Time to get back on track. I will be taking on our secretarial duties for the time being. Just not ready to 'replace' Carol, as if that were even possible. I am submitting a change of address to the Secretary of State this week.
After our information is updated, I will begin to finalize plans for this years' fundraising. There are several ideas that I will bringing to my remaining board members for consideration: 1.) I would like to work with the local high schools again this year. We did this our first year in operation and it was a great experience for all. 2.) I would like to use the help of said student volunteers to do a 'door-to-door' fundraiser, selling flower bulbs for spring, and cookie dough in the summer. These fundraisers cost nothing up front, and they provide free flyers and order forms. All we need are the volunteers! 3. I have started a 'Warm Blanket Fundraiser' on razoo.com. Coming home from an outing in Seattle on Christmas eve, my kids and I saw many people sleeping on sidewalks on that cold night. What we'd like to do is to make or buy enough blankets to distribute to at least a whole block. However, so far we've ony received a single donation...and truth be told, that 'anonymous' donor was me. I hated seeing the '0' and was hoping that maybe, if I made the first donation, others might follow. Still very early though. 4.) I am hoping to submit our application in time for Taco Time's free fundraising coupon books. They have already started distribution, but continue to take apps until the books run out, or until the end of February, whichever comes first. We could also use student volunteers to sell these outside of Walmart, Target, etc. I admit that I have done, and most likely will continue to do, a lot of experimenting with Our Shared Hopes. As I said in the beginning, I have absolutely no experience with this...just a very strong desire to help. I will keep trying this and trying that until we find our niche. And while I do alot of this 'experimenting' on my own, when I come across something that can work for us, I will take that idea to the other members of Our Shared Hopes. If anyone has a fundraising idea or suggestion, please feel free to email me at nikki@oursharedhopes.org . =)
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It is with a heavy heart that I must post that Carol Yeaman passed away Monday night. She was our Secretary-Treasurer. Carol was a very sweet, caring person who will be missed very much.
We will never forget you, Carol. And you will be especially missed during the holidays... CookbooksI have finished entering in recipes for our cookbooks! I'm hoping to get these published in time to fundraise for the 2013 holiday season. We will be meeting sometime in the near future to go over cover ideas, etc. The Morris Cookbook Company offers publishing on credit for non-profit organizations. I'm hoping we qualify even though we're still so small and new. If we can sell cookbooks this year for our fundraising, I know we'll be able to reach out to alot more families! Web SiteOur website, www.oursharedhopes.org, is back up and running! Due to finances, we had to use the free version for the past year or so, with the unproffessional '.weebly.com' url. I think the '.org' looks alot better, don't you? =)
We have our EIN number!! =) Have to wait up to 2 weeks for it to become part of the IRS's database so we can get our TIN and start applying for grants, but we're on our way! I have also requested our DUNS number, which is also needed to register on the grants.gov website before we can start applying. I should get that one by email in 1-2 days.
I have submitted an application with the Charitable Programs division of the Secretary of State for Our Shared Hopes. First plus over the non-profit application.....this time it was free! =) Next I will file for an EIN number with the IRS...which is also free. Our tax-exempt status is 'Automatically Exempt' - as long as we are below the income limit of $5000 each year. (last year we received apprx. $500 in donations) =D
Had a great meeting tonight! A huge thank you to Angie Camp for stopping by and sharing her experiences with non-profits and the tax-exempt status process! We have decided to give up our non-profit corporation status (for the time being), and change our structure to a basic Charitable Organization for the next few years until we are better equipped to handle the requirements and fees associated with the non-profit status. This will not change our mission or goals, but will simply change our tax classification to a better one while we get this organization on more solid ground.
In response to low turnouts this past year, we have decided against holding meal events for the 2011 holiday season. Instead, we will host a toy drive, and sponsor families from the local school districts. We will provide a food basket, containing everything needed to prepare a complete holiday meal, to at-risk families in our communities. This will be done for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, with the addition of gifts for the children at Christmas. We will return to our meal events once our tax-exempt status is obtained. At that time, we will be able to solicit donations from large corporations, as well as to apply for grants, to be applied to the rental of halls within the Tacoma ci...ty limits, where we can reach out to people who are literally living on the streets and bring them into a warm, festive atmosphere where they can relax and enjoy a full holiday meal. We will be inviting Stew Bowen, the director of the Bonney Lake Food Bank, to our September meeting in order to learn more about the 'Backpack' program for the local schools. At that time, we will also inquire of the possibility of helping with the holiday meal baskets that the food bank provides to low income families in our area. Our 2nd event is right around the corner, an Easter Dinner and Egg Hunt! Once again, we will hold our event at the Marion Grange in Buckley. This time, we hope to attract more families by offering a full dinner meal, along with an egg hunt for the kids, rather than just a brunch.
