Help The Simple Sunflower Become a Nonprofit

Like our name, our mission at The Simple Sunflower is uncomplicated: spread joy while improving health. We are a volunteer-run community organization that regifts fresh flowers from local weddings to patients at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center in Richmond, VA. Since our beginning in 2019 by former VCU medical student Eleanor Love, our organization has donated over 700 bouquets to individual patients in the hospital and amassed hundreds of volunteers. We create small bouquets using beautiful fresh flowers that would normally be discarded after a wedding, thus contributing to a more sustainable community. Included with each bouquet is a handwritten notecard. Beyond lifting spirits, our bouquets have the potential to improve health outcomes by reducing pain and stress during a patient’s stay in the hospital. Check out this video about us created by VCU Health.

We rely on donations from the community to provide us with vases and supplies that accompany each of our bouquets. And now we need your help as we blossom into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization! Donating will help us:

1. Cover application and legal fees required to obtain nonprofit status to encourage tax-deductible charitable contributions
2. Purchase supplies including vases, notecards, buckets and gardening clippers that are used on an ongoing basis. Note: our flowers are always donated, never bought!
3. Reimburse volunteers for gas and vehicle use during weekly volunteer events 
4. Cover the annual cost of website hosting
5. Create “starter kits” to open new chapters at other hospitals and medical schools throughout the country
6. Establish and maintain a source of funds for unanticipated expenses

We’ve just been featured in the Washington Post, as well as on NBC12 and in the Richmond Times Dispatch! Visit out our website  to learn more about who we are and see the research demonstrating the benefits of bringing nature closer to hospital patients.

Please share our fundraiser with your family and friends using our hashtag #FlowerPower. Thank you from us and all of our patients.

Warmly,

Eleanor Love, Founder & Director
Olivia Lee, President
Jenna Langbein, Vice President
Taylor Karns, Treasurer