Each month, Thurston Community Media (TCMedia)’s Mission Nonprofit connects with local organizations and agencies that positively impact our communities. In December 2024, Mission Nonprofit host Deborah Vinsel sat down with Courtney Prothero and Charli Terminelli, co-presidents of the 4 The Love Foundation.
Founded in 2021, 4 The Love Foundation is a relatively new nonprofit in Thurston County, founded by Tessa Effland and Nicole Andres to fill a gap they saw in our community. They created a powerful network to support those in need in Thurston County.
“Nicole and Tessa basically started with a small fundraiser for a dear friend with terminal cancer,” shares Courtney. “That sort of shifted into them realizing that they were really really good at getting people inspired and motivated and really good at fundraising and so through that they did a few different fundraisers – just very small, local fundraisers – but they always raised quite a bit of money and also importantly, awareness.”
During the pandemic, they also served meals to families and tried to provide whatever they could to help their community. Courtney got involved helping them provide meals through the schools.
4 The Love Foundation
Today, the 4 The Love Foundation helps Thurston County residents in a variety of ways, including financial aid; housing support including rent or mortgage assistance and hotel costs for those who have been evicted or are homeless; food support; gas support; domestic violence survivor support including financial assistance to help people remove themselves from an unsafe environment; Christmas gifts for foster kids; and gap-filling assistance, which is helping fill in where other assistance may have fallen short.
The nonprofit works quickly, to help people that need immediate assistance – whether that’s a paid hotel room, groceries or gas to get to a job or job interview or late-night assistance in escaping to a safe space. 4 The Love Foundation helps with tutoring for children and even legal consultations for adults who need it.
They also do yearly events, like their July Triathlon in honor of Sally Otton, where proceeds go to the Michael J. Fox Parkinson’s Research Foundation. And their 4 the Love Gala in February.
4 The Love partners with other local nonprofits including TOGETHER!, Family Support Center, ACU Foundation, Community Action Council and more. Everything is done confidentially as well. “We will help people in Peirce County,” adds Charli.
For those in need of assistance, you can fill out the form on the 4 The Love Foundation website.
How You Can Help 4 The Love Foundation
The 4 The Love Foundation is always in need of volunteers for events. You can fill out the form on the Support Us webpage. And of course, you can always make a monetary donation online as well. They are currently 100% community funded so very dollar counts to help make a difference to our neighbors.
For more information, watch the full video above or visit the 4 The Love Foundation website.
You can watch Mission Nonprofit on channel 22 on Sundays at 3:30 p.m., Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m., Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., and Saturdays at 10 a.m. You can also watch on TCMedia website, Video On-Demand or our Roku channel. To learn more about what TCMedia does, visit the Thurston Community Media YouTube channel or the TC Media website and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
