions
office@womencaresantacruz.org

WomenCARE is seeking SISTERS OFFERING SUPPORT volunteers.