The auction is now approximately 2 weeks and 2 days away, but guess what: There's still time to get in your volunteer hours and bring in donations so you can qualify for an EJF grant this summer! Perhaps you missed the deadline to apply for summer subsidies from GW (that deadline was today), or perhaps you applied but would like to hedge your bets (GW only gives approx. 35 grants and many many more than that apply). Never fear! EJF is here!
The auction now needs you more than ever, and what we need most is stuff to sell! Lucky for you, bringing in stuff to sell is also how you qualify for a grant. Here's what you do:
1) Download and print out a solicitation letter, a fact sheet, a donation form, and a grant application.
2) Make copies of the solicitation letter, fact sheet, and donation form.
3) Go to your favorite businesses with letter, fact sheet, and donation form in hand. Tell them you're w/EJF, all donations are tax deductible, and we can use anything they can offer. (If you'd like to see the database of businesses to which we sent solicitation letters in recent months, email me and I'll send you a copy.)
4) Call your parents, relatives, and associates. Tell them you're raising money so you can get paid this summer, and if they could donate anything at all (including cash), it would help immensely! If you get a big-ticket item -- i.e., superbowl tickets or plane tickets to anywhere, a weekend at a resort or beach house, a scenic plane ride (in someone's cessna, for example), etc. -- we'll count it as two donations (or more, depending on the item).
5) Put the donations you collect in the EJF mailbox in the records office or give them to one of us so we can make sure you get credit for them. Donations due by April 1.
6) Plan to volunteer for a few hours in the first week of April and especially on the day of the auction, April 8th. We'll need more than a dozen people to put in several hours each on the 8th alone, and there will be more volunteer options leading up to the auction and immediately following.
7) Fill out your grant application and turn it in by April 9th (the day after the auction). Grant recipients will be announced April 11th.
That's it! It's easy! It's fun! You can do it, and when you're not charging up your rent this summer because you're living off your EJF grant, you'll be glad you made this effort now!
Questions? Let us know via email, and/or check back here frequently -- we'll be sure to post important updates as they happen.
Thanks everyone! Good luck soliciting!
Posted by toddc at March 22, 2004 09:47 PM