10 Alsip-Crestwood-Area Nonprofits To Support This Holiday Season

ALSIP-CRESTWOOD, IL — If you’re like many of your neighbors in Alsip and Crestwood, you may spend a good part of the holiday season with your credit card in hand buying gifts for family and friends. Coming up soon is a chance to give back to the local community.

Giving Tuesday, which in 2024 falls on Dec. 3, is a day dedicated to supporting nonprofit and community groups. Since 2012, nonprofits worldwide have used the Tuesday after Thanksgiving to galvanize fundraising, rally volunteers and add momentum to their causes.

Maintaining funding is a constant challenge for many nonprofits that fill gaps and meet other needs in the Alsip-Crestwood area.

Here are 10 local nonprofits to consider getting behind on Giving Tuesday:

1. Park Lawn Charity – Park Lawn was at the forefront of caring for and educating children with special needs when a group of parents in Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn founded the organization in 1955. Today, Park Lawn offers residential, vocational and social programs for adults with intellectual challenges and developmental disabilities. Park Lawn actively works with groups, schools and other invaluable allies to create an unmatched network of services to help people with disabilities and their families. Together, team members can assess each person’s situation and help find the support, education, and services needed. Online donations can be made through the Park Lawn portal.

2. Catherine’s Caring Cause – Because of their vast knowledge and experience helping Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees in the 1990s, two rabble-rousing Mercy Sisters – 95-year-old Sister Pat Murphy, and Sr. JoAnn Persch, 90 – were called into action when asylum seekers from Venezuela began arriving on buses in Chicago. Catherine’s Caring Cause, based in Chicago’s Mt. Greenwood neighborhood, provides unwavering support, resources, and empowerment to asylum seekers as they navigate the challenging journey toward a better life. With the help of volunteers, these nonagenarian nuns paying a year’s rent in nine furnished apartments housing 11 families consisting of 15 adults and 13 children. To donate, click here.

3. Christmas Without Cancer – Founded in 2003 by an oncology nurse, Christmas Without Cancer has aided thousands of people across Chicagoland by providing holiday gifts as well as daily necessities to local families hit emotionally and financially by a cancer diagnosis. The Evergreen Park-based grass roots organization quietly identifies and adopts multiple families through the year, supplying gift cards for gas, groceries, medications and other “need” items, as well as help with mortgage payments, rent, tuition and travel-related expenses for treatment. Make an online donation here.

4. Elim Christian Services – The Crestwood-based organization supports children and adults with disabilities in leading their fullest, God-given lives. Elim operates a school for children ages 3 through 22 with physical and development disabilities, and transitioning adult programs including vocational training, life skills, case management, transportation, social and recreation programs, advocacy and much more. Each year, Elim puts on its biggest fundraiser of the year, a delightful and charming Dutch Fest that draws thousands from around the Chicago area. To donate, click here.

5. Arab American Family Services – Since 2001, the Worth-based AAFS has provided service to over 30 communities in Chicago’s south suburbs. Programs focus on the areas of safety net case management as well as domestic violence prevention and intervention, elderly and disability assistance, cultural diversity training, mental health assistance, immigration services, community health and education programs and youth programs. AAFS is a non-political, non-religious organization that focuses on building respect and understanding between Arab Americans and non-Arab Americans. AAFS is increasingly recognized by government agencies and other nonprofits as the best local resource for cultural exchange and translation services. Make an online donation here.

6. Sertoma Star Services – The Alsip-based organization strives to provide opportunities that empower individuals with disabilities to achieve personal success. Sertoma Centre provides community mental health services for youth and adults, group therapy and private counseling for all ages through Medicaid and private insurance, vocational training for adults with developmental disabilities, day programs, psychosocial rehabilitation and much more. To donate online, click here.

7. Peoples Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) of Tinley Park – PAWS is a no-kill animal shelter dedicated to the protection of domestic animals and to prevent animal cruelty in the surrounding communities. PAWS provides shelter to abandoned, lost and relinquished pets, adoption and community education. The shelter strives to prevent the overpopulation of pets by offering spay/neutering services. To adopt a pet (there are a lot of kittens this year) or to make a donation, visit PAWS of Tinley Park.

8. South Suburban Humane Society – Incorporated in 1970 by a dedicated group of volunteers who took abandoned and relinquished animals into their homes, then worked to find permanent homes, South Suburban Humane Society has emerged as one of the premiere animal shelters in the Chicago area today. Based in Mattesson, SSHS offers adoption, home foster, a pet food pantry, behavior helpline, low-cost spaying.neutering services and a lost pet helpline. To donate, click here.

9. Crisis Center for South Suburbia – The Crisis Center for South Suburbia is a non-profit community organization that provides emergency shelter and other essential services for individuals and families impacted by domestic violence and addresses the societal issues that contribute to domestic violence. The crisis center offers a 24-hour hotline and other victim services, including emergency shelter, housing, prevention, outreach, advocacy and education. Make an online donation here.

10. The Honeycomb Project – Based on Chicago’s South Side, the Honeycomb Project engages, mobilizes, and inspires whole families to build strong and connected communities through service. Nearly every weekend of the year, hundreds of kids and their parents volunteer with us to learn about our city’s complex challenges and take action. More than 50 nonprofit organizations throughout Chicago have come to rely on the Honeycomb Project for volunteers to take on such social service projects as preparing home-cooked meals at shelters, growing fresh vegetables at city farms, and building nature trails along the Chicago River. Families are not just giving back, they’re helping transform the quality of Chicago’s communities for the long term. To make a donation, click here.