Patch Picks: Non-Profits Making a Difference

Welcome to Patch Picks, which highlights editor and reader picks of great local businesses, destinations, services, organizations, ways to spend a day off, and more. 

You’ll find useful lists to help you, your family, friends, and significant others find the best places for everything from Sunday brunch to New Year’s Eve celebrations, pumpkin patches, date night destinations, florists, girlfriend nights out, kids party places, parks and more. Our latest Patch Picks installment is Non-Profits Making a Difference.

There's so many in Bethesda it's hard to pick five, but if you're looking for worthy causes where you might donate money or time, here's a few places to start.

This non-profit is known for its green business incubator program, which offers space and shared resources to green businesses. That shared space is now expanding, thanks to Capital One, and the group recently announced a partnership with the University of Maryland. Bethesda Green works extensively with the community to spread environmental awareness.

Bethesda Cares is a wonderful resource for the homeless. Bethesda Cares offers clothing, lunch programs, and other basic necessities – even a place where their clients can have their mail sent or check email as they search for jobs and get back on their feet. But the group also offers utility and rental assistance to help keep struggling families in their homes.

The Children’s Inn describes itself as a “place like home” for sick children being treated at the and it really is. It provides a warm, welcoming environment for seriously ill children and their families, many of whom have come from hundreds of miles away, during treatment.

This non-profit not only operates a shelter for families and a residential program for at-risk youth, but it also provides transitional programs for families and youth coming out of homelessness.  It supports youth and families both in Montgomery County and in Washington, D.C.

This Bethesda-based non-profit supports wounded servicemen and women being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the   Since its founding in 2005, the group has provided over 1,100 rental cars, 16,000 free taxi rides, and 7,300 hotel room nights – all free of charge – to wounded service members and their families. The group has also offered hundreds of meals and event tickets, all with the aim of making treatment a little easier for soldiers who may be far from home.