We just wanted to share with you a little bit about our mindset regarding fundraising!  Fundraising could be a full time job for a nonprofit; however, we take a little different approach.   We decided that once per year was MORE than enough for us!  We are a small non profit, run by volunteers.  All of our team members and volunteers are busy…families, jobs, the juggling of many things at once…well, you get the idea and are probably living the same kind of craziness.  When we decided to make this ministry permanent and pursue becoming a 501 (c) 3, we agreed to just have one weekend per year focused on fundraising.  We call it our Fundraising Blitz and we have our Silent Auction on Friday night, our 5K on Saturday morning, and we are completely and utterly exhausted by Saturday at noon!  2 major fundraisers in less than 18 hours!  We made the commitment to throw everything we have into the Blitz.  We do the very best we can and then we trust that God will give us what we need to accomplish His plan for sMiles 4 Sammy.  There are lots of pluses to our thinking…1) People know that we aren’t asking them for money every time they cross our path.  Just once a year we encourage them to come buy stuff at a silent auction, get healthy at a 5K and get an awesome t-shirt for participating!  2) Let’s face it…fundraising just isn’t as fun or rewarding as getting to know the wonderful families in our sMiles 4 Families program or creating and delivering the care packages!  We raise funds once and then get to give back the whole rest of the year!  3) Our volunteers don’t have to worry about “working” for us all year long.   It’s never a good idea to tire out your volunteers. Ever.  At all.  Our thinking may not work for all nonprofits, but it seems to be working pretty well for us.

With that being said, we were blessed with $20,000 at our 2013 Fundraising Blitz!  That’s $10,000 in the restricted account at the Ripken Foundation for the future All Ability Field and $10,000 that we are using to love on families who have a medically fragile child.  How awesome is that!  You know, the funny thing is, the more that sMiles 4 Sammy gives, the more that seems to just appear…when we haven’t asked for anything!  That’s the funny thing about giving…it’s the whole “the more you give, the more you receive” principle in action.  It’s been amazing to watch God do His God things!

Thanks for allowing us to share a little bit about our mindset and for sharing with  you the results of our Blitz!  We know the Blitz was was 4 months ago, so this post isn’t exactly “on time”, but we have been busy with our sMiles for Families program and with our own families.  Better late than never, right?

We have so many exciting things to share about  sMiles 4 Families, but we’ll save that for another post!  Y’all enjoy your evening!  Please say a prayer for all those families who lost a loved one in the 9/11 tragedy.  Say a prayer for our servicemen and women who daily sacrifice so that we can be free and enjoy all that this beautiful country has to offer.  Give your loved ones a hug, tell them you love them and make LOTS of  memories with them.  Every Day is a Gift!