- Aadit Sitaula (Publicity Officer), Inku Subedi (Fundraising Officer)
Year 2008 was a year of initiatives and improvements for NCEF’s fundraising and public relations team.
Fundraising
On the fundraising front, NCEF exceeded its goal of $15,000 by raising $20,172 dollars with support from our donors and dedicated volunteers. The Mira Rana Michaud Memorial donation totaled $6,200. Our frequent donors and new donors’ support raised 55 percent of the total amount. The monthly breakdown is provided below.
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Number of Members: 3,200
Donations from Cause: $670 |
Apart from our regular and new donors, we fundraised through two successful projects initiated by our two adventurous supporters – Brad Parker and Leia Barett. Mr. Brad Parker, a teacher in the Locke Public School, Chicago and an avid mountaineer, and Ms. Leia Barrett, an amateur mountain biker included NCEF in their adventurous endeavors to raise money for children’s education in Nepal. Brad Parker also involved his seventh-grade students in his effort. Brad raised $1,408 through the “Climb for a Cause” project and Leia raised $1,075 through the “Frigging Loop Mountain Bike” project.
Various campaigns were continued from last year – some of these included the Recycle for Education, Restaurant Donation Project, Penny Drive, and Good Search project. In total, these campaigns generated $337. A group of enthusiastic high school students involved in the Club Mission Outreach group spearheaded by Sarah Chang from the Amador Valley’s high school in Pleasanton, California raised $170.
Our Cause on Facebook has gained momentum with over 3,200 people supporters and $670 in donations. We are currently looking for new ways to reach out to this vast community of supporters to help with fundraising and publicity projects.
Internal management
This year, NCEF team introduced a constituency relationship management (CRM) system to centralize our constituent database of members and donors. CiviCRM is a free, web-based, open source application widely used by more than 4,000 organizations including Amnesty International and the Wikimedia foundation. Our goal is to utilize this application to develop an improved communication channel, to centralize data collection, and to easily share information within NCEF securely. In addition to the CRM, NCEF installed Drupal, a popular web content management system (WCMS). WCMS allows users to create content for the website without any technical knowledge. Most dynamic websites such as CNN and ESPN use WCMS. We will be experimenting with this product to see if it is a viable long-term solution for NCEF.
Looking towards the Future
This year we are looking forward to utilizing our volunteer network to organize more fundraising events. The fundraising goal is set at $20,000.
To achieve this target, we hope to expand some of the ongoing fundraising campaigns, particularly the Restaurant Donation Project, Recycle for Education, and Penny Drive project. We have received inquiries from interested members affiliated with student organizations interested in sustaining these campaigns locally.
We thank all our well-wishers and donors for their generous support during these times of economic difficulties who helped us reach our target in the year 2008. To make 2009 a successful year, we look forward to your invaluable and continued support.
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Heart warming thoughts and support of children reaching out to help less privileged children has been highlighted many times in the NCEF newsletter. This month we are happy to bring another story of young children from Minnesota who organized a fundraising meal to raise $210 for NCEF’s children.
Ms. Leah Thomas, coordinator of the school-age program “The Explorer’s Club” got in touch with NCEF when the club decided to help children in Nepal after watching a short documentary film “Punam” about a young Nepali girl and her younger siblings.
This moving story of young children helping to change the world of their contemporaries in Nepal in Leah Thomas’s own words:
"We are a non-profit childcare cooperative located in the far northeast
corner of Minnesota, on the north shore of Lake Superior in the small
town of Grand Marais. Our school-age program, "The Explorer's Club",
decided to hold a fundraiser after seeing the short documentary film"Punam", about a 9-year old Nepalese girl and her younger brother and
sister. When [we] researched organizations dedicated to helping children in Nepal and were impressed with the mission and structure of NCEF, particularly the fact
that 100% of NCEF funds go towards educating the children.”
Ms. Leah Thomas further wrote about how the fundraising project was organized and coordinated by the children.
“We decided to hold a fundraising meal. Our kids, ages 5 through 11,
prepared and served lunch to over 2 dozen invited guests. Food was
donated by 2 local grocery stores. It was a wonderful opportunity for us
to experience the joy of giving and to expand our perspectives beyond
the confines of our little community. The children began brainstorming
other fundraising ideas even before the tables were cleared from this
one."
Our next issue will feature pictures from the event. Stay tuned! |
