On December 11th, 2022, Spare Key hosted our annual FREE Cookies with Santa event, welcoming families around the community to come enjoy a day celebrating the holiday season! Cookies with Santa is always an exciting day, but this year was extra special welcoming over 200 people. Read on to learn more about what this year had in store!

As Help Me Bounce Program Coordinator, Angela Frazier takes note of common questions asked by users of Help Me Bounce. These questions may come from families, donors, or medical professionals. When Spare Key launched our Help Me Bounce Blog, Angela immediately knew she wanted to start a Q&A Series for individuals to reference when they needed additional clarification around the application or donation process. So the Help Me Bounce Q&A Series was born! While every part of the application process is equally important, the medical professional verification portion is different in that it brings a person from outside the organization onto the platform to verify an applicant’s medical situation. In this month’s installment of the series, Angela dives into common questions she hears around this verification process.

Spare Key believes in 100% confidence and 100% transparency into your donated dollars on Help Me Bounce. But what does that actually mean? How does Spare Key ensure families on our platform are facing a medical crisis? How do we ensure that donated dollars go exactly where they’re intended? Read on to hear how Spare Key’s Chief Administrative Officer, Alexia Sebesta helps provide that transparency within her role each and every day.

Today is Give to the Max Day! A statewide day of giving. To learn more about this inspiring day, read Executive Director Sarah Putnam’s blog about when she first learned about Give to the Max Day and how Spare Key has celebrated this day since 2019!

Spare Key is partnering with their fellow Minnesotan organizations to host “Toys to the Max Day.” A day dedicated to collecting toys that will be used in this year’s holiday celebrations! Read on to learn more about what we have planned to celebrate Minnesota’s annual day of giving: “Give to the Max Day.”

A core goal at Spare Key has always been to support families during unimaginable medical crises. Spare Key accomplishes this mission through our Help Me Bounce platform. This platform gives donors a direct line to make a real and immediate impact on families throughout the nation.

This platform also gives both families and donors clarity and transparency that donated dollars go exactly where they’re intended. Spare Key doesn’t take a cut of any donations raised on Help Me Bounce giving families 100% of donations raised towards their campaign. Spare Key makes payments directly to servicers/providers of the families’ bills giving donors 100% confidence their donations are going where they’re intended. We accomplish this through “Funding Goals”.

In this month’s installment to the Help Me Bounce Q&A Series, Angela explains how Spare Key uses funding goals to provide more transparency and accountability to donations given on Help Me Bounce.

Working on a small team brings its own set of opportunities and challenges. It helps you grow and learn in ways you’d never expect. And it teaches you that no one can do it alone. Here at Spare Key, we have a small but MIGHTY team of dedicated employees that put their heart and soul into their work. On top of that, we rely on knowledgeable partners, an extremely supportive Board of Directors, family, friends, volunteers, sponsors and more! Everything we accomplish for families facing medical crises is a direct reflection of these individuals’ dedication to Spare Key’s mission. Read on to hear Spare Key’s Chief Administrative Officer, Alexia Sebesta’s thoughts on working and growing within a small team!

In my nearly 11 years as Executive Director of Spare Key there was no single accomplishment of this organization that belongs to any single individual. It was the combined effort of a dedicated staff, a remarkable Board of Directors, generous donors, kind volunteers and the never-ending commitment to the families we serve and seek to serve to ask the question "What if?" When I became Executive Director I had zero experience running a non-profit. What I had, though, was a community of people and organizations who stood with me, by me and behind me to focus on answering the "What if?" questions with real and tangible efforts to help families facing a medical crisis "Be Seen. Be Heard. Be Found." by donors throughout the country to help them pay their bills. Sarah Putnam, Spare Key's current Chief Marketing Officer, will become the next Executive Director on November 1st. She will bring to the organization a level of passion, commitment and vision that I simply cannot wait to see put into action with the same kind of help and support I received nearly 11 years ago from a dedicated staff, a remarkable Board of Directors, generous donors, kind volunteers and the never-ending commitment to the families we serve and seek to serve by asking the question "What if?"

Spare Key made a pivotal decision back in 2019 to embrace a new way of giving. One that puts donors in control. It was a decision that came from a lot of research, conversations, and forward thinking into how giving patterns were evolving and how we could use evolving technology to help more families. Read on to learn WHY Spare Key launched Help Me Bounce as not just a tool for families, but for donors as well.

Working for Spare Key is a gift in itself. Director of Events and Corporate Relations, Talia Simonett, loves knowing the work that we do isn’t just a paycheck but it is truly making a difference. When she first started at Spare Key, one of her biggest responsibilities was working with Help Me Bounce families and assisting them through the application process. Little did she know one day she would be assisting one of her own loved ones to create a campaign on the platform. Read more on how a medical crisis can truly affect anyone.