Last month, I took my team to Cortez as my company, GoldBug, continues to focus its corporate giving on improving maternal health. Good philanthropy is not a spectator sport, and getting to know the communities where you invest matters. On my last trip, we met a new mom who had a master’s degree from the University of Denver who was trying to make ends meet by working at a local gas station and relying on her father to provide child care while she was at work. Motherhood is stressful enough without worrying about whether you can keep your job if you need the morning off to take your baby to the doctor.

The core of our business is about serving moms and babies. Accordingly, we have invested in a doula program at Denver Health, and more recently, in a guaranteed income project in Colorado aimed at supporting maternal and infant physical and mental health through economic stability.

Twenty moms in a mix of urban Denver and rural Cortez are receiving cash support of $750 a month with no strings attached for 15 months through the Healthy Beginnings program, starting in their third trimester of pregnancy. Local health partners recruited moms who were 18 or over and experiencing financial hardship. In addition to their monthly support, they received extra funds for attending medical appointments.

It is the first guaranteed income pilot in Colorado focused on maternal health — and the only one in the country to be funded by a private company. The program is based on extensive research that shows early childhood trauma — the risk of which is increased by living in poverty — leads to impaired neurodevelopment, as well as cognitive, emotional and social challenges. Left unaddressed, these issues persist throughout a person’s life leading to increased costs in social services and the judicial system, and decreased workforce participation. Ultimately, more systems dependence and less empowerment.

It is not hyperbole to say that maternal health is a matter of life and death, with experts estimating exposure to early childhood trauma can lower life expectancy by 20 years. In addition to the potential benefits for the child, we are equally concerned with improving a mother’s well-being. Suicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant women in Colorado and higher than the national average. Providing economic support to new mothers is a crucial tool to improving these outcomes for babies and moms.

This is why we supported two innovative policies that were passed during this legislative session. Colorado is cutting edge in establishing the Income Tax Credit for Careworkers and the Family Affordability Tax Credit. The Colorado Children’s Campaign estimates that the Careworker Tax Credit will bring an estimated $60 million of much needed resources to child care providers each year. The Family Affordability Tax Credit was modeled on the successful, but short-lived expanded child tax credit and can bring up to $3,200 per child per year of flexible funding for families.

To inform this pilot and better public policy like the tax credit, we are collecting important data related to health access, mental health care, and overall well-being of both the moms we are serving and their beautiful babies. And we are learning a lot.

We know that 75% of our participants participate in WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) and HealthFirst CO programs to help cover food and health care-related costs. Almost half the moms were not able to make minimum payments on their existing debt before starting the program, and 85% of the participants fell below the national average on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s financial well-being scale. In addition to the payments we’re making to moms, we are also investing in research on how the funds are impacting them and their babies.

We have data from a national program that shows that programs like this can be transformative. The expanded Child Tax Credit, which provided up to $300 a month to nearly every parent in America in 2021, was our greatest tool ever in fighting childhood poverty. Parents continued to work, and spent the money on basic needs. The outcomes were significant, with poverty rates for children dropping by nearly half. The month it expired, childhood poverty skyrocketed more than 40%. There is an ongoing bipartisan effort in Congress to reinstate it, though it has stalled amid Capitol Hill dysfunction.

For the time being, we are trying to do our part here in Colorado as a company that was built for moms and their babies. On our most recent visit to Cortez, we met with community advocates and health care providers and listened to the moms that we are serving. The takeaway for me is that — among the unique circumstances of each family — the one great unifier is a mother’s instinct. And the data we are collecting through surveys and round table discussions supports that. One participant tapped into how most of us feel as first-time mothers, saying that she was anxious about her pregnancy because she didn’t want to “mess up [her] kid by being ignorant to something, or by passing down generational trauma.” As the CEO of a successful children’s accessory company based in Denver, I wear many hats and play several roles as a community leader, a board member, a friend and a neighbor. But most importantly, and what takes precedence over all of that, is being a mom.

As I know with my son, I possess a mother’s instinct and connection with my child that does not discriminate across class or race or geographic boundaries. No one knows better than I do how to show up as a mom for my child. So, why should our social safety net programs tell moms of lesser resources how they should care for their children? If you are a mom, you know that the term “mother knows best” is more than just a cliche.

You do what it takes to get the job done and your life is truly defined by the experience. I was never more aware of this than listening to the new moms talking about their babies. There is without question a shared experience: there is sadness and joy, there is enormous stress and fatigue. There are relationship challenges and feelings of isolation.

And there is determination and a love for your child that transcends everything. The moms told us that the additional resources they receive allow them to focus on things that bring them joy, like exercise and spending time with their newborn and family. They talked about the stresses of managing finances in the context of their existing relationships and the loneliness and isolation that comes with motherhood, especially when living in a rural community.

As we look at results in the first few months, we see what the moms are spending their money on, and that data proves that a mother’s instinct runs deep. With the ability to spend their cash resources on anything they want, the moms spent most of their allocations on the basics: 46% on food, 13% on transportation, and 11% on utilities.

Nothing fancy or outrageous here. In our surveys and first roundtable discussion, they talked about being able to buy better quality food and about paying down debt. They spent the money on things that would help their babies thrive. Unsurprisingly, their instinct is to provide for their babies, and with the resources available to them, moms do rise to the occasion.

I left Cortez knowing that the shared experience ends with the fact that many moms don’t have the basic resources they need to follow their mother’s instinct. As a company, we believe that through our giving, we are also learning and identifying ways to positively impact maternal health and support moms and babies. I am a firm believer that I have a responsibility as a business owner to truly care for my customers. These projects are a way for us to give back and invest in change.

As a member of the private sector, I can encumber risk and execute more quickly and efficiently than the government. We can catalyze and innovate, but it is up to our public sector leaders to advance proven interventions like the Family Affordability Tax Credit.

We believe an opportunity exists for us to work across sectors locally and nationally to inform better public policy related to benefits and maternal health and ensure that every mom has the support they need to raise a healthy baby. And we are just getting started.

Katherine Gold is CEO and president of GoldBug, a 55-year-old woman-owned enterprise in Denver. As a mom and working professional, Katherine has led the company to be a market leader in the infant and children’s accessory space, and has demonstrated a consistent commitment to philanthropy. She serves as the treasurer of the American Apparel and Footwear Association and also serves on the boards of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and Delivering Good. She held previous positions as the board chair of the Rose Community Foundation and the Colorado Children’s Campaign. GoldBug has made a commitment to engage in initiatives to improve maternal health outcomes locally and nationally.