EMBRACE GLOBAL / WORLDWIDE

700,000 babies saved in 25 countries

I was lead storyteller for Embrace Global, a 501c3 nonprofit committed to saving one million newborns by 2025. Their portable incubators provide essential care in regions affected by political crises, remote access, natural disasters and/or poverty—areas where traditional incubators fail, as they are expensive, require a constant and stable source of electricity, are too large and heavy to be moved to safer areas when needed, and require specially trained staff to maintain and operate. 

At Embrace, I wrote grants and monthly newsletters, managed their social media team, and established the organization’s story boilerplate—language, images, taglines and more—to be used for any future outreach needs. I also helped rewrite their partner agreements, sourced social media influencers to gather support for their monthly donors campaign, and helped them with language and design for pitch decks, including their annual holiday update. I also advised them to adopt a new fundraising strategy, which seems to have recently taken root and is already bearing fruit.

EMBRACE THE WORLD

It’s perhaps the simplest of needs that a being can have. To keep warm. For those smallest, most vulnerable of humans, it can mean the difference between life and death or a lifetime of debilitating health issues. Premature babies cannot regulate their own body temperature. And premature births are on the rise worldwide, especially so during humanitarian emergencies due to the inherent stress. For communities struggling with political crisis, outright war, poverty or remote access—areas where modern medical infrastructure is lacking or nonexistent—an Embrace portable incubator quite simply makes life possible.

Comprised of a heat-dispensing, phase-change material nested within a sleeping wrap, their incubators cost $300 to manufacture and allow newborns to be transported to safety easily. They’re simple to use, can be operated by anyone, require only 30 minutes of electricity to maintain a consistent temperature of 98°F up to eight hours at a time, and are reusable hundreds of times while putting the baby back into the mother’s arms. Personal community engagement and reviews of advance prototypes allowed Embrace to fine-tune relevant features and pricing for the highest value at the lowest cost. Their incubators work for these communities because they were active participants in the design process. That’s how effective and equitable health care solutions get born. And at Embrace, equitable health care is a top priority.

Current donor funds and shipping support has allowed them to ship to Ukraine, Turkiye, Syria, Zambia, Senegal, the Philippines and more. With future plans for facilities in Yemen and Morocco. Recently, 200 incubators have been delivered to Armenia and another 200 will soon arrive in Gaza. To date, Embrace has saved over 700,000 babies in 25 countries. Their goal is to save 1,000,000 babies by 2025. Due to ever-increasing demand, they have established The Living Pledge—a movement of philanthropists, artists and entrepreneurs that will each commit $100,000 a year for ten years—so their life-saving incubators can be shipped anywhere, anytime, the moment they are needed, undelayed by fundraising efforts. Such delays cost newborn lives. To learn more, or to donate, visit them at embraceglobal.org