Ike Nwankwo, a 2013 Kellstadt Graduate School of Business alum, started the nonprofit Cardz For Kidz in 2010 to provide handmade cards to children in hospitals. (Photo courtesy of Ike Nwankwo)
Cards designed by DePaul community members for the nonprofit, Cardz For Kidz. (Photo courtesy of DePaul Alumni Relations)
Cards made for the nonprofit Cardz For Kidz. (Photo courtesy of Cardz For Kidz)
Cards made for the nonprofit Cardz For Kidz. (Photo courtesy of Cardz For Kidz)
Ike Nwankwo, a 2013 Kellstadt Graduate School of Business alum, started the nonprofit
Cardz For Kidz in 2010 to provide handmade cards to children in hospitals. Fifteen years later, Cardz For Kidz has exploded, delivering over 700,000 cards since 2020 to children, families, seniors and veterans in hospitals, schools, senior living facilities and other nonprofit organizations around the world.
Cardz For Kidz runs on volunteers, says Nwankwo, with DePaul community members playing a key role. In addition to support from Alumni Relations and DePaul Athletics through the years, student interns from
Brother Mark Elder cm’s Art 383 “Service Learning in the Arts Internship” course have routinely served as multi-media assistants.
“A lot of organizations emphasize community service in their mission or core values, but so many folks at DePaul have put that into action by volunteering with Cardz For Kidz. I call it ‘Vincentians in action,’” Nwankwo says.
“And frankly, that level of care from DePaul has been consistent — from the lady whose kindness over the phone convinced me to attend DePaul for my MBA to Brother Mark consistently sending students to Cardz For Kidz who are ready to help in any way,” he added.
This fall, Art School student Meredith Anderson created an informational video for Cardz For Kidz titled “
Life of a Card.” The video offers a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a card, showing how it travels from artists to uplifting the spirits of overcomers around the world.
“I’m motivated to use my design skills in ways that support existing community efforts, which made interning with Cardz for Kidz a meaningful overlap of design and service,” says Anderson, who’s majoring in art with minors in animation and graphic design.
“Getting to experience the energy that Cardz For Kidz leaders cultivate was beyond inspiring. Whenever a new volunteer walks into the room, Ike (Nwankwo) welcomes them by asking, ‘Are you ready to change the world one card at a time?’ His ethos on the impact we can make when we show strangers they are seen and human certainly rubbed off on me. I knew that if I could capture even an ounce of his spirit in my animation project, it could inspire volunteers for years to come,” Anderson adds.
From caring for patients to becoming the patient
Nwankwo began volunteering at a children’s hospital in Michigan in the summer before high school and continued his work at the hospital through college. In 2005, he became a patient, undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy in the very same hospital he had been volunteering in for over five years. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Nwankwo moved to Chicago and began volunteering at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Through his experiences as a volunteer and a patient, he was inspired to start Cardz For Kidz.
How it works
Volunteers from around the globe hand make cards that are uplifting and suitable for year-round delivery. Those cards are then sent to Cardz For Kidz headquarters in Chicago. Cardz For Kidz volunteers review the cards before sorting and sending them to organizations around the world who have requested cards. In the last quarter of 2025, Cardz for Kidz shipped nearly 50,000 handmade cards to not only patients, but the families of patients, veterans, orphanages, seniors and others going through transition periods in their lives who could use some encouragement or an uplifting message.
How you can help