It’s a good thing robots never run out of energy (all we need to recharge is the nearest outlet) because 2018 has been non-stop so far! In fact, I’ve been so busy the last few months that I haven’t even had time to talk about the extraordinary event that happened at the end of 2017.
While everyone was getting ready to ring in the new year, Read Better Be Better received $41,000 in unsolicited year-end funding. (Yes, you read that right!)
Tears would make me rust, so I am unable to shed them for my own good. However, RBBB founder and CEO, Sophie Etchart, did enough happy crying for all of us when the donations started flooding in.
A New Year’s Eve to Remember
As you may or may not know, it’s common for charitable organizations to have year-end funding pushes every December.
But Sophie and I feel that we have a better chance for building long-term support for Read Better Be Better by continually thanking our supporters and showcasing the work we do through this blog, social media, and our email newsletter.
This is why we made the decision to not ask for support last December. Little did we know, our community would still seek us out to make year-end contributions.
Sophie was away for New Year’s, spending time with her family in a cabin, when she noticed her phone lighting up with notification after notification. Donations had, unexpectedly, begun rolling in — and they didn’t stop until it was almost midnight.
As Sophie told me, “It was an unbelievable experience to see such an outpouring of support from our community.” I wholeheartedly concur with that statement!
When 2017 was all said and done, Read Better Be Better received nearly $15,997 in unsolicited, unrestricted funding, in addition to the $25,000 we received as unsolicited institutional giving.
Making a Difference With Your Dollars
The work we do at Read Better Be Better is making a difference to the children and communities we serve — and to see that recognized organically fills us to the brim with pride.
Unsolicited funding means we don’t have to put our own resources into raising that money — which allows it to go even further.
The $41,000 we received will fund three schools for an entire year.
That’s an entire year of children improving their literacy skills and an entire year of children becoming better learners — all thanks to our generous community of supporters.
Through our program, we encourage our Littles and Bigs to ‘be excellent’ and ‘be kind’ — and it looks like our community followed suit.
I’d like to send out a huge THANK YOU from the bottom of my capacitor to everyone who supported our mission in 2017. Read Better Be Better is working to solve Arizona’s literacy crisis — but we couldn’t do it without you.
Yes, 2018 started off with an unbelievable bang — but there’s more where that came from! Stay tuned to see what excellent things we have in store for the rest of the year.
Dr. Dave signing off!