The feature below is brought to you by Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull Rescue, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull Rescue creates beautiful from unexpected places  Forlorn: pitifully sad and abandoned or lonely. The word forlorn isn’t one that you would to describe beauty. However, beauty from despair is exactly what Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull Rescue strives to create. FTTF was founded in 2009 after founder Jason Flatt learned the plight of the pit bull. Pit bulls are the breed that even dog lovers love to hate. These dogs are discriminated against, abused, discarded, and forgotten, but we seek to step in and change fate for these pups. Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull Rescue is a volunteer and foster program for pit bull rescue located in Dallas, GA. We aren’t your typical rescue, we rescue with our hearts and not with our pockets. We search out the dogs that no one else will take: those with major medical issues, behavioral issues, emotional issues, and more. We see the beautiful in these animals. We know that, more often than not, they just need a little love to make all of the difference. And our foster families step up time and time again to help rehabilitate these dogs so that they can find their forever homes. There is a tremendous need in our communities regarding pit bulls (and other pups). We learned quickly that we had to do more. We decided to take a two-pronged approach to helping these animals. The first prong would be to continue rescuing; we are a pit bull rescue after all. Since we are foster based, we can only take in a limited number of dogs at a time; and because we take in the broken and unwanted, they often stay with us for a while before they go on to their forever homes. Our ultimate goal on this front is to build a shelter. We want to build a state-of-the-art facility that will allow us to rescue more pit bulls, but also give them a great quality of life while they are in our care. We want to install indoor/outdoor runs (with individual drainage systems to prevent cross contamination), play areas, onsite vet space, conference space, therapy pools, and so much more. You can learn more about our dream facility at https://www.friendstotheforlorn.org/fttf-shelter-capital-campaign/.  Conceptual Shelter Rendering | Credit: Formations Studio In 2016, our Board finally felt it was time to begin making that dream a reality. We have begun the capital campaign for funding this beautiful facility. Our goal is $2,000,000 to build this facility and we have raised $478,129 to date. This grant, if we are so honored to win, would be applied toward the cost of constructing 2 dog runs/kennels. Kennels are the most important area of our facility. This is what will allow us to be able to rescue more dogs than we can in a foster-based set up. More kennels allow us to rescue more dogs; and as these dogs find their forever homes, it opens up more space to save another. Kennels are the living space for these dogs and therefore the building blocks of our dream. But, we are also painstakingly aware that we can’t rescue our way out of the problems that face our community. There is a massive pitbull overpopulation problem occurring and we have to help prevent these dogs from needing to be rescued. Because we know what it’s like to have our dogs discriminated against in housing, airline travel, dog boarding facilities, stores, and more, we decided that our solution would be non-discriminatory instead. In 2010, we began our Beat the Heat program. This program provides spay/neuter services, vaccinations, pain medications, and more to animals in our areas at no cost to the owner or the community animal control facilities. Since the program’s inception, we have spayed and neutered over 6,000 ANIMALS- not just pit bulls, but all breeds of dogs and cats. This program was created in a hope that we can reduce the unwanted pet population and maybe one day reduce the need of rescues. We continue to chip away at the problem piece by piece. For the dogs we save, we know that what we do makes such a difference in their lives. And for the dogs that we haven’t been able to save, their fate haunts us. These dogs are why we do what we do. Their memory is what drives us forward to accomplish the unthinkable. We will never stop. We can do more, and we are going to do more! To learn more about Friends to the Forlorn, please visit us: Website: www.savingpitbulls.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FriendsToTheForlornPitbullRescue/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fttfpitbull Written by Jordan Sutherlin for FTTFEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful
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The feature below is brought to you by Grow Restored, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. Hi See Beautiful community! We are excited to introduce ourselves and become more involved in what you all are doing to create beautiful in the world. GROW Restored is an organization that is committed to providing access to affordable mental and emotional health care for individuals and families and also to providing resources and support to organizations actively doing good work around the world in an effort to deepen their impact. We are currently striving to deepen our impact with a few special groups of individuals who are often left out when it comes to receiving necessary care - first responders, veterans, and families dealing with childhood illness. Through our scholarship programs, we are able to provide a significant portion of funding towards care, which helps fill a huge gap between what someone can afford to pay for counseling and treatment, versus what it actually costs (usually a LOT of money!). We know that when individuals and families receive appropriate and timely care around mental and emotional health issues, healing and restoration can happen and people can thrive in their personal lives, in their families and in their communities…and that is incredibly beautiful. Our world will see better days when we are all experiencing health in all aspects of our lives. Feel free to check out our website to learn more about what we do and join our mailing list for updates. We would love to connect with you! We are always looking out for exceptional therapists to join us in partnership, as well as for opportunities to spread the word about the work we are doing in communities. We have a couple of videos on our site which share what we do, what we hope to do, and also share some personal stories from people we have been fortunate enough to walk through restoration alongside. Written by Michele Jones, Executive Director of Grow RestoredEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful The feature below is brought to you by Puppy Prodigies, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here.  Puppy Prodigies is a non-profit organization that provides paws-on healing through canine-assisted surfing, paddling, swimming, playing, therapy and other initiatives through our Waves of Empowerment program. We provide no-cost assistance to kids with special needs, people with disabilities and wounded warriors and veterans with PTSD. We have applied for a See Beautiful Grant, and are honored that our application has moved to their next round of review. We look forward to partnering with See Beautiful in uniting diverse populations through the challenges they face. We create more beautiful through our unique and innovative organization that utilizes service, therapy and emotional support dogs. Our highly effective, non-traditional approaches enhance and improve the quality of life for individuals with physical, cognitive, or emotional disabilities.   We are a grassroots organization that prides itself on our pioneering efforts and innovative programs. We are rooted in the human-canine bond and are dedicated to helping individuals grow in mind, body and spirit through the unconditional love and acceptance only a dog can provide. Every 65 minutes a veteran with PTSD takes his or her life by suicide. That’s 22 lives a day! Kids with special needs and people with disabilities are two of the most marginalized and excluded groups in society. Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages one to four, and the third leading cause of death in children 19 and under. However, the danger of drowning is much higher for children with special needs. In fact, drowning is the leading cause of death for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders. We are determined to reduce these staggering statistics and improve the lives of our physically and emotionally wounded war heroes and children with special needs while embracing diversity and creating an all-inclusive, non-judgmental environment for our participants. Opportunities are provided that enable veterans to continue their lives of service, while finding new purpose by engaging in community service by mentoring and inspiring future generations. Our objective is to empower and enrich the well-being of veterans and civilians of all abilities and backgrounds, taking them from the battleground to the playground. Each veteran becomes a mentor, and is paired one-on-one with a child who has special needs for a day of canine-assisted activities. We find that being of service to another individual affords a sense of responsibility and self-worth. The goal is to connect diverse populations through the challenges they face, bringing them together for their greater good and the greater good of the community. Our Waves of Empowerment program is three-fold: 1) improving the PTSD symptoms of active duty service members and veterans by helping them transition from military to civilian life through recreational and canine-assisted activities. 2) Exposing kids with special needs and people with disabilities to adaptive surfing and other recreational activities. 3) Providing swim lessons to kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other special needs in an effort to reduce the high incidence of drowning. Canine-assisted swimming is the newest facet of our program. We strive to reduce the number of drowning incidents among kids with ASD and other special needs by providing a unique approach to water safety and swim lessons through our partnership with Special Fishies. We focus on underlying roadblocks that often manifest as anxiety, distrust, combative behavior, non-compliance, and unresponsiveness. Our newest pup, Cori heads up the program and provides an expeditious conduit that breaks through barriers much faster than her human counterparts. What can take months or years with traditional lessons can often be accomplished in one miraculous session! Click here to watch a video of three-year old, Caiden who was anxious and crying until Cori joined his lesson.  