Donate
None of it pays a salary here.
Ashley pulled half her retirement to start this and worked four jobs to keep her own bills off the books. Donations go to clients — not to the founder.
Where it goes
Small money moves fast here.
We're a one-year-old nonprofit with no endowment and no cushion, which means a $25 gift is spent on a person this month, not banked.
- $25
- Hygiene kits for a Sunday outreach shift.
- $75
- Meals for roughly half of one outreach night.
- $150
- A meal service for all 60–75 people we serve that Sunday.
- $500
- Closes the gap on a deposit for someone who saved the rest themselves.
Zeffy passes 100% of your gift through — Blame Bates pays no platform fee. Blame Bates is a registered 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 39-2567297 — your gift is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
In kind
This is a normal week.
Food, hygiene, cookware, hangers, winter layers. It arrives in car trunks and cardboard, and it goes straight back out.
Dropping something off?
Call or text 701-219-1447 first. Our hours move around, and we’d rather meet you at the door than have you find it locked.
Other ways to give
Not everything useful is money.
- Goods
- Hygiene items, new socks and underwear, blankets, winter gear, can openers and basic kitchen goods for people moving into a first apartment.
- Mail a check
- Payable to Blame Bates — 3332 4th Ave S, Suite 2E, Fargo, ND 58103.
- Sponsor an event
- Sponsors get named from the stage and on our socials. Ask us about the gala.
- Say our name
- Genuinely the most valuable thing. Nearly everyone finds us by word of mouth.
One more thing
Somebody mailed us a check with a sticky note on it.
Plain white envelope, no letter. The note said “you’re doing great things.” Ashley has never met them. That’s most of our funding model, and it’s working.