August/September Entry (sorry)

So far I've created a 15 page draft of a business plan for the organization, made a presentation about the organization that might be turned into a video and I've been meeting with different people from other non profits for fundraising and outreach. We're trying to raise $5000 by January 1st so we can keep one of our volunteers in the country. She's an international student from India and her visa expires in January so she has to get a paying job by Jan or she'll have to go back to India. If we get the $5000 it'll cover paying her minimum wage at 20 hours/week for 6 months which will allow her to stay here.

It's slightly overwhelming to think about because whether or not I raise enough money it'll affect her future.

I'd like to think I'm persistent and determined enough to raise the money.
Even if it comes down to crying at Phil Hall's door step at night. (kinda kidding)

The current project I'm working on is drafting a summary about MVHub software which the organization developed and currently maintains. Then I will possibly work with a volunteer through Jericho Road who can make it into a brochure. The brochure will be given to potential sponsors and community members.

Another project I'm working on is donor management and Quickbooks. Since the organization doesn't have an organized system of tracking who has donated or their information, I've been searching through folders to find information on donations from the past 4 years.

My next big project will be planning a fund-raising lunch for October/November. The event will hopefully accomplish raising half of our fund-raising goal.

I've worked on other random tasks in between my projects like create business cards for all the volunteers in the organization and confute a fine from the IRS.

Besides that everything else is going well! I really like Lowell and my roommates are awesome. They're really into music and playing instruments so we have 4 guitars, a keyboard, a violin and a bongo in our living room haha. It's cool!

Comment from Mira Allen on September 22, 2009 - 3:39pm

I worked with someone from Jericho Road during my VISTA stint at 119 Gallery. It was great! That's a really great org.