hope shines

Greetings from New York City! Happy 2011!

We have a tenancy to think that people are not interested in what we do everyday. We end up reporting the big events…and there are lots of them! We love telling you about the exciting advancements but end up not relaying info about building intense spreadsheets, writing grants, packing boxes, writing thank you notes, sending out tax-receipts, schlepping heavy suitcases up/down 5 flights of stairs (thankfully, Kyle T. has volunteered to be the “Hope Shines Luggage Schlepper”!), replying to 100′s of emails, buying pencils (pencils are $1.10 in Rwanda…EACH. w/out an eraser and unsharpened!), meeting with interesting people, phone conferences, etc, etc, etc all which help drive our mission to be ultimately successful.

Last night, I was chatting with a high school buddy of mine, Ryan Johnson (one of the founders of http://www.slapapp.com/), who is all about social networking…and he’s brilliant at it. He’s been a wonderful supporter of Hope Shines over the last couple of years, too. He told me that people are interested to read about what we do in our day-to-day. Jeff Mann, who developed our new website and is also one of these brilliant new breeds of social-network-entrepreneurs told me the same thing. So, if this is really what inquiring minds want to know…here goes!

Over the last few weeks since Kathleen returned from the successful launch of our 4-month-long teaching session in Rwanda, I have been compiling the data and information about what worked and what did not. Using the detailed weekly status reports Kathleen sent, I am creating a manual so that in the future we can refer to it, continue to add to it and draw from it when needed. This manual will be like a living organism. It will grow just as we do.

From Kathleen’s stay, we learned a TON about how to best support not only our kids but also that of the centers who support them on the ground. Kathleen’s job went so much farther than teaching. She ended up being a consultant for CSC to help increase their outreach in order to become more sustainable. She and I had discussed that this might be part of her job and she was given free reign to expand upon it if she felt like she had enough time outside of teaching. Kathleen must be a superwomen b/c she seemed to make time standstill with all she was able to accomplish with both aspect of her job. We have decided that as part of our mission we will continue to have a person on the ground (if funding allows).

Now, I am interviewing candidates to continue this work with the intention of a new Hope Shines Rep to be in place by Spring. We realized that CSC needs a lot of managerial help in order to sustain. Because we are committed to these kids we must protect them and help to keep their center going. But, we do not have the funds to give to CSC outright. I believe in the old adage, “teach a man to fish and he will never be hungry.” Therefore, we are working towards providing another person who will help teach them to write grants, secure funding and increase their local exposure…while overseeing the teaching of the kids too! Our partnership with PAMASOR will remain in place and we have identified that their needs are different. They need more help in the areas of health and wellness. Our amazing Doctor, Stephanie Chu, is working on making that happen in 2011.

We need to raise a lot of money before we go back this summer but with our new grant writer, Megan Eiss-Proctor, we are in a good position to write powerful proposals. Megan and I have been meeting for hours at a time to reconcile 2010 and to identify categories where we can go after funding. I’m talkin’ massively intense spreadsheets! It is important to have always have your financial ducks in a row. We have been fortunate enough to enlist the help of Dr. Robert Chazin, professor at Fordam Unv in the Social Services grad dept, to help us with this process. And Megan attended classes at the Foundation Center, here in NYC, to better learn the science of grant writing.

We are “in-process” with the IRS for our 501(c)3. This is a very slow process and I am working on being patient!

Once we have our 501(c)3 we will begin working in other countries…hopefully in the USA too!

I am starting to think about our Spring fundraising party and have enlisted the help of a friend who plans them for a living. She has offered to help HS, out of the kindness of her heart!

School/art supplies are starting to arrive and it’s always so interesting to see what people send! We can make use of everything from pencils to ribbons, from construction paper to little toys and goodies. A couple of months back, I received a box of school supplies from a person I’d never met. This was wicked exciting b/c it meant that we are reaching people beyond our close friends. Currently sitting in Virginia, are huge boxes of art/craft supplies that a friend of a friend donated to us. She supported us last summer with amazing art/craft supplies. Our educational art projects were in a large part successful b/c of her kindness!

Over the next few months, we will be working on growing our Board of Directors, seeking a shipping agreement so that we can save $2,000 in extra baggage fees, which are never waived by the airlines. We will be announcing the dates of our camps ASAP. We are waiting on the Dept of Ed in Rwanda to announce the kids’ summer break. As soon as we know the dates we will begin recruiting volunteers. Our partnership with Shenandoah Unv is continuing into 2011 and we are hopeful that some of their students with travel with us! S.U. has been amazing to work with!

I am working on sending year end thank you notes to our top donors … thanks in part to the stamps Kyle T. donated and to finding manila envelopes at the Dollar Store!

And of course fundraising, fundraising, fundraising and more fundraising…!

We are still looking for frequent flyer mile donations to help us save $$$$ on airfare. No donation is too small!

So, even when we are not announcing awesome advancements and interesting stories…we are still working, working, working. But, when you do what you love, it never feels like work!

HAPPY 2011 and thank you SO MUCH for making 2010 wonderfully successful,

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