Fundraiser #34~ 60% to Goal!!

Maria's fundraiser is over halfway finished!!  Only $154 more is needed and the family will be able to start their own business!  Every dollar counts- to donate to this fundraiser, visit her webpage fundraiser here

And the winner for Chanel sunglasses is...

Chrystal!! Yay!! Chrystal, you will now be battling the sun in style! Thank you, every one who helped finish the two fundraisers that benefitted from this raffle! Jessica will now have a wheelchair (and a small deposit toward a bed), and Maria & Ullysette will have their food, school books, and beds!!!

This is how the winner was picked using random.org. These were each person's numbers:

Robyn 1- 5
Chrystal 6-45
Holly 46-50
Inga 51-70
Wilfredo 71-90

The winning number was #25!!

On a side note, Jerry only needs $18 to complete his fundraiser! If you can help, please donate here

Raffle Extended Until Friday

We are SO close to finishing Maria & Ullysette's fundraiser... So, The raffle for the Chanel sunglasses has been extended until Friday. This is in hopes that we can get this fundraiser completed by the end of the week. We only have $40 to go!

$1 gets you one raffle ticket (and the person who donated over $400 is not in the raffle, so you do have a chance).

To enter, make your donation here

Jessica will now get her NEW Wheels!!!

Thank you, one and all!!! Jessica will now get her wheelchair!! How exciting is that?!

Lisa was working on getting another raffle item for Jessica's fundraiser. Instead of the person donating the raffle item, they finished off the fundraiser & then some!!! Her fundraiser has now been over funded!! Yay!! She has other needs that were noted in the special needs break down, so the extra funds will not be wasted.

Lisa's raffle is still on until Tuesday morning as stated before. If you would like to enter to win the Chanel sunglasses, by donating to Robyn's fundraiser. Her fundraiser only needs $60 more!! That means there are 60 additional chances to win the sunglasses!! $1 gets you 1 raffle ticket, but you must act quickly- the drawing will be help bright and early tomorrow morning!!

Can you Help? Only $65 left!!

This fundraiser only needs $65 more!!! Who can help finish off this fundraiser and give these children a bed and food?

If you can help, here is the link. Thank you every one!!!

Three Active Fundraisers

Carla's fundraiser only needs $148 more!!!

Jose Manuel & Yamileisy's fundraiser needs $410.40

Maria & Ullysette's fundraiser only needs $74!!!

Look at how close we are to finishing Robyn's fundraiser!! I know we can finish it off this week- probably even today!! Stephanie's fundraiser only needs a little over $100, too! After one of these fundraisers funds, I will launch the next one. The next one is only for $100, so we are moving right along!!

If you have a fundraiser coming up, please make sure your donations match up with what you need to have donated before your fundraiser begins. I had to stop my inventory of donations because the end of the year got hectic, but I will be back counting again in a few days. I want to make sure that everyone is doing their part to help everyone else. The 3 people with fundraisers coming up soon whose doantions I have not checked yet are:

Tamara

Cherise

Kate

Please double check your donations and make sure that you have already donated your 25%, so that your fundraisers can go off as planned.

Also, I have been adding more items to the web store. I will go more in depth about the web store in my next post. Check out the store and you will see many new things! I am adding more candy & games a little later in the week. Here is the store link

And the winners for Day 12 are...

Holly & Heather Griffin! You two won the $20 Amazon gift card! Yay!! Please let Robyn know if you prefer a joint $20 card or two $10 cards. Here is what Robyn said:

I used random number generator again, and it came up #15. So congratulations go out to Holly & Heather, holding lucky ticket #15!! :)

Thank everyone for donating- it is greatly appreciated!! :):)

1-20 Holly & Heather
21-25 Tracy
26-30 Lindsey
31-40 Del
41-45 Sara
46-55 Heather M
56-65 Jim & Mack

On the 12th Day of Christmas...

my sponsor gave to me...

12 grains of rice!

Today's raffle will go to help Maria & Ullysette. They need school books, a bunk bed, wooden cabinet, a big sack of rice, and other groceries.

