Positive Energy Creates Momentum for Guatemalan Widows
It is the end of another year of administrating our organization, and what a challenging one it was. Collectively, our board struggled with the loss of an adult child and the wedding of another; a husband’s surgery and a board member’s cancer scare; the loss of grant opportunities balanced by the generosity of donors who gave in the name of the loved one who passed.
Our Energy Needed Boosting
In other words, the ebb and flow of our emotions and energy levels were more mountainous than ever before. When one of us could no longer muster the strength to write yet another grant or fill in a new Excel data base, the other board members stood ready to help. But in reality, all of the FFF board members are in our fifth or sixth decade of life. Our synergy for what we do as an organization has sustained us for ten years. We needed a new generation of talent, enthusiasm and belief in what FFF does to energize us.
When Janelle O’Mally wrote to us after attending a national management meeting for her job, the words were the nourishment we needed. With her permission, I am including the correspondence from her below.
Sometimes Santa sends you just the right gift. Ours arrived in the form of an energetic, empathetic and passionate group of The Body Shop employees.
Dear Finding Freedom through Friendship Board Members,
I am very excited about the FFF fundraiser as well! I was at Manuel’s Restaurant (https://www.manuels.com/) for the introduction to Finding Freedom in Austin! It was such a lovely evening! It was so amazing that the Body Shop choose to host our event in a restaurant that aligns with our feminist values. Right away myself and several of my colleagues were so moved by the work of FFF that we began talking about going in together on a donation to have a greater impact than we could individually. Quickly the conversation progressed and we began discussing the impact we could have if we brought it back to our stores and asked our teams to contribute alongside us. Before we left the restaurant that night we decided as a group we would find a way to raise the funds to buy a woman in Guatemala a home.
We have a strategy around the fundraiser with different waves of fundraising, focusing first on personal donations, then on asking for donations from family, then friends, then our social media. We hope that each wave moves us 25% closer to our goal. Our first milestone goal is to be at $1250 by Thanksgiving and our final milestone is to reaching our goal of $5,000 by January 1st, 2020.
We have 12 of The Body Shop (https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-us/) stores in our District, and each store is going to raise $420! Each shop manager has assigned a fundraising captain for their store to help bring this mission to life! Each week myself and a peer are providing the district with ongoing education on the issue of gender inequality in Guatemala and how Finding Freedom through Friendship helps with this issue. I have found some very helpful content on your website (http://www.finding-freedom-through-friendship.org/), including the success stories!
We plan to highlight one story each week through the fundraiser to help build staff understanding so that by the time our teams our asking friends and their social network to participate in the fundraiser, they feel confident engaging others in conversation about the cause. I am excited not only for the impact we will have on a family in Guatemala but also to help broaden our teams’ understanding of global women rights issues.
I hope this gives you a good overview of why we became interested in starting the fundraiser for Finding Freedom through Friendship and the plan we have in place to ensure we reach our goal! I’ve included a picture of myself and two peers wearing our beautiful handmade scarves from Guatemala at Manuel’s the evening of the fundraiser.
Janelle O’Malley