Northwest Mothers Milk Bank improves the health and survival of the Northwest's most vulnerable babies.

A Northwest region where every baby has access to the human milk they need.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Increase Access to Human Donor Milk

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Two: Protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding

Goal Type: Focus on core programs to achieve mission and scale back on programs not seen as core.

Goal Three: Partner to advance evidenced-based practice

Goal Type: Focus on core programs to achieve mission and scale back on programs not seen as core.

Describe an investment in leadership

We contracted with an outside trainer/facilitator to engage staff leadership plus entire staff and our board in a year-long diversity, equity and inclusion training. Our entire staff participated in a two-day virtual seminar focused on milk banking, led by experts and peers. Our Executive Director and Clinical Outreach Director obtained continuing education in nonprofit management from the Nonprofit Association of Oregon.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

• Policy Advocacy

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

Increasing access to donor milk begins with growing community partnerships. We collaborate with hospital systems to provide donor milk, and establish milk drops and distribution sites. Our 40+ milk drop locations safely receive and ship donated breastmilk to our facility. With hospital partners, we’ve opened 5 distribution sites. These sites dispense donor milk to families when leaving the hospital with their infants. With local nonprofit hospital systems, we develop shared goals around breastfeeding education and the use of donor human milk. Staff leadership speak at local, regional, and national conferences. In Oregon and Washington, we support advocacy work for state level donor milk medical insurance coverage. We work with local WIC offices and national organizations like HMBANA and USLCA to provide training opportunities and social media outreach. We build community relationships to support aligned nonprofits such as the African-American Breastfeeding Coalition of Oregon.

Babies continued to be born throughout the pandemic. The essential nutrients and immune factors contained in human milk are essential for providing protection for the most fragile newborns. When a mother’s own milk is not 100% available, pasteurized donor milk is the next best option. We knew that being adaptable and creative was essential to making sure donor milk was available throughout the Pacific Northwest. Shortly after the pandemic began, we used media to promote the importance of donor milk and the need for milk donation. Milk donors responded and milk collection volumes exceeded expectations. We were able to exceed pasteurization volumes by 29% and all hospital requests were filled. A blood test is the final screening step for all our milk donors. Stay-at-home orders impacted both our approved and potential milk donors by limiting their access to laboratory services. We quickly contracted with mobile phlebotomists and lab locations that were offering safe, appointment-only services. This meant milk donors could have their blood drawn at home with precautions in place. We have over 40 community partners, which we call Milk Drops, that accept milk donations and ship them directly to the milk bank. Many temporarily shut their doors during the pandemic. In response, we increased our distribution of prepaid insulated shipping boxes to milk donors across the Pacific Northwest by 50%. A total of 3700 shipping containers were sent from our warehouse. We enlisted a local volunteer pool to provide socially-distanced porch pickups of donated milk. Volunteers, equipped with personal safety protection, logged over 14,000 miles on these contactless milk pickups.