Helping Hands for Single Moms, Phoenix

Helping Hands for Single Moms’ (HHSM) mission is assisting low income single mom families as the mother attains a college education, financial independence, and positive family legacy.

Founder Chris Coffman was inspired to create HHSM when confronted with a young boy wandering the streets whose single mom was asleep at home. His vision began initially as a pilot project in 2002 and advanced through collaborative research with Arizona State

University’s Partnership for Community Development. Since then, the award winning program has provided over $5 million in scholarships and supportive services to hundreds of low-income single mom college student families.

Since our launch in Phoenix, 237 single moms have graduated with an average 3.2 GPA and near 80% graduation rate. In 2017 the average annual earnings of recent graduates was over $50,000, a dramatic increase from the $9,700 income reported on their initial scholarship application. College Success Arizona published a study demonstrating each college graduate over their lifetime contributes an average of $600,000 into the Arizona economy through taxes
paid, increased pay, and reduced social services. This means our existing 237 graduates are on their way to contributing over $142.2 million back into the Arizona economy.

The 2017 reported revenue for our Phoenix affiliate was $536,597 with expenses of $494,599. Expenses were allocated at 85% program, 5% fundraising and 10% administrative.