The raffle prize is a $20 gift card to Amazon.com. Not only does Amazon have just about anything you are looking for, but you will get the $20 instantly after winning the prize!

To enter the raffle, make your donation here (remember $1 = 1 raffle ticket)

How are we measuring up?

We are doing so terrifically on these fundraisers!!! If you haven't had a chance to pat yourselves on the back, go ahead and take the time to do that now :0) This is how it stacks up for the current 3 fundraisers:

Maria and Ullysette's fundraiser target is $535. In only one month's time, $190 has been raised for this project!!! That is incredible! Only $345 to go!

http://www.firstgiving.com/betterlatethannever

Jonathan's fundraiser target is $541. In two month's time $243.10 has been raised! Only $297.90 to go!

http://www.firstgiving.com/igp4jonathan

Gema & Crystal's fundraiser target is $391, & $151 has already been raised! That leaves only $240 to go!

http://www.firstgiving.com/icecreamigp

Remember that you can help these fundraiser by purchasing magazines/cookie dough with the magazine fundraiser link on the right. Or, how about purchasing the Christmas cards for your sponsor kids through the card link on the right. Both of these links provide income to our fundraiser. We didn't sell any magazines or cookie dough last month, but Christmas is coming, so now is the time for these great products!

You don't have to buy the items to help the fundraisers, there is another way to help. You can do as Alice did, and just spread the word! She was able to generate sales, and then, able to tell me how she wanted the revenue disbursed. Go to the link, and from there, you can send an e-mail directly to anyone on your contact list.

Any revenue you generate, you can decide where you want the money to go. So, the more people you tell, the more opportunities for money going to your fundraiser!

Our New and Improved Necklace/Lollipop Fundraiser!

Another fundraising day! I am worn out!! All week I have been working on preparing for this garage sale/ fundraiser. I placed an ad in two local papers, sent notifications to my homeschool co-op group, made a few Craigslist postings, and placed signs out with balloons.

This morning, the girls and I had "Friday School". We got up bright and early and headed out to school where I teach the 2 and 3 year old class. I spent 4 hours with the 8 little munchkins, teaching them about Kangaroos and reading several books including "Katy No-Pocket" and "Good Night Moon". Then, at noon, we rushed home, ate lunch really quickly, got in the car, placed signs out on the street, drove back to the house, unloaded everything out of the garage into the yard and driveway... We were all set up by 1PM, and we already had 5 customers!! Whew! It was exhausting, but good to see profit finally! We were only open for 4 hours today, but tomorrow will be 9 hours of hopefully non-stop action!

This is how I changed up the fundraiser portion. I had already placed a sign out last time showing who the fundraiser was for, but this time I:

1- Put the sign with pictures on the PAYING table where I was sitting.

2. Put the lollipops and necklaces on the same PAYING table

3. Changed the price of the necklaces from $5 to $2 (and decided I would front the cost of the supplies, so that my girls would see the fruit of their labors)

All of that made a big difference, not to mention the advertising brought a lot of people out to begin with. There were two sweet young girls that I remember in particular. They liked the necklaces, and thought what Jaden and Morgan were doing was "so cool" (their words). They bought a necklace each, but then, came back to buy 2 more necklaces because they said it was "too cool" what the girls were doing, and they wanted to be a part of it! So, $8 from them!

Then, I had my friend buy 3 lollipops for her girls, and two other people bought 2 lollipops a piece... for a total of $3.50

The fundraiser raked in $11.50. I know it's not much, but I am not disappointed. Tomorrow will be a longer day, and I am hoping the very sweet "necklace girls" will tell their friends about the "too cool" fundraiser and come back tomorrow.

I haven't actually put the funds in the bank yet because I need change for tomorrow, but so far, this is what I have put into the fundraisers out of the $11.50 earned today:

$3 to Robyn's Fundraiser

$3 to Su's Fundraiser

More to come ladies! I am dividing the funds into the 3 current fundraisers, so stay tuned for more funds on Monday~ And, I will let everyone know the outcome of it tomorrow!

