How it Works:Anyone can leave a heartfelt note of encouragement. We print & ship them to hospitals for free. Each note is given to a medical worker or patient.
Inspiration
Two years before the pandemic, I was quarantined due to an eye condition. During that time, I felt incredibly lonely and anxious, so it meant the world to me whenever I received a get-well-soon card. There is something so powerful in receiving a physical message in a time of need—it shows that you’re not alone.
Surprisingly, the card that struck me the most was not from my friends or family, but from a girl my age who I didn’t even know. The fact that a stranger was thinking of me in my most difficult time was so unusually kind that it left an imprint even years later.
Fast forward to a global lockdown, I asked a simple question: how can we show those suffering that there are people out there who care? That’s where Notes for Support was born.
Some decisions & things I learned
Why notes? And how did I get hospitals on board?
Not everyone can write a letter. Anyone can write a note. I wanted to eliminate any possible factors barring people from contributing, hence the one-liner:
“Send a thoughtful note in minutes. It's free, quick, and no personal info is required.”
I think the fact that it was so easy to submit a message was the reason why we grew so quickly. The emphasis on privacy also paved way for schools and companies to participate down the line.
On contacting hospitals: this took up 80% of my time at the start. I think, in total, I cold-called over a hundred hospitals and got redirected at least 3 times per call. I only found out a year later that this was because most hospital volunteer departments shut down due to COVID. Super draining, but I learned a lot, mostly that hospitals play music on hold, too.
Why print in the first place?
I was asked this a LOT by users, companies, and hospitals alike. Sending letters digitally would have eliminated the manual work entirely (+ $$$) and thus made our lives a lot easier. I considered this route many, many times (and even started building the platform), but ultimately decided against it.
I wanted each message to be as personalas possible, and a physical note adds a human touch that no screen can substitute. This was always my initial intention, and not something I was willing to compromise.
I think this, and attention to detail—from the texture of the cardstock to the handwritten fonts—was why these notes were so meaningful to people and had the responses they had. But this was also the reason why we ran into so many problems, namely:
A ton of manual labor + rapid growth = unsustainable model
At the height of the pandemic, we regularly received thousands of new visitors and dozens of hospital requests, meaning our manual labor grew almost exponentially. If I regret anything, it is this, because there was a clear supply and demand, and perhaps someone with more capacity could have fulfilled it.
While I did later get volunteers for other roles, actually producing and sending the notes remained on my end. This was because hospitals were strict about possible contamination and there were simply too many added costs/complications that came with outsourcing this task.
In hindsight, I should have figured out a way to address this issue, because my mom, sister, and I ended up spending, at minimum, 3-6 hours a day just making the cards alone. I’m not saying this with pride—there’s clearly something wrong if a model is dependent on the manual work of three people. While I did figure out some ways to automate the printing process, this issue was the primary reason why we could no longer continue.
Final thoughts
The reason why I held off from writing this for so long is that the people, the journey, and the lessons I learned from it were far too vast and meaningful that there is no way I could cover it all. I will always be grateful to the sponsors, note writers, and volunteers that helped make this happen, some of whom I’ve addressed here.
I'm humbled and amazed by every single note we've received, from people in large cities like Sao Paulo to beautiful islands like Fiji, from five-year-olds “staying at home” to a retired journalist in his nineties. Even after reading dozens of thousands of notes, I am struck by each one we receive. I cannot express how heartfelt, deeply personal, and moving these messages are. They have made me cry, laugh, and smile, and even now, one, two years later, there are some notes I remember as distinctly as I first read them.
Amid a global crisis, thousands of people shared a part of themselves with strangers who were suffering. It still blows me away.
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