Congratulations to our 2025 Awardees!

We are honored to announce recognition of eight organizations across the country, all working to #EndClothingInsecurity. Our Clothing Insecurity Partners are nonprofits working in partnership with Cradles to Crayons in our service locations and our Clothing Insecurity Crusaders represent organizations working across the country outside of Cradles to Crayons’ distribution network. Congratulations to the 2025 recipients of the 7th Annual Chairman’s Council Clothing Insecurity Impact Award!

Clothing Insecurity Partners

• Grand Prize: Room to Grow (Giving Factory Direct Service Partner) is an NYC- and Boston-based organization that partners with families to help children thrive from the start. During the critical early years of 0-3, Room to Grow provides parents and caregivers with personalized guidance to support their well-being and bolster their children’s development, community connections to expand their networks, and essential material resources, including high-quality baby and toddler items.
• Runner Up: Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Inc (Cradles to Crayons—Philadelphia Service Partner) is a nonprofit corporation that reaches more than 30,000 people across Pennsylvania each year to promote health and prevent and manage chronic disease through community-based outreach, education, and advocacy. Health Promotion Council uses a collaborative approach to tackle the wide variety of health needs, issues, and disparities that affect vulnerable populations.
• Honorable Mention: The Medford Family Network (Cradles to Crayons—Massachusetts Service Partner) is Medford, MA’s family support and parenting education program whose goal is to create a strong web of support for all families of young children. MFN supports community connections in three ways: connecting families to families; fostering family contact with community resources; and building and promoting collaborative relationships among community agencies.
• Honorable Mention: Youth Guidance (Cradles to Crayons—Chicago Service Partner) creates and implements school-based programs that enable children to overcome obstacles, focus on their education and, ultimately, to succeed in school and life. Youth Guidance directly serves ~20,000 youth annually while touching the lives of hundreds more parents, schools, and local communities.
• Rising Star: Kendall County Food Pantry (Cradles to Crayons—Chicago Service Partner) works to alleviate hunger and Clothing Insecurity by providing families in need with access to nutritious food, essential clothing, and vital resources through food distributions, clothing distributions, specialized services including diapers and hygiene products, senior support, and holiday assistance programming.

Clothing Insecurity Crusaders

• Grand Prize: Four Seasons Kids (Warwick, NY) is a children’s clothing outreach program that distributes new and like-new clothing to children in Warwick Township four times a year. Four Seasons Kids engaged over one hundred families and eighty volunteers to support 153 children last year.
• Honorable Mention: KidVantage (Issaquah, WA) helps children have what they need to grow, play, learn and thrive by providing essentials care, safety and health goods for children who are experiencing the stresses of economic insecurity, systemic inequities, or family disruption.
• Honorable Mention: The Sharing Shelf (Port Chester, NY) combats Clothing Insecurity by providing children and teens in need with clothing and basic essentials, including through their Clothing Bank that provides Wardrobe Packs, a permanent Teen Boutique that is a free store for teens, Teen Boutiques Pop Ups out in the community, and an annual Backpacks to School initiative.

2025 Recipients Ceremony and Panel Discussion

On June 17, 2025, we honored these eight organizations at our 2025 Chairman’s Council Clothing Insecurity Impact Award Recipients Ceremony! Get to know each organization and watch the lively panel discussion, led by Cradles to Crayons CEO Christine Morin.

*We are not accepting applications at this time.*

The Cradles to Crayons Chairman’s Council Clothing Insecurity Impact Award honors the contributions of organizations working to ensure children have the essential clothing they need to feel safe, valued, and to thrive in their childhoods.

Cradles to Crayons offers annual recognition in two categories:

• Clothing Insecurity Partner: this recognition honors C2C Service Partner organizations for their excellence in partnership to meet children’s clothing needs and mitigate Children’s Clothing Insecurity in collaboration with Cradles to Crayons. 
  • C2C will offer five recognitions within the Clothing Insecurity Partner division. At least one Service Partner per C2C market will be honored. C2C Service Partner organizations with a budget less than or equal to $1,000,000 will also be considered for the Rising Star grant; the top-scoring Partner who qualifies for the Rising Star category will ultimately be granted whichever recognition provides the larger corresponding grant.
  • • One (1) Grand Prize: $10,000 grant  
    • One (1) Runner Up: $5,000 grant  
    • Two (2) Honorable Mentions: $2,500 grant
    • One (1) Rising Star: $5,000 grant

• Clothing Insecurity Crusader: this recognition honors organizations whose work exemplifies C2C’s vision that children will one day have the clothing essentials they need to thrive, feel safe, valued, and warm—from distributing bundled clothing packs to operating mobile clothing closets and more.

• • C2C will offer three recognitions to U.S. nonprofit organizations that are not currently a Cradles to Crayons Service Partner and is actively working outside of current C2C service areas (Chicagoland, Greater Philadelphia, Massachusetts, New York City, and the SF Bay Area).
    • One (1) Grand Prize: $10,000 grant
    • Two (2) Honorable Mentions: $2,500 grant

Eligibility:

To be eligible to apply, Chairman’s Council Clothing Insecurity Impact Award winner organizations:

• Must be a registered 501(c)(3) organization. 
• Must work directly or indirectly to provide children ages 0 –17 with clothing essentials. 
• Must have at least one dedicated, part-time employee for clothing and resources-based programming. 
• Must provide clothing and/or programming free of charge to recipients. Organizations that provide items at a cost to recipients will not be considered.
• Must not restrict clothing and/or programming eligibility beyond geography or income requirements. Organizations requiring additional qualifications or restrictions are ineligible.
• Must provide services and/or programming within the United States.
• “Clothing Insecurity Partner” award applicants MUST be a current Cradles to Crayons Service Partner organization, active and in good standing.
• “Clothing Insecurity Crusader” award applicants CANNOT operate solely in a current C2C Partner Service area (Chicagoland, Greater Philadelphia, Massachusetts, New York City, and the SF Bay Area), and MAY NOT be an active Service Partner

Award applicants that do not meet the specified eligibility criteria or submit incomplete applications will not be considered. Prior recipients of the Chairman’s Council Clothing Insecurity Impact Award/Chairman’s Council Impact Award within the past three years are not eligible.

Grants may be applied to programming focused on the distribution of clothing and related basic essentials, clothing-based public education campaigns and general advocacy work, coalition-building activities, or general operating funds. However, lobbying activities are not permitted for award use.