The behind the scenes of starting a non-profit.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Up!
This has been an incredible two weeks for Open Hand. We have had a great amount of donations come through. By my calculations we have 110 loans funded out of the 300 we have committed to. Come on God! WHEN this money comes in HE will be the one sitting up in heaven smiling that we ever doubted him. Thank you God! Thank you ahead of time for providing the money we need, for allowing us to be a part of changing the lives of thousands of Haitians. We literally couldn't do it without you.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Marketplace Opening Pushed Back = Best.News.Ever.
So if you've been keeping track the marketplace was originally to open in April 2014, then July, then August and now September and honestly (no, please lie) it's great news for us b.c we still don't have the money we need to fund all the loans. So obviously we are in no rush for the marketplace to open. On the other hand, it's extremely frustrating that we've been paying Nicolas and Franck since last year since we thought they'd be working full time by now. They are the biggest expense.
We haven't had any money come in and we are working on getting some Sole Sister parties on the books b.c we do very well at those, we just need a whole new crew to host them. Next week Alisha and I are hitting up some local restaurants and seeing if we can have fundraisers there.
In the mean time, we keep plugging away.
We haven't had any money come in and we are working on getting some Sole Sister parties on the books b.c we do very well at those, we just need a whole new crew to host them. Next week Alisha and I are hitting up some local restaurants and seeing if we can have fundraisers there.
In the mean time, we keep plugging away.
Ready, Aim, Miss!
Good thing I can chose to make these blog posts public or not. Not that anyone reads them but behind the scenes this is and I'm ready to quit. My husband has been a huge contributor to the money we are raising for 300 loans but I dont want him to shoulder the weight of thinking that he has to pony up the money if we cant get it from others. Which is where we are at. Can't.get.it.from.others. #peoplesuck #richpeopleneedtogiveitup.
I'm over it. I'm over begging for money. I'm over the long days and sleepless nights of trying to figure out where the hell this money is going to come from. You want a successful non profit? Be someone rich and famous who starts one or know someone rich and famous who is willing and able to part with SOME of their money. Not even asking for millions here people. 100 grand.
The more I toss and turn at night the more I worry that Ty is going to think he should give us the money to reach our goal but in reality - if we can't reach our goal then we are done. Sure, we can give away loans with what money we have collected but we certainly are not going to ever be able to venture into a different part of the world b.c the money raised for Haiti stays in Haiti. And I honestly can't take the idea of trying to raise another 100 grand for another location. This sucks. This blows. It's a lot of energy and tears for nothing.
And another thing - here Alisha spent so much time and energy and sacrifice to put on a group trip to take people down to see what we are doing. The timing was awful for us, I could only stay for the weekend and left her to deal with everything on her own - and you know what? Not a penny from them. Not a damn penny. Now my optimistic side is hoping they surprise us with a huge donation they have been secretly collecting but the real me wonders if this is really going to happen.
I need one big company to take on Open Hand as their charity. Just one and I can run with all that we have planned and we can impact thousands of lives forever. I'm ready to give out what we do have and wash my hands of this whole thing.
I'm over it. I'm over begging for money. I'm over the long days and sleepless nights of trying to figure out where the hell this money is going to come from. You want a successful non profit? Be someone rich and famous who starts one or know someone rich and famous who is willing and able to part with SOME of their money. Not even asking for millions here people. 100 grand.
The more I toss and turn at night the more I worry that Ty is going to think he should give us the money to reach our goal but in reality - if we can't reach our goal then we are done. Sure, we can give away loans with what money we have collected but we certainly are not going to ever be able to venture into a different part of the world b.c the money raised for Haiti stays in Haiti. And I honestly can't take the idea of trying to raise another 100 grand for another location. This sucks. This blows. It's a lot of energy and tears for nothing.
And another thing - here Alisha spent so much time and energy and sacrifice to put on a group trip to take people down to see what we are doing. The timing was awful for us, I could only stay for the weekend and left her to deal with everything on her own - and you know what? Not a penny from them. Not a damn penny. Now my optimistic side is hoping they surprise us with a huge donation they have been secretly collecting but the real me wonders if this is really going to happen.
I need one big company to take on Open Hand as their charity. Just one and I can run with all that we have planned and we can impact thousands of lives forever. I'm ready to give out what we do have and wash my hands of this whole thing.
Brave or Safe - Pick!
The head of International Justice Mission (IJM) spoke at our church this morning and I want to write about the notes I took because there was a lot I can relate to regarding Open Hand.
1. Following Jesus can be dangerous.
2. Do you want to brave or do you want to be safe - b.c you can't be both.
3. If you are on the field and nobody is making contact with you - you need to question if you are actually in the game.
4. Brave people live large lives
5. Loving people and telling the truth can be dangerous.
Ok. Now my thoughts - I have always been one who loves to bend the rules, get as close to the edge without going over type person - I love adventure and being 'a little bad' and you know what - after 35 years I think maybe just maybe that God made me this way. Shocker. It takes guts or balls (if you are a guy) to start a non profit and not only that to be working in third world countries and let's add the fact that we are women. Traveling without our husbands. There is a high level of risk involved. It's not safe, it's outside of your comfort zone and the funny thing is - IT'S A FREAKIN BLAST. I've been discouraged about Open Hand and the lack of funds - we have $68,000 dollars more to collect to reach our goal for our 300 loans. Trying to get money is almost impossible. It would be so much easier to find someone to partner with then try and do this on our own. That would be the easy way out. Lord knows easy isn't always the answer :) I want OH to be successful. I want to make a difference. I want to be hands on in changing lives. I don't want to be huge I just want to be able to provide the money needed to fund the loans we agreed to in every location we go to. That's not asking too much right?