$5,000 Fundraising Milestone

I know ya'll (yes, I am a Texan) won't believe this, but I am going to tell you any way!! We are $1 away from hitting $5,000 total fundraised by our group through First Giving!! After only 6 months, we have raised $4,999!!! Thank you for your continued dedication to our projects!

The focus right now is for Robyn's fundraiser. It was just launched a few days ago, and has already raised $135! Only $400 more to go! Yay!!!

Here is the link:

http://www.firstgiving.com/betterlatethannever

Apology

Dear faithful sponsors,

I would like to apologize on CI's behalf. This fundraiser business has had it's rocky moments. Most of the moments such as waiting for special needs breakdowns and thank you letters and pictures, have been blamed on the "field". It takes so much time to get the things back from "the field". Well, let me tell you... A request was put in for Robyn's child Wilmer MONTHS ago... We waited and waited... I contacted Melissa @ CI to see what the delay was, and she said that they field asked for an extension. This was July 3rd, after we had already waited for over 2 months to get it. This is exactly what Melissa said: "The field needed an extension on Robyn’s child Wilson." I didn't think anything about the name goof up at the time, but now it is bugging me. This is why: The CI office never made the request to the field!!! We have been waiting on a breakdown for this one since May, only to find out it was NEVER ever ever ever requested!!!

Poor Robyn's fundraiser has been pushed back and pushed back, and if we hadn't requested a new request for a different child, we would still be waiting on a fundraiser for her!!!

So, for the breakdowns that CI NEVER requested, the long turn around time to get the breakdowns, and long lapse before getting the thank you and pictures, I apologize!!!
Because of the lack of correspondance, appreciation, and dedication, (all on CI's end) we will get through this list of fundraisers we have and call it a year. I think that at least half of the people who started out participating in this project are frustrated. I am not one that gives up easily, so know that~ I have been fighting for months now. (I won't get into all of the details)

I am putting Robyn's fundraiser in as #15, since hers was supposed to start before Barbara's. Once Barbara's funds, I will put Su's out. It will be a cluster of a mess, I know... But, there is no good way to fix CI's mistake. As of today, Robyn's delayed fundraiser is now live. See below for the link:

Project #15~ Maria & Ullysette (Robyn & Ryan)
http://www.firstgiving.com/betterlatethannever
Project #16~ Crystal & Gema (Su)
Project #17~ Maila (Steve)
Project #18~ Adriana (Candace)
Project #19~ Yamileisy (Dee)
Project #20~ Nikhat (Jennifer) (Jennifer, please see my e-mail about this one and send me the break down, photos & write up, so I can set up the page)
Project #21~ (Stephanie)
Project #22~ Jerry (Wilfredo)
Project #23~ Joyce (Heather G)
Project #24~ Maria (Holly)
Project #25~ Ariela (Camille)
Project #26~ (Tamara)
Project #27~ Sabrata (Cherise)

I Know the task can seem DAUNTING

Do you feel like what you are doing is not making a difference? Right now, especially during these slow fundraising months, it can be hard to remember that we have already done so much!! Funds are only trickling in for our projects, as opposed to the flood of money we had just a few months ago.
This post is to keep you from feeling down about these slow months. REMEMBER, we have already helped 13 children and their families with our previous projects, and we did it all in a span of 5 months!!! That is incredible!!
August is the slowest month for contributions of all of the months of the year. Right now it seems even worse because the projects we are trying to fund are larger than the previous ones. Luckily, we are halfway through August, and contributions will get even better as we approach the holiday season.
For now, we just have to do the best we can with what we have, and remember that we have done a lot already. There are children out there sleeping on beds that we purchased; children who are healthier because of nutritional supplements we provided; children that have clothes on their backs because of us; children's parents who now will be able to better provide for their children because we have provided them with a business of their own that they would never have been able to afford had it not been for us... I just want everyone to see that even if you only were able to donate a few dollars, it DID make a difference!!!
These are the 2 current projects that are in need of donations to complete. I hope we can complete these this month, so that the families will get the money in September. I can't speak for everyone, but I currently find myself in a VERY tight financial spot! Donate what you can, when you can, and little by little, penny by penny, we WILL make a difference!! On my next pay day, which is still a week away, I plan to add a few more dollars to the fundraisers. I know it won't be much, but I know $5 or $10 less in my pocket (or to my bills) will have a much bigger impact on the familes that we help than it will in my wallet... Of course, I am not condoning debt. I do think that we can all find ways to pinch a penny or two :0)
If any one would like to submit any of their new and exciting ways to pinch pennies for the benefit of our children, shoot me an e-mail. Once I get several ideas, I will post them here with the submitter's name.
Don't forget these children who have a chance to get their projects funded this month! If we can raise the money needed for them by August 31st, they will get the funds for their projects at the end of September!!

