Squeak, Squeak,

I've been debating on posting this because I wanted to wait and see what the outcome would be and then I remembered the whole point of this blog is to document the behind the scenes of starting a non profit and what better way to do so then to introduce you to something near and dear to both our hearts.

Now if you haven't heard of Spanx then... well I'd have to say, "have you been living under a rock for the last 10 years?" but really Sara Blakely invented Spanx which is a footless pantyhose for women so that all our bumps and lumps wouldn't show through our clothes and she has revolutionized the entire industry. She is based in Atlanta and is the first self made woman billionaire to join the Giving Pledge with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet www.givingpledge.org.

This is what she had to say about giving away a portion of her wealth, “I pledge to invest in women because I believe it offers one of the greatest returns on investment. I am committed to the belief that we would all be in a much better place if half the human race (women) were empowered to prosper, invent, be educated, start their own businesses, run for office – essentially be given the chance to soar!”

Now I ask you, is that not EXACTLY what Open Hand is doing? And being that we are stay at home moms and women based in Atlanta we have decided to follow Sara Blakely's advice, "don't take no for an answer," and we are on a Sara Blakely Blitz or Spanx Blitz what have you. We have been doing our research and created marking packets to send to various women in her company telling them about who we are and what we are doing and how partnering with us will fulfill the goal of the Sara Blakely Foundation.

Take a look:

In order to 'see behind the scenes' you have to be able to see our ups and downs, our success' and failures, our awesome ideas and our 'ok, you guys are crazy' ideas.  So we have bought bright red folders and placed information about us, the local magazine that featured us on the cover, and a personalized letter asking Sara for a face to face meeting for 15 minutes. We are blitzing specific people in her company and in our research we have found that her birthday is towards the end of February. We thought we'd send her a red backpack (like her lucky red backpack) and put in a couple tickets to a local event as well as one of our funky hope bracelets and our Freedom Wing necklace and our awesome bright red marketing folder of course :)

So our first idea was to go to the downtown office every day and deliver a package to each person. Picture this - Alisha and I jump into my car with Will in tow and head down to Buckhead. If you know anything about Atlanta it's that we have a million Peachtree Roads. So after my awesome Waze app gets us lost we finally find the correct high rise. We decide that I'm going to go in and drop off the packet while Alisha stays in the car with Will (since taking a 4 year old into a building where you are hoping to catch the attention of the biggest donor you are trying to get isn't exactly business savvy). I decide to enter as if I own the place. I don't look left or right and I head straight for the elevators. I know which floor I need to be at. Coast is clear - I'm in the elevator and security hasn't stopped me yet. I punch the number and wait. I'm giddy. I did it. I'm going to be able to drop off the packet at the front desk of Spanx. Nothing happens. I hit the floor number again. Nada. And I look down and realize NOBODY is getting anywhere without a card key. *sigh* I tried other floors, nothing. So I step out of the elevator with all the dignity I can muster and head over to the security desk where they call up and tell me that someone will come down to get the package. At that point I smile, say thank you and head back out to the car where we proceed to pay $2 for parking even though I was in the building less than 5 minutes.

Since we can't get up to the offices we decide who we are going to target within Spanx to send a packet to. We are hoping that if we address it specifically, someone, anyone, will get it into the hands of Sara Blakely. We're hoping 'the squeaky wheel gets the oil' saying will be our savior. We're hoping that one of these women get sick of seeing our bright red folder and finally say, "Sara, will you please just give them 15 minutes they are driving me crazy."

And through all this I'm thinking, "why not us?" It has to be someone right? It has to be some non profit so why can't it be us? We have so much of what the Sara Blakely Foundation is looking for to invest in. The money will have such a huge impact on so many lives right away. We are changing women's lives by providing small business loans so they can provide for themselves and their children.

So we are in the middle of our blitz and hoping that someone will respond to the squeaky wheel. Hopefully Sara Blakely herself.

And now I'm ready to send post into cyber world (btw this is like putting out a marriage proposal and then waiting to hear if she says yes, a little nerve racking) I hope and pray that all of us will be able to look back on this post and say,  "holy cow. They did it."