LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Matters |
by Murray Archibald |
Fundraising Fatigue?
I have to confess that as a young man I never dreamed of growing up to be a fundraiser. Does anybody, I wonder? I mean, they don't teach "fundraising" in high schooldo they? Hmmm. Now that I think about it, of course they do. It starts slowly with things like candy bars, and packets of seeds, and fruitcakes, and moves on to bake sales, car washes, pancake breakfasts, and fried chicken dinners. I grew up in the south, by the way, which explains the fried chickenaround here it's chicken and dumpling dinners (only to a southerner it's chicken and noodle dinners because what they call dumplings in Delmarva is nothing of the sort to a boy from Alabama). High school is not the only place for a young mind to learn the skills of fundraising, of course, the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts (don't forget the cookies), YMCA and every church group around the world all excel in raising money to support their cause. I never made it to Boy Scout, by the way, though I would have gone camping anytime with several of the ones I knew, and did, in fact actually end up with oneand an eagle one at that (hard as it is to believe today). In the years after I graduated from high school and college, fundraising was not something I thought much about, I'm afraid to say. Then again, most 20-somethings are not all that focused on charitable activities, and it was the 70s after all! Like many of my generation, my real training as a fundraiser grew out of necessity and out of the terrible need to do somethinganythingduring the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s. With the slow response to HIV by our government during the Reagan years and the anti-gay backlash that accompanied the epidemic, we had to create our own organizations to deal with the problems, and we had to find ways of raising money to pay for them. We still dowhatever the cause may be. Fast forward 20 years, and looking at my life I know that, no matter what other titles or labels I might apply to myself, I am a fundraiser. Like it or not. I'm a fundraiser because I believe in the causes we are raising money for and because I know that without proper funding the organizations that support them will not survive. Every non-profit has to raise money; its life and success depends on it. Churches, hospitals, clinics, arts groups, civic groups, and community centers, all depend on the generosity of the people in the communities they serve. Though their fundraising efforts may spike during capital campaigns, their efforts must be constant. Here at CAMP Rehoboth we are extremely excited about the construction of the new wing and courtyard of the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center, but also know that we still have to raise an additional $300,000 this summer in order to complete the project. That money, by the way, is not a surprise overrun; we already knew that all the project bids came in about $300,000 over our architect's estimates. We also have finally had to accept that the $300,000 we had originally budgeted to come from grants is not going to happen. Apparently, finding capital grants for GLBT organizations is not as easy as we once hoped. Late last year we began working on a new Development Advisory Board for the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center, and as we moved into the new year that Board began to take shape and finally met for the first time in April. The goal of the Development Advisory Board (DAB) is to create and maintain a sound financial footing for the Community Center both now and in the future. The short-term and immediate goal of the DAB is to help raise the additional $300,000. The long-term goal is to ensure that we will be able to pay for the continuing operation and upkeep of the Centerincluding mortgage payments and utilities. As we moved into the spring of this year, and the economy continued to slow (and the price of oil to rise) I realized I was growing anxious and tired of the stress of being a fundraiser. An illness this winter kept me out of the studio for seven weeks and I was itching to put the worry aside and get back to painting. I suppose you could say that after all these years I had fundraising fatigue. Then the DAB started to meet and I was completely energizedand lifted right out of my fundraising funk. The people who have agreed to serve on the Advisory Board are all dynamic, talented, professionals, many with extensive experience in fundraising for far bigger organizations than ours. Many of them come from the ranks of our Founders' Circle campaign. A great many of the members of the Development Advisory Board, as well as the CAMP Rehoboth Board of Directors, will be on hand at this year's Black and White Ball to launch our "Open The Door Fund" summer campaign to raise the $300,000 so important to the completion of the project. I know that I'm not the only one in our community to be experiencing fundraising fatigue. As people "tighten their belts" all non-profits will feel the pinchand every one of them is asking for help. None of us can give to everything, even when we support the cause, but I do hope that this summer everyone will consider the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center in their giving. I can't ever say, of course, that the fundraising will not continue at some level in the years ahead, but I think I'm safe in promising that we will not be starting another new building project anytime soon. Without the grants we had hoped to receive, and lacking a major angel to underwrite the cost of a large part of the whole project, the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center is, and has been, built on the generosity and support of our local and summer community. Though I know that many of you are tired of us asking, we are so very close to being able to "open the doors" of this unique project. Please don't give up now, when we need you the most. Photo captions: This page: The architect's view and the actual progress of the doors and Founders' Circle wall in the new CAMP Rehoboth Community Center. Opposite page: The new umbrellas in the CAMP Courtyard. Thank you to all the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center Volunteers for the period of May 16-May 29. Tony Burns Albert Caiazzo Becky Craft Chuck Flanagan Grant Kingswell Spencer Kingswell Charlie Lee Jeff Moore Mary Morgan Michael Muller Jim O'Dell Barb Ralph Chris Sampson Guillermo Silviera Sandra Skidmore Rich Snell Al Trapani Linda Yingst Rainbow Thumb Club Matt Carey Ward Ellinger Rob Freeman Tony Ghigi Steve Hoult Anne Mundel Bud Palmer Ken Reilly Tom White Murray Archibald, Founder and President of the Board of Directors of CAMP Rehoboth, is an artist in Rehoboth Beach. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 18, No. 06 May 30, 2008 |