If you have been following my
blog, you know that I am recapping the 40 things I did in ’14. I am up to
accomplishments made by our nonprofit organization, Tumaini Volunteers.
I certainly can’t take credit
for any of these. This is my daughter’s organization and I am just there for
moral support. Since she is the chairman of the board and I am the
vice-chairman, I guess my job is to let her boss me around.
This has been a lot more work
than I had ever anticipated. Government forms, bylaws, business plan, audits, I
don’t know, the list seems pretty endless. And what with all of that, it feels
as if we are really not working much towards our goals of helping those living
in poverty in Kenya. I just want all the paperwork out of the way and I want us
to have our volunteers signed up for a trip to Kenya and I want them all fired
up to work on a project which will bring sustainability into the lives of
families in need. When I say, “I want, I want, I want”, I sound so selfish,
don’t I?
Anyway, these are some of the
concrete things we accomplished in 2014:
* apply for tax exempt status
* do a large scale fundraiser for Tumaini
* set up Etsy shop
* make $1000 selling our Kenyan crafts
* get tax exempt status
That doesn’t sound like much.
In between all of that, though, we worked on our business plan, constantly
hounded people to volunteer their time, and held a friend-raiser in addition to
the fund-raiser. I personally set up and attended, I think, five sales. A few
times my sister helped, but I did a few of them by myself. The crafts we brought
back from Kenya reside in the suitcase my daughter took there twice. With all
the toting of this suitcase which I have done to all these sales, I feel like
the suitcase has put on more miles around northern Wisconsin than it has going
back and forth to Africa twice.
In the coming year, we hope
to finalize our business plan, solicit some larger contributions, sign up a
team of volunteers to return to Kenya next fall, plan that trip and take it.
If anyone, anywhere out
there, is interested in getting involved in any way with Tumaini, PLEASE let me
know. You can go to our website for more information, www.tumainivolunteers.org or check
out our facebook page.
2 comments:
As soon as my WSMA duties are done in April I will be at your beck and call.
Thanks, Denise, we will be in touch!
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