I hope this Mission Moment Monday message inspires you as much as it did me. I recently received this email from Jody Hudson, Director of Development and Communications at Creative Care for Reaching Independence. I’m honored she calls me her mentor.
Jody and her team have created fundraising transformation in their organization. The staff and board now continually build relationships by sharing mission moments and their money story.
Hi there Lori,
I was thinking about what I’m grateful for and your name immediately popped into my head! I’m not certain that I thanked you enough when we were working together – so I thought I would thank you today by sharing with you how your tips and trainings transformed how we fundraise.
If you recall, when we first started working with you in 2013, our largest donation was $500. I remember you telling us that things take time and stressed the importance of telling our story and making relationships.
You were so right!
Last we spoke, I shared with you that we paid off our multi-million dollar building – that was a great accomplishment, but something happened in October that you just have to know about!!
At the end of August we started a capital campaign we call #Build4TheGuys. The project came pretty quickly and wasn’t something we had anticipated for 2018.
My team, which consists of three of us who are part-time, quickly sprang into action. We had a groundbreaking, met the new neighbors, and pitched our story to the press.
We shared our story via appeals, social media, and in our electronic newsletter and even used the entire homepage of our website for the project. The momentum has been building as our community embraced the project.
The next thing that happened…. We received a $50,000 donation from an anonymous donor! Can you even?!!!
The donor asked us to use half the donation as a matching opportunity at an October event. We did it! We even exceeded the $25,000! The project will take $347,000 of unplanned fundraising and we only have a $184,000 funding gap just two months into the campaign.
Thank you for showing us how to share our story, how to easily talk about our funding gaps, and how to connect people with our cause!
I’m grateful for all the bootcamps and difficult assignments – but most of all, for always having your support. Thanks for being a wonderful mentor.
Jody Hudson
Director of Development and Communications
Creative Care for Reaching Independence
Want to see these kinds of results for your fundraising campaigns? Secure your 1:1 coaching spot with Lori!
