Well, I know I said that I would do a more complete blog last weekend, but as you may have seen, it did not happen. I told you last time that my laptop died a week ago today. I currently do not have the means to fix it. This past week has been a busy one for me personally. I have found quite a productive spirit in me getting the house a little bit more organized. I set up my desktop computer. I have not been able to set up the internet on it, yet. It does not have wireless and my 50 foot cord was about 20 feet short of reaching our router. Tonight I bought a longer cord and I hope to finish that set up tomorrow. On Tuesday, I met and was hired by a lady who runs her own eBay business as a personal assistant. I had my first day on the job the very next day. She let me borrow one of her extra laptops which I am on now. I am glad to be busy, but it does take away from time to actively, intentionally pursue my mission to bring back PSP.
In my first blog of this series, I said I wanted to share stories of the kids and other aspects of the program. I still can do that, however, my original format of including my pictures to go with the stories will have to wait as they are all on my laptop :( For today's blog I will be focusing mainly on what I have been learning. My textbook of choice currently is "Effective Fundraising for Nonprofits, real-world strategies that work". I have read through chapter 2 at this point. From reading this, it definitely seems the more people you have on your team the better your business can function. I find that to be a rather obvious statement, but it is something the book has been promoting thus far. One thing I did not know a lot about before reading this book was the function of the Board of Directors. Just like the Executive Director, their main job is to fund raise as well. I also learned about different resources for finding volunteers. Apparently, there are organizations made for other organizations to locate just these types of people. The book also talks about ways to keep your volunteers coming back by giving them tasks that connect them to the organization.
Toward the end of chapter 2 was a section that asked "Can you pitch your nonprofit in the space of an elevator ride?" I wanted to include my answers to the questions they suggested a person involved in the program should be able to answer.
-What would you do with $10,000? That money would be used toward supplies for the program for our reading program as well as craft projects. We could also use the money for the field trips that we go on and the t-shirts we give the kids so we can identify them as part of our group when we are out on these field trips. The field trips that we go on each week are something that all of our participants look forward to at the end of each week.
-Tell me about the needs of your constituency (any body of supporters, customers, or clientele). The participants that we serve our mainly low income families. There are several children who come each year that have had their fair share of time in the foster care system. We have even had some families in our program who were homeless. All of the families we work with our doing their best to provide everything they can for their children. I know first hand that it is not easy to get out of the cycle of poverty that many of these families face. These busy, hardworking families sometimes are not able to be home with their children because of the hours they have to put in to provide for their families. I see lots of our families rushing to drop off their children so they can hurry off to work. Sometimes this means they do not have time to give their children breakfast in the morning and they are dropped off hungry. This last year, to help with this problem, we began serving breakfast as the first part of our day.
-Who are the other service providers in your field and what makes you special? There are many other summer programs in the greater Portland area. We are special mainly because of the price of our program. The average price of a summer program is usually around $500. It costs about the same amount for us to put on our program, however, we charge based on a participants school lunch status (free, reduced, or standard). Most of the people who come to our program our on free lunch status. I also think a special part of our program is our focus on the bible. I know this is not entirely unique to us, but it is something not all offer that I find makes that much more of a difference in the lives of these children.
-Tell me about the composition of your board of directors. This is not a statement I can really comment on at this time, as this is all still a dream. The types of people I will be looking for to be a part of our board of directors will most importantly include those who believe in PSP. They will also be active God followers who enjoy connecting with people. Bonus points for those who have experience fundraising or other money skills. As the book stated, the first two our inherit in people, the last part can be taught.
-What made you get into this field? I got into this field by a phone call. I literally received a phone call asking me to come help out this program because the people they were expecting to show up cancelled last minute. I had the time, so I did. I quickly made connections with these children that I will never forget. I was asked to help for one week. I stayed for two, kept coming back the following summers, and have not stopped, yet. I believe in this program. The change that happens in anyone who puts their heart into it. It is amazing.
I probably should work on summarizing some of those answers more, but this was a good start for me as well as a good way for you to begin to see the need for PSP to be a part of children's lives once again.
I also started reading chapter 3. It talks about budgets and the importance of having an idea ahead of time of the things you may spend on and adjusting it at least once a year to reflect actual spending.
For those who have tuned in for through the end of today's blog, I applaud you. I know these topics are not the most exciting things. It mainly is to help keep me accountable. I do appreciate any of you with interest in what I have been doing. I promise there will be more interesting blogs in the future.
Till next time, take care my friends!
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