Nsenzeni's project needs $370 to provide a small business for her grandmother:
http://www.firstgiving.com/igp4nsenzeni
Angelito's project only needs $165, and his sponsor Tamara is offering a raffle ticket for each donation of $10. The winner will be able to choose a gift from her web-site valued at $100!!!
http://www.firstgiving.com/graduates2

I, also, wanted to update everyone on the success of finding sponsors. My blog readers are the BEST! If you don't believe that, just check out the list below... 4 children received sponsors because they were featured on this blog. I like featuring children on the blog for others because then, I get to see the children grow through pictures and letters as their sponsors send me the updates. There is another child that got a sponsor through the blog, but I don't have his picture. After the special needs feature last year, my sister-in-law decided she could take a child. She asked me to find her a child with a cranial-facial disorder. I contacted Ashley at CI (The same rep who hooked me up with the other children with special needs) and she gave my sister-in-law a filipino child named Feliciano.
I want to thank all of you who have donated and/or taken on a sponsor child from this blog!!!!

Alice stepped up to sponsor Paola's sister Tomasa after she saw the post that she was in need of a sponsor!!
Sarah became Maria Cristina's sponsor at the end of July!!! Maria Cristina will greatly benefit from the health benefits, thanks to Sarah!!

Katherine was featured almost a year ago, along with 3 other children with special needs. Katherine was scooped up by Alice immediately after she saw the post. After some financial difficulties for Katherine's sponsor Alice, Katherine was able to get another loving sponsor... Jim became Katherine's new sponsor. Alice is still able to watch Katherine's growth via this blog!!

Gladis was featured just a week ago. Her sad face touched Llahnna who has now made it her mission to change her frown into a smile. Llahnna is excited to be Gladis's new sponsor!

Three Children are Waiting for Someone to Care

Erickson

Maria Cristina

Danilo

I showed these 3 children separately earlier in the month. All 3 of them are still waiting for a sponsor. Please look back at their individual posts to see if you are interested. Can you take one more? I hope so!! I am giving them visibility here in the hopes that this will be a post read by their future sponsor. If I don't have sponsors for them by August, I will have to let Ashley at CI know that I wasn't able to accomplish my goal. Then, the children will go back into the dark hole where waiting children sit until someone comes forward. If you can help, just post your comment to this post, and I will get you set up. Thank you!

Meet Maria Cristina, a child in need of a sponsor

picture taken the beginning of 2006

picture taken in 2006

picture taken in 2007

picture taken in 2008Her most recent picture taken this year

Isn't she a cutie!?!?! Maria Cristina is 7 years old and lives in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Her father abandoned the family, so she lives with relatives while her mother works as a laundry worker. She has two brothers- one of them is 16 and the other is only a year old. Her one sister is 4.

She needs a sponsor for the benefits that sponsorship brings. She has a health condition which can be managed with the right care.

Maria Cristina needs a sponsor that will give her support and help her face the challenges of live. She has had so many challenges already (dad abandoning the family, etc), so she needs someone that can show her they really care.

Please contact me if you are able to give Maria Cristina what she needs.