Modest Needs Foundation is a national non-profit organization that relies upon human kindness and donations from individuals to help those who face small yet potentially catastrophic, emergency expenses they cannot afford to cover alone.
These expenses could be a car repair, rent for a month or utility bills.
For Lisa Bova, it was covering the mortgage of the Brooklyn home she's lived in for decades. Since becoming a single mother, her modest salary at a non-profit couldn't pay the mortgage so she turned to another non-profit for help.
"I would have been delinquent and my credit score would have been worse than it is and I wouldn't have been able to start a life for me and my children," she said. "You just never think that you're in the same kind of need, but when reality hits, it hits."
The reality was that Bova couldn't keep up and that's where Modest Needs came to the rescue.
People can go to modestneeds.org to read about more people in need of modest help. Or learn more about applying for help. If you qualify, anonymous donors give more than just money, but light at the end of the tunnel. This was true for Bova, who received more than $2,300 to cover her mortgage, and she hopes to be able to refinance to get by on her own next month.
"I truly can't even begin to tell you what it meant to this family and for me because I want to do it on my own," she said. "I'm trying so hard and without this help I wouldn't be able to do it. And I look forward to helping someone else as I've been helped."
Applications are now being accepted for Modest Needs' "Bridge Grants" -- financial assistance for newly unemployed people, which will cover rent, car payments, child care or other kinds of expenses that are essential in helping them land a new job. The Bridge Grant is predicated on the idea that a few hundred dollars, if timed correctly, has the power to keep an entire family afloat during those precarious first 90 days of job-searching or awaiting unemployment benefits.