Surf Dog Ricochet is the most known dog in our program. In 2009, she made an independent decision to jump on a surfboard with a boy who is quadriplegic. A "kleenex alert" video of this surf session went viral on YouTube and has over 6.5 million views. As a result, she became the only SURFice dog® on the planet, and has been surfing with people/kids with disabilities ever since. She adjusts her surfing style based on the person's disability. Kids often hold on to her back end while she balances the board so they can stand up. Although surfing has been at the forefront of Ricochet's work, it’s not the act of surfing that makes her interactions so life changing. It’s her extraordinarily powerful ability to make immediate, deep, heart-to-heart connections with the individuals she interacts with. She intuitively and empathically alerts to their emotional and physical changes which allows for profound paws-on healing interventions. Ricochet has taught us an exponential amount about the healing power of dogs. Thus, we are privileged to share it on the “unleash your dog’s healing power” page of our website. We hope the information provided will further unleash your dog’s abilities to see more beautiful too! For more information, please go to http://www.surfdogricochet.com And on social media: https://www.facebook.com/SurfDogRicochet https://twitter.com/SurfDogRicochet http://instagram.com/surfdogricochet/  Written by Jody Fridono, Executive Directory of Puppy ProdigiesEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful The feature below is brought to you by Love Not Lost, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here.  After losing my daughter to a terminal illness, photos were one thing I could turn to that provided deep comfort. If I sat with them and ugly-cried, I didn't have to worry about any judgement for the snot pouring out of my nose. They gave me freedom and space to grieve however I needed to in that moment. The tangible prints allowed me to hold my little girl when she was no longer here to hold. Recognizing the power photos have to bring comfort and healing, I wanted to give that gift to others and started Love Not Lost. We photograph people facing a terminal diagnosis and provide a free portrait session as well as a beautiful hand-crafted album. We're on a mission to celebrate life, preserve memories, and support people in grief. The driving question of Love Not Lost is "How can we love people better?"  Since our first grant with See Beautiful, we've grown tremendously! We've added photographer volunteers in Atlanta, partnered with local hospices, partnered with Northside Hospital's oncology centers across the state of GA, and we have plans to keep growing. A grant from See Beautiful would continue to allow us to serve people facing a terminal diagnosis, as well as refine our systems in our photographer program in Atlanta that we will take to cities across the US. In addition to our photographer program, we've added a grief support program that naturally came when we asked the question "How can we love people better?" It's one thing for us to show up for these families to preserve their memories and support them, but we recognize it's even more powerful when friends and family show up to support them too. Often times, people don't know what to say or what to do to help people so they don't do anything, leaving their loved one feeling alone and abandoned in times of need.  We want to change that, so we've created grief and empathy tools you can request on our website to equip you with ways to tangibly show up for the people you love when you don't have the words. We're developing a grief support library and resource page to support our greater community in addition to the people we serve directly. Our hope is that we can see beautiful, even in the midst of grief and suffering, so that we can be a people who show up to support others when they need it most. There is so much more work to be done, but the grants from See Beautiful and support from generous donors have allowed us to make an incredible impact in 2017. This year, we're growing exponentially and are so excited to bring Love Not Lost to a new city in 2019. If you want to request resources, make a donation, or learn more about Love Not Lost, please visit our website at www.lovenotlost.org and follow us @lovenotlostorg. Thank you! Written by Ashley Jones, Founder of Love Not LostEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful The feature below is brought to you by YFC Maine, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. There is a lot of "ugly" in our community of Howland, Maine, and well, in our world, really. Did you know our small city’s hospital is the leading hospital in the United States for delivering drug addicted babies? Or that over half of our town’s school population goes hungry for meals each and every day? Did you know that on average our community’s prison holds a minimum of over 50 more inmates than it is designed to hold? Or that our EMT’s administer more Narcan (a heroin overdose reversal drug) on average more each day than previous years combined? There is a lot of "ugly" in our community. Sometimes it’s easy to get distracted, caught up, if you will, in all of the ugly. But there is beautiful... A whole lot of beautiful... Our aim is to help bring light to that beautiful. Rather than getting lost in the statistics and all of the ugly, we hope to walk through the ugly and fix our eyes to the beautiful. My husband and I spent five years working for a local high school. A baby brought about a job change and we found ourselves running a restaurant in our community. We began to see life from both sides, first our students’ and then what these students were aspiring to do after high school. This dishearteningly opened our eyes to the drug epidemic’s full force. It knows no bounds or social status. Young lives are being ripped apart in an ever increasing force. On more than one occasion, I cried with our community members as they chose to spend their last dollars to feed their drug addiction, instead of their children. It’s not just a statistic to say over half of our students are going hungry everyday. It’s real lives, real children, right here. It was through having our eyes really opened to all of the ugly around us, that we knew we needed to strive to create beauty in the midst. Through law enforcement friends and area organizations, we began to see the generational issues that were at hand. It wasn't just young people, but young and old alike. A sheriff patrolling our town once told me that in the same day he had arrested a grandmother, father, and son all in the same family, for separate crimes. That's when we began to think, “What if we created an avenue were we could reach students before they became a statistic? What if every student we came into contact with knew they were loved, pursued (we were around for the long haul), and that they were beautiful?” We teamed up with YfC a nationally recognized after school program, to create an avenue, an escape for students in need. Our aim is to be there, to place caring adults into the lives of students for genuine relationships, no strings attached - just purely loving on the hurt and broken (and who isn't hurt and broken?) helping them see the beauty in their own lives. We do this through Campus Life nights, which are high energy, everyone come-as-you-are evenings. Where we create a family-like atmosphere, we discuss things like making the right choices and how to navigate hurdles life undoubtedly throws at us. We also hold regular events which are just different ways we have fun with each other! Most recently we teamed up with our local high school to provide much needed meals for our students. While the school works tremendously hard to see that no student goes hungry during the school year, they are left with a loss over the summer months. That's where we were able to step in and continue their food program all summer long ensuring that no child goes hungry in our community. We recently applied for a grant through an amazing organization called See Beautiful. If chosen, this grant will help further our program, help us finalize our building, replenish our food supply, and ensure that our program continues to run. See Beautiful's mission is to help create more beautiful in the world, and they do just that through a tremendous history of giving to nonprofits. You may also purchase clothing, jewelry and more from their site to help them continue their beautiful work. I wanted to paint a picture of our community, how our students are living, what it is like day-to-day to be a student in the Howland area. Although it may seem like the odds are stacked against these students, they are beginning to see the beauty in our community around them, and they are beginning to learn that they have people in their corner. A small town carpenter has donated countless hours to help us prepare our building for the upcoming food program, because he sees beautiful in these kids... The town unanimously voted to sell us the building at a ridiculously low price, even when they could get more, simply because they see beautiful in what we are doing together... A family of 8 living in one small trailer handed me what could possibly have been their last $10 bill to further help those students who are hungry. We see beautiful in their sacrifice. A man whose name I don’t even know backed his truck up to mine and said, “The back end is full of food. Get it to families that need it.” He left without another word, because his thanks was in seeing the beautiful of giving. We are seeing beautiful. Written by Kayla Thompson for YFC MaineEdited by Jannan Poppen for See Beautiful The feature below is brought to you by Georgia Steppers League, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here.  The Georgia Steppers League Creates More Beautiful Youth Step League Highlights Individualism Through Creative Expression The world is just a bit more beautiful when it is colored with the creativity and comradery displayed by the members of the Georgia Steppers League. The Metro Atlanta-based league, now entering its tenth year, has served as the umbrella organization for more than 1,000 male and female step team performers ranging in age from kindergarten to college freshmen. Since its inception, the league has taken pride in providing leadership training, character building workshops, college scholarships and local competitions awarding cash prizes to winning teams from Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida. The Georgia Steppers League’s 2018-2019 initiative, “Bring Back Our Boys,” is in final grant review with See Beautiful and the league hopes to use the funding award to recruit and support more male participants during this year’s competitive season. With the funding, the league will continue its impact in area schools by developing student ambassadors who will provide leadership in their local communities. Any young man receiving funding through this source will be charged to conduct one culminating team event inspiring league members to see what beautiful in themselves and one another. The league’s goal is to provide a lens for students to use to see themselves as the beautiful individuals they are. In addition to serving area young men, the league provides ten months of services to any student wanting to be a part of a step team program. The league has been home to over fourteen teams who hold national titles as the best of the best in the country. As the league continues its mission and vision to Empower, Expose and Elevate is members, it is evident that a partnership with See Beautiful is a perfect, beautiful combination. Written by Clarisse Frazier of Georgia Steppers LeagueEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful The feature below is brought to you by CARE for AIDS, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. CARE for AIDS exists to empower people in East Africa to live a life beyond AIDS. We do this through a nine-month program that is focused on counseling and holistic care. We seek to facilitate transformation for our clients in five main areas of their lives: physically, spiritually, socially, economically, and emotionally. David’s story is one of my favorite examples of the holistic transformation that happens in a client’s life.  David, a CARE for AIDS clientWhen David came to the CARE for AIDS program in January this year he was completely blind. He’s 47 years old and he barely weighed 100 pounds when he joined the program. In addition to his sight loss and overall declining health, he was experiencing kidney failure. David has known his HIV+ status since 2012, and unfortunately his family abandoned him because of the stigma associated with HIV in Kenya. With no one to take care of him, and without being able to see, he felt completely helpless and hopeless. This wasn’t the first time David had felt this way in the last few years, but this time, CARE for AIDS was there to intervene. Back in 2013, election-related violence in Kenya was rampant. Tension was especially high in the slum regions where armed criminal gangs were fighting. David remembers it as a time of chaos and war in the slum where he lives. Theft and looting was common and David was the victim of a gang that wanted to steal from him. They severely beat him, hitting him hard over the head and damaging his legs so they could take what they wanted and he couldn’t chase after them. Unfortunately the worst was still yet to come for David. One day, on the way to work, his eyes started watering profusely. He had to leave work that day because he couldn’t see. Shortly after that, his eyes started swelling and his vision quickly got worse. One day everything went completely black while he was at work. David had become totally blind. David spent the next two years at home unable to work, unable to pay rent, and unable to buy food. His friends would occasionally show up at his house and buy him food for the week, but he hated feeling like he was a burden to others. Twice during this time David made an attempt to take his own life and twice God intervened so that he didn’t go through with it. During the first attempt, David found a mosquito net to tie around his neck and hang himself from the ceiling banister in his home. He knelt down to pray one final time just before hanging himself and said to God, “I want to come home. I’m about to show up there, so please don’t be mad at me…” While he was praying, a friend knocked on his door and prevented David from going through with his plan. A few weeks later he planned to swallow termite poison before bed so he would die in his sleep. Not long after making this new plan, David's friends miraculously intervened again. They found him a new place to live, bought him food and paid for his first few months rent in his new home. A CARE for AIDS graduate lived nearby this new home and had heard about David’s situation. She took Rose, the Health Counselor at the CARE for AIDS center in Githurai, to meet him. Rose recruited David into the CARE for AIDS program and quickly realized he needed immediate emotional and medical intervention. His face was swollen and he was incontinent and malnourished. Rose immediately accompanied David to the hospital. The doctor drained fluids from David’s head and face to reduce his swelling and prescribed medicine to treat David's kidney failure. He also began treatment for David’s eyes and, after doing a chest x-ray, prescribed medicine for pneumonia. Blood work was drawn and David’s viral load was over 2 million copies. It became clear that David had defaulted on his medication and his strain of HIV was now resistant to the medication he had been taking. The doctor prescribed a new regimen of medication for David to begin taking immediately to get the HIV virus under control and boost his immune system. David also started one-on-one counseling and group therapy at the CARE for AIDS center after joining the program. He has found solace in knowing others who are HIV-positive, and he has worked with the CARE for AIDS counselors to get rid of his suicidal thoughts. Since being on his new medical treatment for over 5 months now, David is seeing great improvement. His weight is up to 135 pounds and he has regained control of his bladder. His stress has decreased and his viral load has also decreased. Wanjiku, a neighbor who often helps to take care of David, makes sure that the food he gets from CARE for AIDS is prepared for him and she ensures that he takes his medicine daily. David's greatest improvement, though, has been in his eyesight. While he still cannot see well, his left eye is seeing shapes, figures, and colors. His right eye has difficulty in the light, but can also see better than before when he is indoors. David told us that he is no longer weak. He has more strength than he’s experienced in a long time. He boasted that he is now able to walk all the way to the market without anyone even holding his hand. David admits that he still has challenges because he can’t work and has to be given everything he needs, but he’s happy that he is making progress and has new hope that he will become self-sufficient in the months to come. David attended his first economic empowerment seminar at the CARE for AIDS center this month. He sat up front so that he could see the instructor and told us in detail all the practical information he learned that day. So far, CARE for AIDS has spent a total of $120 on David’s medical care. As you can see, a small gift to CARE for AIDS can go a very long way in the life of an HIV+ client in East Africa. If we were to receive a grant from See Beautiful, we would be able to reach hundreds of more clients like David and create more beautiful in the lives of our clients in East Africa. Funding from See Beautiful will provide practical medical care and invaluable hope for the future for our clients! Written by Holly Heacock, COO of CARE for AIDSEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful Cultivate Union creates beautiful by spreading the practice of yoga in the community. Yoga means union, and Cultivate Union fosters that union through sharing a practice of presence and healing. By encouraging change “from the inside out,” Cultivate Union contributes to positive social change in Atlanta, in the studio and beyond. As a Giving Initiative partner, Cultivate Union and See Beautiful are a perfect match. Cultivate Union does a lot to share the benefits of yoga, like supporting trauma sensitive training for yoga teachers. But specifically the Giving Initiative funding will go toward placing teachers in yoga classes at City of Refuge. Homeless women, as well as women coming out of sex trafficking, will now have the opportunity to practice yoga for free. Hopefully, the will find peace, relaxation, and perhaps experience the healing power of the practice. Rachelle Knowles, the Founder of Cultivate Union, shared these kind words about working with See Beautiful on the Giving Initiative: Being a part of See Beautiful’s Giving Initiative was a huge honor because I knew that I was in good company. The best part was knowing that connecting my community to See Beautiful was knowing they would become repeat customers who are excited to support organizations doing good through their future purchases. Many thanks to Cultivate Union, and all of the yoga teachers who share their gift of teaching through this organization.  AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator One of the best parts of completing a Giving Initiative is seeing the impact it makes. The support from a Giving Initiative leaves a positive influence on the organization as well as the people or cause the organization serves. Recently, we received these kind words from our friend Amy Churchill at Just One Africa. We are incredibly grateful for your support and are so grateful for your partnership in supporting the important work we are doing around sustainability for Hope Beyond Transitional Center! The cow will be a blessing so many ways and with the milk it will provide it is a blessing that will keep on giving! That really is beautiful!  Photo credit Ryan Song, Unsplash.com Thank you to the Just One Africa and See Beautiful communities for supporting this initiative. And thank you to Amy for all of her hard work! AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator Reflections from your Giving Coordinator... As Giving Coordinator, my role is to support our incredible Giving Initiative recipients. I help them every step of the way to create a successful online Giving Initiative campaign and ultimately get funded (the best part!). It’s so fulfilling and inspiring to work with folks doing the heavy lifting in their organizations every day. The truth is they do most of the work, and I am there to keep them moving forward and help lift that weight just a bit. But, recently, I had the unique opportunity to witness a Giving Initiative from the organization's perspective. Through my connection with the Junior League of Greenville (SC), I helped to launch a See Beautiful Giving Initiative to fundraise for the Greenville Cancer Survivors Park. It was rewarding to see these two areas of my life come together for good.  I learned a lot about what makes a successful Giving Initiative. Here are three keys to a victory: Buy-in from your organization Since I work intimately with the Giving Initiatives, obviously I understand how it works. But, a See Beautiful Giving Initiative is a bit of an out-of-the-box fundraising idea. So, it’s important that your organizational leaders understand what the Giving Initiative is, how it works, and what the organization’s role is in the process. As the Giving Coordinator, I can help with this! In fact, we created a Giving Guide to help further explain and demonstrate exactly this. This is a great tool to share with your team. This may be most relevant to larger organizations, but it’s also important that leadership is on board with promoting the Giving Initiative through social media channels, newsletters, etc. Although See Beautiful helps to promote for you, it also takes promotion on the organizational side to be successful. Which brings me to my next point... A plan to promote the initiative The key here is to utilize your existing communication or fundraising channels. Do you have a large newsletter list? Let’s send out a newsletter highlighting the Giving Initiative. Is Instagram your thing? That’s where you want to promote it. We’ve even helped to create a Youtube video for an organization that has an engaged and active Youtube following. In-person events can work well, too. Formulate a plan ahead of time or early in the process, and go for it! Of course, you’re not alone in this. As your Giving Coordinator, I’m here to support you.  Persistence and follow-through There’s great momentum with the launch of a Giving Initiative, but as time moves on, that momentum may begin to fade. Don’t worry! I’ll be here to keep you moving and motivated, but it also takes follow-through on your part. I know it can feel like one more thing, but if you commit to taking one action per week, you will see funding results quickly, which will, in turn, keep you more motivated to see it through to the end! Then comes the best moment of all. That moment when See Beautiful gets to tell an organization they are FUNDED! And you get to see the hard work pay off through beautiful projects in action. For our funded Giving Initiative friends, do you have any other tips? AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator |
See beautiful in yourself.
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