On December 1st, I began a letter writing campaign that would see $1495 raised for Cabrini Connections by mid-January. The day before, on November 30th, we met as staff to discuss plans for the 2010 Holiday Appeal. Each year we send letters out to our database of past donors and volunteers. An official letter was written up, but our president, Dan Bassill, encouraged us to add a personal touch. I decided to kick it up a notch.In the envelopes that I sent out in December and early January, I included a full-page, personalized, hand-written letter, at least one photo print, a link to my fundraising page, the standard Holiday Appeal letter, a donation form, and a return envelope. This was a great opportunity to catch up with family and friends, both on a personal and professional level. I really enjoyed the process.
Who did I write to? A lot of people - over 50 in total. I made a network map with hubs for family, my closest group of friends, friends from home (Florida), connections from school (Northwestern), and businesses like my doctors and pet services. This is something that anyone can do. It is a useful strategy for targeting potential donors, but also in general for keeping in touch with and utilizing your network.
I would like to thank all 28 individuals, families, and businesses that donated to my fundraising campaign. We raised $1495 which is an average of over $50 per person. We did this in six weeks which is an average of almost $250 a week. If this went on all year it would be almost $13,000!
Thank you for your generous donations and continued support in dollars, in-kind donations, connections to other resources and potential funders, and words of encouragement. It means a lot to me and our 87 mentors, volunteer coordinators, and club leaders who work with 73 youth on a weekly basis.
Donors
Blum Animal Hospital
Greg Cera
Arnold K. Chernoff, D.D.S.
Stuart Cleland & Karen Koerth
Wayne & Anne Coloney
Ryan Erickson
Max Fletcher
Bonnie Fowler
Natalie Furlett
Anurekha Gollapudi
Anne Griffin
The Kiani Family
Barry & Nancy Lethbridge
Emily Machado
Parag Mahajan
David Nelson
Meixi Ng
Austin Perry
Lauren Pietrocarlo
Deb Reed
Bill & Sheila Ryan
Sam Schiller
Elwin Schott
Nicky Smith
St. Vincent de Paul Society
Bradley Troast
Henry, Peggy, and Celine Troast
The Yilmaz Family
Every year we have more than 100 volunteers actively involved, from those who tutor and mentor to those on the Advisory Council and Board. In addition we have more than 800 former volunteers and 500 former students.
ReplyDeleteIf everyone were to do what Bradley did in December, this group could be generating more of the dollars needed every year to operate Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.
I hope Bradley's example will inspire more to take this role.