Grant Applicant: Love Not Lost

The feature below is brought to you by Love Not Lost, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. 

To learn more about Love Not Lost,
​ please visit their website: here.

After losing my daughter to a terminal illness, photos were one thing I could turn to that provided deep comfort. If I sat with them and ugly-cried, I didn't have to worry about any judgement for the snot pouring out of my nose. They gave me freedom and space to grieve however I needed to in that moment. The tangible prints allowed me to hold my little girl when she was no longer here to hold.

Recognizing the power photos have to bring comfort and healing, I wanted to give that gift to others and started Love Not Lost. We photograph people facing a terminal diagnosis and provide a free portrait session as well as a beautiful hand-crafted album. We're on a mission to celebrate life, preserve memories, and support people in grief. The driving question of Love Not Lost is "How can we love people better?"

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Since our first grant with See Beautiful, we've grown tremendously! We've added photographer volunteers in Atlanta, partnered with local hospices, partnered with Northside Hospital's oncology centers across the state of GA, and we have plans to keep growing. A grant from See Beautiful would continue to allow us to serve people facing a terminal diagnosis, as well as refine our systems in our photographer program in Atlanta that we will take to cities across the US.

In addition to our photographer program, we've added a grief support program that naturally came when we asked the question "How can we love people better?" It's one thing for us to show up for these families to preserve their memories and support them, but we recognize it's even more powerful when friends and family show up to support them too. Often times, people don't know what to say or what to do to help people so they don't do anything, leaving their loved one feeling alone and abandoned in times of need.

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We want to change that, so we've created grief and empathy tools you can request on our website to equip you with ways to tangibly show up for the people you love when you don't have the words. We're developing a grief support library and resource page to support our greater community in addition to the people we serve directly. Our hope is that we can see beautiful, even in the midst of grief and suffering, so that we can be a people who show up to support others when they need it most.

There is so much more work to be done, but the grants from See Beautiful and support from generous donors have allowed us to make an incredible impact in 2017. This year, we're growing exponentially and are so excited to bring Love Not Lost to a new city in 2019. If you want to request resources, make a donation, or learn more about Love Not Lost, please visit our website at www.lovenotlost.org and follow us @lovenotlostorg. Thank you!

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Written by Ashley Jones, Founder of Love Not Lost

Edited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful