Square One

All the complaining I did about the fundraising project? Yeah, I take it back. This grant writing stuff is already more complicated.

I am amazed at how detailed some grants are when it comes to requirements. I thought I had found the perfect one the very first day we started researching in class . . . turns out, The Sewing Machine Project isn't quilty enough for quilt club (also known as the National Quilting Association). It's true guys; your mission statement is a huge deal.

So I'm back to square one. Got to get gettin' + find a grant that matches perfectly. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, The Awesome Foundation is, well, awesome. They're just a group of anonymous people who grant $1000 dollar grants to a cool idea of their choosing each month. Check it out!

Fertig.

Guys. All I can say is how happy I am to have that fundraising project behind me. I am officially fertig (which is German for finished). I must admit that I ended up enjoying once it was all said + done. + I learned so much more than I thought I would. But let's just say I won't be diving into any major (real) fundraisers anytime soon.

congrats to the rest of the classmates, as well, on finally turning that thing in.

Images

I must say, this fundraising project has been just as daunting as I expected. It has been just as much work as I assumed. It has definitely taken all the time I had set aside for it . . . and then some. My time management skills have definitely come in handy this past week + my new planner did not let me down.

Even with all my planning and big-picture-looking, I still managed to find a few surprises and stumpages. (No, that isn't a word; it should be.) In particular, I found that figuring out the most beneficial way to advertise to be quite the challenge. I can't really place my finger on one particular reason this has been so complicated for me, but I'm pretty sure my indecisive self plays a pretty big part. 

Advertising is such a crucial part of any event. It's not just for getting the word out there; it can make or break your image in some cases. I guess I just want to do The Project justice. + it doesn't help that I don't have a lot to go off of since there just isn't much existing material.

Guess it's time to start looking at this as a blank slate to spill my creative juices onto. Time to get image creating!

plannin' time, y'all!

For the past two years, my planner has been a life line. A necessity. An absolute must. So when my cutesy little yellow and white number's spiral binding warped to the point of no return this week, I was a little upset. Maybe even a little bit panicked. Luckily, I was able to find a super cute beige and gold glitter one from Target. + it was on sale for only $3.48. I can handle that.

Today's first priority, written in RED CAPS? Fundraiser Planning.

I have been a little overwhelmed about getting this thing started. But it's amazing what 8 minutes with a helpful professor will do for your state of mind. In my individual conference on Tuesday, I went in with a skeleton of an idea - bare bones only . . . if even that - + came out with a pretty solid start of an idea.

So I decided that my free Saturday (who knew those still existed?!) would be dedicated to figuring this thing out. I "slept in" to a wonderful 8:30am, put on some laundry, made some glorious sweet tea, plugged in all the twinkling lights strung in the apartment, proceeded to flip on the rest of the lights because, let's face it, you need serious light to start making a full-fledged fundraising plan, grabbed a blanket, + got started.

I think my never-reveal-it-until-it's-finished mindset is kicking in here. Or maybe it's my make-sure-it's-perfect-before-letting-anyone-in-on-it mentality. Either way, I'm a little apprehensive about giving my less than thorough plans away.

On the other hand, + I have to be honest, in the grand scheme of everything planning a fundraiser requires, I'm not even half way there. I have a working draft of both the fundraising goal + objective + the plan for the day's activities . . . but that's about it.

The Basics:

• Folks will come for a spectacular sew-in.
• Folks will have sponsors, whom they are in charge of finding, who will pledge a certain amount of money for every hour their participant sews.
• Folks will have the opportunity to win awesome sewing supplies/gadgets.
• Folks' raised money will go toward buying sewing machines for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

I've RED CAPSed the planning process in for tomorrow, too. So we will see how that goes. 

Suggestions. They are welcome. Bring them on.