Fundraising

Perhaps one of the hardest things for which to raise money is humanity.

People love to save whales, trees, spotted owls and an entire host of variables. Yet you tell them about people who are starving and so many times you will hear. "that's a shame".

Now of course I am plugging my own cause of which I am very interested in seeing succeed but this really does apply to all such causes.

By: Jeffrey J. Rodman, M.Ed., CFRE, CGS 

APPLETON, Wis. – The Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region has launched a new grant program designed to help charitable organizations deal with the added budget pressures created by the recession.

The Foundation is redirecting about $650,000 from existing grant programs to its new “Bridge Grant Program.” Bridge Grants, to be awarded in fall, are designed to support a limited number of charitable organizations that had been stable going into the recession and that have good prospects of returning to fiscal health.

Earlier this year, President Barak Obama signed an executive order amending Executive Order 13199 that created the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. As a result, the President made the following changes:

Detroit is my hometown. So, of course, it was with great sadness as I witness the bankruptcy of the once mighty General Motors. Many of my friends are greatly affected by this turn of events. On a personal level, I was negatively impacted by GM because of their Dexcool antifreeze that made it necessary for me to buy another car just before I finally had it paid off. Let's just say that I did not buy another GM product.

My girlfriend and I were discussing the bankruptcy and lamented that as former GM owners; the company never did anything to get our business back. It was this attitude that made me a former customer. I brought my Pontiac Grand Prix out of loyalty and it cost me dearly.

I've been helping raise money for more than a decade. That isn't long in terms of eternity, but it I didn't just fall off the Brinks Truck either if you consider the "careerspan" of the average development professional.

There are days I wake up and wonder aloud to God, "If the cattle on a thousand hills are yours, when are the cows coming home?" With bank accounts depleted and payroll coming due the sweat beads on my browe. Then I'm reminded of Noah, Elijah, John the Baptist, Paul and perhaps even Jesus. All of these faith-champions wondered while they waited - and then they went to work.