Dear Helping Women Period Community,

Helping Women Period has built an incredible legacy of impact after a decade of serving our community. As we look ahead to new realities, we have made an important, but difficult, decision about our future. I will detail what our next chapter looks like, but before I do that, please take a walk back in time with me as a reminder of all that we’ve accomplished together.

  • Helping Women Period has distributed over nine million products since our inception in 2015. That means we have covered well over 500,000 periods!
  • Our distribution partnerships have been so enriching. We worked with the Greater Lansing Food Bank for nine years, directly providing period products at mobile food banks, as well as distributing in bulk to organizations that would then hand out products to their clients, such as We even purchased a delivery van that we lovingly painted bright red and named Flo to accommodate the growing volume of product distributions!
  • We advocated for statewide pro-menstrual-related laws and policies, resulting in:
  • We also worked toward larger scale change with national groups to call for national period poverty policies.
  • We strengthened the menstrual movement infrastructure by helping numerous groups around the country (and beyond!) set up their nonprofits to make a difference in their communities, and offered advice to keep their operations running smoothly.
  • We donated menstrual products to victims of earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes.
  • We tackled period stigma through education and invited curiosity with every stop of our Menstrual Product Petting Zoo. Our events were as varied as Veterans Picnics, Touch-a-Truck, back-to-school gatherings, and resource fairs, and we presented to health departments, networking events, Rotary, Kiwanis, schools, and more.
  • In this last year, we expanded our scope to include menopause and perimenopause, collaborating with the Michigan Women’s Commission.

Helping Women Period was born from the desire to raise awareness about period poverty, and we’ve done that and so much more! What started off as a shared post on Facebook in January 2015 has changed more than I ever dreamed of—and I have the support of my family, friends, volunteers, employees, and board to thank. I am incredibly proud of the impact we’ve made on the menstrual movement.

I have learned so much from being a part of Helping Women Period. I’ve learned about supply and demand, logistics, communication, and employment. HWP has taught me media handling, spreadsheets, and how much I love the former and detest the latter!

I’ve learned to look at the big picture and still make time for the details. I’ve learned through collaboration and discourse and, in turn, become a stronger person with a smaller ego. 🙂 I am more confident, kind, and compassionate than I was before we started. I have spoken with students and organizations from all over the globe, state and federal legislators, company leaders, soccer moms, and people experiencing homelessness, and my life is forever richer because of those opportunities.

It is time to go, however. Like many other nonprofits, HWP has experienced significant drops in funding and donations, while facing raising prices for menstrual products. After many exploratory conversations with partners about absorbing or taking over operations, there unfortunately wasn’t a good fit at this time. And while there is still a huge need for menstrual products, I am confident that other local, national, and international organizations will carry on the mantle and continue fighting against period poverty through education, advocacy, and product distribution.

For all of these reasons, HWP has made the difficult decision to wind down our operations as of July 15, 2026. This means that by July 15, we will have made our last period product distributions, shared a final thank-you with our partners, posted our final social media posts, and carried out the terms of our final grants.

Our legacy and impact will always remain. Please continue to cherish all that we have built together. Please continue to cheer on the local and national organizations continuing the fight against period poverty.

I will miss everyone I have met during this journey, and especially all of you in the incredible Helping Women Period community who made this work possible. I am so proud that what we did mattered. I wish my partners and colleagues and product recipients all the best.

If you are so inclined, please do stay in touch to see what’s next! I am looking forward to spending a bit more time with my family and my dogs, and working on my next book.

Thank you again for being on this journey with Helping Women Period.

In community,

Lysne

Lysne Tait
Executive Director