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Birthday Wishes, the Sudbury-based nonprofit that throws birthday parties for children experiencing homelessness, has been awarded a $30,000 grant from the Cummings Foundation, the organization announced this week.
The three-year award comes through the foundation’s $30 Million Grant Program, a competitive process that distributes funding to nonprofits across Massachusetts. Birthday Wishes said the money will help it keep up with rising demand while continuing to offer personalized, caregiver-led celebrations to children who might otherwise see their birthdays pass unmarked.
“At Birthday Wishes, we believe every child deserves to feel celebrated on their birthday, regardless of where they sleep at night,” said Denell Nuese, the organization’s executive director. She called the foundation’s support an investment in “children and families experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity,” adding that it helps the group “create moments of joy, strengthen family connections, and remind children that they matter.”
Founded in 2002, Birthday Wishes is credited with pioneering the idea of providing birthday celebrations specifically for children without stable housing. The organization has since grown well beyond its Massachusetts roots, partnering today with more than 220 shelters, transitional housing programs, domestic violence safe havens, and school district McKinney-Vento programs across New England, New York, and Los Angeles according to the announcement.
The work fills a gap that the nonprofit says is easy to overlook. For families in crisis, birthdays can slip by as parents concentrate on the immediate demands of finding food, transportation, work, and a safe place to stay. A celebration, the organization argues, offers children something harder to measure than cake and presents in the form of a chance to feel seen and connected during an unstable stretch of their lives.
One mother who received help through the program described what that meant for her family after she left an unsafe situation. “I was focused on survival. Every day was about finding stability and meeting my child’s basic needs,” she said. “When our case worker told me about Birthday Wishes, it felt like someone was giving us permission to celebrate again.” She said the group lifted a burden during a period of intense stress: “Seeing my child’s smile reminded me that even during difficult times, there are people who care.”
Birthday Wishes said the new funding will allow it to respond to growing community needs without scaling back its hands-on, family-centered approach to each celebration.
Residents interested in volunteering or supporting the organization can learn more at BirthdayWishes.org.