Great news — two more girls have just been sponsored at Village Schools International (VSI) in Tanzania via the She’s the First “Twice as Nice” campaign! As you may remember, the fundraising success of Notre Dame students led an anonymous donor to pledge that they would match all donations through She’s the First to VSI in the next sixth months!
The raffle at Urban Girl Squad's June 17th Summer Kickoff Party raised enough to send two girls to school through She's the First! (Amanda on far right)
Two more village girls can now go to school thanks to a brilliant idea by Urban Girl Squad founder Amanda Hofman. Urban Girl Squad is a social networking group for women in their 20s and 30s in NYC. Amanda plans several fun events a month, including June 17th’s Summer Kickoff Party at Polar Lounge at the Marcel of the Gramercy Hotel. At the cocktail party, each guest received a free raffle ticket, and for $2 each, they could purchase additional raffle tickets to increase their odds of winning cool prizes, ranging from yoga memberships to mixology lessons.
In total, $118 was raised. As you see in our directory, a VSI annual sponsorship of a girl is only $110. With the anonymous donor on board, the total doubled and covered the tuition of two girls — plus some money for extra books and supplies!
Amanda’s raffle is a wonderful example of how you can integrate support of She’s the First into an existing event. You can be creative a put a fundraising element into your party, even if you don’t classify the event itself as a “fundraiser.” Steve Vinton, the founder of VSI, expressed his gratitude below in an email — and we echo it!
Many thanks to you, Amanda, and to everyone who helped you pull it off. I love starting schools and I love teaching and I love giving kids who never dreamed that they would get to go to school that chance. You all have helped a really good thing to happen!