We will be serving turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, yams, mixed vegetables, dinner rolls, and a variety of desserts! Our egg hunt will consist of plastic eggs filled with candy or coins, and we are working on obtaining a few Easter baskets to use as rewards for finding a special egg(s)! We are in need of both volunteers and donations for this event! If you are interested in helping out, visit our 'Volunteer' page and fill out our contact form. If interested in making a donation of food/non-food items, or to make a cash donation, visit our 'Donation' page and either fill out the contact form or use the "Donate" button located near the bottom of the page. To see a list of needed items, please visit the 'Donate' page and click on the link at the top to be taken to our "Donations Needed" page. Thank you all for your wonderful support during our Christmas Event! We hope that our Easter Dinner and Egg Hunt will be even more successful with your help! Well, our Christmas Brunch was very small, but a success nonetheless! We considered it a practice run, and learned alot. First of all, I need to make sure I have a ride that will guarantee that I am there on time, as a half hour late would have been disastrous had there actually been people lined up at the door at 10am. lol We also decided that a brunch was a little too early for folks on Christmas day, and will hold dinners from now on. I also think a traditional meal would attract alot more people who can't make one themselves at home. French toast doesn't really replace a turney with all the trimmings! So for Easter, we will hold a dinner, from approximately 3-5pm (time to be finalized at our next meeting), and offer a ham with all the sides. I would also like to have turkey, to give people more choice, but that will depend on if we have enough funds/donations. So, now to start planning for Easter! We will have our next meeting on Saturday, January 15th at the Bonney Lake Library, from 6-7pm! Feel free to join us there! We would love to see and hear from those who volunteered on Christmas, to get your feedback and ideas on how to improve at our next event! We expect alot more people will be coming, and want things to go as smoothly as possible. A huge THANK YOU to all who volunteered and donated to help us host our first event!! We are very thankful for your support...we couldn't have done this without you all! Our meeting on December 18th was by far the best! It was nice to see so many new faces there! We covered the shifts and positions that were still needed, and I'm very happy to report that all have been filled! Now to get more people signed up to attend the Brunch!
To do that, we will be contacting local food banks and visit the RV park in Buckley on Monday. We will have tickets printed out and will leave some with the food banks for distribution to families who come to them for help this week. We only have a few days to do this, but I have no doubt in my mind that we will have plenty of people to serve. This is the week where many will be stressing over what they will do for their children on Christmas, and we will be there to offer a solution. I knew everything would come together at the last moment, although I admit, I didn't think it would happen only days before the event. Still, we are prepared and ready! We have received so many cash, food and non-food donations in the past week!! We have $290 in cash donations, which will be matched $0.50 on the dollar for an extra $145!!! We definitely have the funds to cover everything needed for our very first event! And and all funds leftover will be saved and put towards our next event, the Easter Brunch! We have closed our account with Chase bank after learning of the fees we were not informed of upon opening the account. Instead of the $10 fees being imposed on all other accounts beginning in January - we learned that our account was subject to a $12 a month fee if we did not use our debit card at least 5 times each month! And we still have not received that card! So we will be depositing all funds into BECU once we get together the necessary paperwork that they have requested. Instead of just our business licence, as Chase required, we will also need to provide them with copies of our Articles of Incorporation and our Bylaws before we can open the account. I am working on obtaining those documents at this time. Oh, and Chase also charged us $25 just to close the account! Nice, huh? It was still a better option than paying $36 in monthly fees for the 90 days required to close the account for free. We will be meeting at the Buckley Library on December 23rd at 6pm to make swags and wreaths! We distributed wrapping paper to those who attended our last meeting for them to take home and cut to size for the window board covers. On Christmas Eve, we will meet at the hall at 6pm and begin decorating Yikes!! I let November slip by without a single update - the month just went by so fast! And sooo much has happened!
First of all - we opened our first bank account and deposited that wonderful check from the Marion Grange! We also started a fundraiser with Partylite and made our next 3 deposits from those sales! We have been featured in both the Bonney Lake and Enumclaw Courier Herald papers! While they mostly focused on me, which wasn't my intention, the organization was still a huge part of it. That exposure has helped to spread the word and bring in more volunteers! We are also starting an Avon fundraiser, and we will begin selling those items this weekend, December 4th and 5th, at the Rose's IGA Food Center in Buckley. Our first Partylite fundraiser will be wrapping up that same weekend - so we will be selling both products at that time!! Cash donations will also be accepted, which brings me to our next news item........ Hotshot Heating has graciously offered to match all cash donations $0.50 on the dollar!!!! They have also donated 5 free furnace repairs - parts and labor included - to any family without heat who cannot afford this service! PLUS - they will be donating 5% of all sales!!! This is a truly great company and we are so happy to have them as a sponsor! Please check out our sponsor page as we will be adding new information about Hotshot Heating very soon! To help accomodate and attract new volunteers, we have changed the dates of our monthly meetings. We will now be holding them on the 3rd Saturday of each month, instead of thursday as we have been doing. We hope that this change makes it easier for our volunteers to attend! Also - our next meeting will be held at the Bonney Lake library, rather than Buckley, due to scheduling conflicts. It will be held December 18th at 3pm. We have made this meeting mandatory for all student volunteers so that we can get an accurate head count and avoid having anyone show up at the Brunch without knowing what they will be doing at that time. We will have craft materials available at that time for them to complete either while at the meeting or to do at home. I have added a new page to this website with a list of items needed for our Brunch. It can be accessed through the 'About Our Cause' or 'Donate' pages by clicking on the link provided. You can also link to it by clicking here. Any and all food/nonfood donations would be greatly appreciated. We hope to use our cash resources exclusively for the purchase of gifts for each child as well as extra gifts to be raffled off to the adults who attend. I think I have covered everything thus far. I will publish a new post after our fundraising this weekend to keep everyone updated on our progress. Things are definitely picking up speed as we get closer to Christmas! Thanks for reading! =) |
AuthorNikki Thurston Archives
November 2023
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