How Made4Me supports families with special needs with help from NCCF grants
Made4Me is a Raleigh-based charity that creates customized adaptations from industrial cardboard to assist people with special needs.
Since 2021, the North Carolina Community Foundation’s fundholders and affiliate foundations have awarded Made4Me more than $40,000 in grants.
Made4Me creates a variety of personalized adaptations for the special needs community, including beds, chairs, steps, tables, easels, and more. Grants allow Made4Me to offer these items at no cost to families.
“Families with special needs individuals have enough going on,” said Made4Me executive director Mike Gianakos. “The last thing they need is to hunt and buy items to help.”
Gianakos notes that the demand for customized adaptations is “vast,” especially in underserved rural communities like those served by NCCF. Thanks to the support of NCCF’s philanthropic network, Made4Me has expanded its reach to 13 central and eastern North Carolina counties.
“What NCCF allows you to do is make relationships…I don’t have the capacity to write hundreds and hundreds of grants [applications], but I do have the capacity to work with a small group of like-minded people who can get our name out there and help counties connect with us,” Gianakos said.
In 2024, the Wake County Community Foundation, an NCCF affiliate, awarded Made4Me a $2,500 grant. The foundation’s board members also volunteered at Made4Me’s headquarters, helping to build bocce ball ramps for another program funded by NCCF.
“I am thrilled that the Wake County Community Foundation supports Made4Me,” said board member Ellen Gorham, who was board president at the time. “In addition to being a gratifying, hands-on volunteer experience, we were inspired by the mission and knowing that we were directly helping families and children improve their quality of life.
For Gianakos, the greatest reward is seeing how Made4Me’s customized adaptations change lives.
“When you provide that item, and you see a mom and child sitting on the couch for the first time in tears because it’s just something they never thought could happen,” he said. “It’s just validation that this work has to happen. It’s not an option.”