Independent Fundraisers

Boston Gives Back: BFFs Sponsor Girls in South Sudan

Lauren Horn and Sarah Matthews all glammed up for the funraiser

By Sarah Matthews and Lauren Horn

Sarah and Lauren, here! We’re best friends and recent grads in Boston, MA, and we just finished our second annual fundraising party for She’s the First. This year, we held the fundraiser, Boston Gives Back, to raise money to sponsor girls through Project Education Sudan. Between the event and online donations, we’ve already raised over $1,600, sponsoring four girls and more than doubling the funds we raised last year.

Our She’s the First fundraiser party last year raised over $700 to sponsor girls at the Haiti Outreach Project. We used a successful formula: Sarah’s apartment, Trader Joe’s wine and snacks, a step and repeat backdrop, mini (tie-dye!) cupcakes and lots of friends. We did the same things this year, but added some fun twists, enabling us to double what we raised last year.

Drool-worthy mini tie-dyed cupcakes!

We realized that there were a lot of people who wanted to support our cause, but couldn’t actually make it to the event. We decided to set up a Causevox page which linked to the She’s the First paypal so that anyone could donate directly to our event. It only took a few minutes to set up – we added text and links, uploaded a YouTube video of our plea for help and created a background with our event logo (created by our friend Natasha, who’s an amazing graphic designer)! We’ve been using the Causevox page to post on Twitter and Facebook in order to build awareness of the fundraiser and the cause. It’s a great way to extend our reach beyond just our friends and family to others who may be interested in supporting She’s the First.

Raffles were held for amazing prizes from local Boston restaurants and bars

One of the best additions to this year’s event were gift card donations from six local businesses which we raffled off. Some serendipitous tweeting with Naked Pizza Boston led them to ask us if they could help. From then on, we started asking other local businesses for donations via Twitter. This led to six amazing Boston bars and restaurants (including a food truck that was featured on the Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race!), promising lots of Twitter and Facebook love. The raffles were a huge hit at the fundraiser, with many attendees donating at least $20 for two arm-lengths of raffle tickets. It goes to show how useful and powerful social media is for bringing attention to amazing causes!

Want to help us reach our goal of sponsoring five girls? We’re almost there – donate online!

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Candy, Crowns & Our Very Special Cause

MacKenzie and Kaitlin selling candy grams for a She's the First sponsorship.

I’m Kaitlin Davis, a She’s the First Ambassador and Miss Cape Shores 2011, a local title in the Miss New Jersey Education Foundation. Being a part of both organizations has given me the opportunity to bond with incredibly passionate and enthusiastic young women– one of them, Mackenzie Olson, was a contestant in the Outstanding Teen program (the “little sister” to the Miss New Jersey Pageant) when she reached out about getting involved with She’s the First last year. Through numerous coin drives and one especially pink yard sale, Kenzie successfully sponsored the education of a girl at Kopila Valley Children’s Home. I felt so proud of her, and I knew then that our special friendship was only beginning. One year later, I had the privilege of announcing that Kenzie had won Miss Cape Shores Outstanding Teen — we had officially become “pageant sisters.”

Now, if we’ve ever met, you probably know how much I love cupcakes. That’s one reason why I am so excited about the upcoming tie-dye cupcake campaign. If we’re being honest though, I am a pretty big fan of anything sweet — cupcakes, candy, desserts of all sorts. When Kenzie was crowned, we were determined to team up and capitalize on our sisterhood in honor of She’s the First. Our first initiative was to co-host a candy gram stand at several New Jersey pageants this summer.

In the lobby of the theater, we set up a table where family members and friends could purchase flowers and lollipops to send to their favorite contestants with messages of love and support. Delivering notes of confidence to nervous contestants is always a good feeling, but it was doubly special knowing that all of those donations were going to such a special cause. After the pageant, we had sold $108 in candy grams — enough for a sponsorship at Village Schools International in Tanzania!

Kenzie and I are so excited to implement our other fundraising ideas, and we’ll be sure to share our stories here. Until then, here’s to sponsorships that are sweet!

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Back-to-School Fundraiser at Northeastern U Raises $570 + Counting!

Sarah and Lauren, in grand She's the First style!

I couldn’t have been more excited and proud to hear that Lauren Horn and Sarah Matthews, seniors from Northeastern University, decided to throw a Back-to-School fundraiser on Sept. 18! Just a few weeks ago here on Aspire, we kicked off a new monthly series of She’s the First’s fundraising campaigns — each month, I’ll blog with creative fundraising ideas with a special theme.

 

Best friends Lauren and Sarah did most of their party shopping at Trader Joe’s, spending only $60 total on hangout necessities like hummus, popcorn, and pasta salad. They even made cupcakes in She’s the First colors. Yum!

how adorable are these STF-themed cupcakes?

My favorite thing about Lauren and Sarah’s fundraiser was the adorable She’s the First step and repeat (photo backdrop) they made together. Just by enlarging the She’s the First logo and creating a checkerboard pattern on their living room wall, they created a fun photo opp for all of their friends.

Lauren and Sarah said they had their fingers crossed to raise $100 by the end of the night, but they raised a whopping $570 and counting!! (They’re still waiting to collect more promised donations)! They chose to sponsor girls in Haiti, benefiting our partner the Haiti Outreach Program.

guys came with the girls too -- and notice the little STF stickers on their shirts!

“Our plan was to sponsor girls directly,” says Lauren. “It only costs

$100 to sponsor a girl’s primary education, and I love the idea of being able to see who exactly we’re helping.” The girls and their guests will be able to follow the progress of the students they support here on the She’s the First blog, as our new team of researchers begins to keep a close eye on them via the Internet and report back.

Stay tuned for the next round of She’s the First campaign ideas, which will go online Oct. 1!

Posted in Haiti Outreach Program, Independent Fundraisers, She's the First*{Campus} | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Back-to-School Fundraiser Tonight at Northeastern University!

Sarah & Lauren, Northeastern University students

We are so proud of Sarah & Lauren, best friends at Northeastern University in Boston, who have been planning a She’s the First fundraiser for months! You may remember when they announced their plans in our blog here. And now, tonight is the big night! They’ve chosen to fundraise for a sponsorship in Haiti, via the Haiti Outreach Program partner in our directory.

We wish Sarah, Lauren, and their friends tons of fun. We asked them if we could share the Facebook reminder that they sent out to guests this morning, for some behind-the-scenes insight into what goes into planning a party with purpose. (Answer: lots of enthusiasm!) Our campaign developer, Devin Tomb, will be interviewing Lauren & Sarah after the event to share their tips with you all. Stay tuned, and check out more Back-to-School fundraising ideas here!

You can replicate what Lauren & Sarah are doing to fundraise for a girl's sponsorship at Northeastern University. oh the power of Facebook Events!

Posted in Haiti Outreach Program, Independent Fundraisers, She's the First*{Campus}, Sponsor Stories | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments