It’s the holiday season, which means it’s once again time for Propllr Gives Back, where each member of the Propllr team has the opportunity to donate funds to a cause of their choice and have them matched by the company.
Here’s a look at the causes we’re supporting this year.
Marcie Waters
Every year, my family attends the Mile of Music festival, a free event that brings my hometown community together around music. The Appleton Community Music Fund does so much to support the festival: funding music education events, paying for the performing artists' food and lodging, providing medical care and wellness benefits to musicians without health insurance, and more. The ACMF supports independent musicians and makes my family's "favorite weekend of the year" possible!
Josh Inglis
We're coming up on a holiday that celebrates the birth of a child whose parents were immigrants and refugees. So it seems only right to support an organization – the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights – that fights for just treatment of these folks in the United States. My hope for the season is that ICIRR's hard work will help more people achieve their full human potential so that they can make a lasting and positive impact on their families and communities.
Brenna Lemieux
Have you seen the price of groceries these days?! Add to that the fact that the official poverty line is likely way lower than it should be, plus the debacle of defunding SNAP benefits earlier this year (and making changes to them going forward). Oh, and a lot of our neighbors are too scared to leave home to work because of ICE raids. So while the Greater Chicago Food Depository is always a great place to donate, it felt especially impactful this year.
Mark Loehrke
Every year seems to present more pressing needs than helping to preserve the natural spaces of a small community in northeastern Wisconsin. But just when you take your eye off the ball on this type of thing, that's when it slips away from you. And this is a place that means too much to let that happen. That’s why I’ll be once again supporting the Door County Land Trust.
Sergut Dejene
United African Organization (UAO) is a dynamic coalition of African community-based organizations that promotes social and economic justice, civic participation, and empowerment of African immigrants and refugees in Illinois. Through policy advocacy and community organizing, immigration legal services, family support, and community initiatives, UAO supports individuals and families from across Africa as they navigate life in the US—especially at a time when new Americans face increasing hostility and barriers to stability.
Jack McHugh
When I was growing up, my family had a membership to our local YMCA. I rejoined my local Y this year, and I'm excited to donate to the Prospect Park Y Community Fund, which helps ensure everyone can access memberships, programs, childcare, and camps. In a world of luxury fitness clubs and bare-bones corporate gyms, I appreciate the Y's accessibility, positive vibe, and nonprofit mission.
For a look at causes we’ve supported in past years, check out Propllr Gives Back posts from 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018.
All illustrations this year were done by our newest team member, Mariana Martinez.