Being brave or safe goes along with my Peter stepping out of the boat story that I always fall back on. He had to lift his foot over the edge of that boat and put his weight on the water - how else would he know if he could walk on it?
Safe - stay in the boat. Brave - hike your leg up and over and put your weight on the water.
Safe - go to Africa and see and do great things. Brave - start a non profit with no funding and no platform. Safe - let someone else make a difference. Brave - be the difference. Make it happen. Be the answer. Be Jesus to those who are in need.
1. Following Jesus can be dangerous.
2. Do you want to brave or do you want to be safe - b.c you can't be both.
3. If you are on the field and nobody is making contact with you - you need to question if you are actually in the game.
4. Brave people live large lives
5. Loving people and telling the truth can be dangerous.
Ok. Now my thoughts - I have always been one who loves to bend the rules, get as close to the edge without going over type person - I love adventure and being 'a little bad' and you know what - after 35 years I think maybe just maybe that God made me this way. Shocker. It takes guts or balls (if you are a guy) to start a non profit and not only that to be working in third world countries and let's add the fact that we are women. Traveling without our husbands. There is a high level of risk involved. It's not safe, it's outside of your comfort zone and the funny thing is - IT'S A FREAKIN BLAST. I've been discouraged about Open Hand and the lack of funds - we have $68,000 dollars more to collect to reach our goal for our 300 loans. Trying to get money is almost impossible. It would be so much easier to find someone to partner with then try and do this on our own. That would be the easy way out. Lord knows easy isn't always the answer :) I want OH to be successful. I want to make a difference. I want to be hands on in changing lives. I don't want to be huge I just want to be able to provide the money needed to fund the loans we agreed to in every location we go to. That's not asking too much right?
Being brave or safe goes along with my Peter stepping out of the boat story that I always fall back on. He had to lift his foot over the edge of that boat and put his weight on the water - how else would he know if he could walk on it?
Safe - stay in the boat. Brave - hike your leg up and over and put your weight on the water.
Safe - go to Africa and see and do great things. Brave - start a non profit with no funding and no platform. Safe - let someone else make a difference. Brave - be the difference. Make it happen. Be the answer. Be Jesus to those who are in need.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Even the little things....
So I haven't been blogging as much and when I do I havent been putting it out into the 'blogosphere' because nobody reads it anyways. Ha! But that doesn't mean I dont want to get all these behind the scenes moments documented for us to look back on some day.
The marketplace is set to be open sometime in September but that could all change depending on pretty much anything. Ha! For example, we were just pushed back a month in the accepting of applications for a booth space because of the World Cup. Apparently, Haitians don't have enough food or clothing and shelter but they can find a way to watch soccer???? It's kinda along the same question I have as, 'it seems every Haitian has a cell phone but they may not have clothes. So... where do they keep it?" These are the things that keep me awake at night. Nah, just kidding.
Our organization has hit a major hurtle. Alisha and her family are relocating to Brazil for her husbands job. What this means for the future of Open Hand we don't know. Besides that, she is my best friend and not having her around to be with and to work with is going to suck. We are a great team. The plan is to obviously give out the loans in Haiti and then spend the next year making sure that money is recollected so that it can be given out again in other places in Haiti and focus on the 2,000 pairs of Crocs we need to fulfill the promise we made to a man named Onesphone and Pastor Simon back when we went to Burundi in 2012. I'm sure they think we have forgotten about them. When we look all those shoes - we are going to go back WITH them to help distribute them.
But I'm getting away from my title of my post - so Alisha's family did a road trip down to Ft. Myers to drop off all the boxes of supplies, set design etc.. for the women's conference we are having at the end of October. Those boxes will be put on a container and shipped to Haiti and be waiting for us when we get there (side bar: No clue when we are going back or if we are going back before then). Alisha has had a huge heart about doing the women's conference. We are calling in Bloom - Dare to Bloom and we are focusing on encouraging these women (600 of them will be attending) to not give up, to figure out how they can be what God has called them to be etc.... and there has been one thing I have wanted to do from the very beginning - of course, leave it to me that I care about the shallow but if you were to know me in real life - it really is the little things that I can get excited about.
My husband Ty, gave me a polaroid camera for Christmas. I have ALWAYS wanted one. And before he got it for me I had in my mind that I wanted to take a polaroid picture of each woman that attends our conference and give it to her as a memory. Some of these women have never seen what they look like. Well.... after doing my research come to find out that it is going to cost ONE DOLLAR PER PICTURE for me to do my brilliant polaroid photo booth idea. Umm... that's $600 bucks. Yeah, Right. I even reached out to Polaroid themselves to see if they would donate the film but of course, no. After many months of resigning myself to the fact that the polariod pictures aren't going to happen Lisa, let.it.go I settled into the knowledge that I would just take regular pictures of the women and figure out how to get them developed before the conference was over.
Enter my awesome lunch date today - She has been a very vocal supporter and contributor in what we are doing and we were talking about being generous and how one of the things I wanted to do was a polaroid picture for each lady to have but it's $600 dollars. This new friend of mine barely lets me finish my sentence before she says, "Oh, I can do that." (jaw drop) And then she said something I hadn't thought about before regarding pictures - she said, "everyone deserves to see what they look like and it also makes you feel like you really do exist." So for my new friend, she understands the value of these women being able to have a picture of themselves and gladly wrote the check to cover all the film. I can't wait to order it all!
We have another donation earlier in the week from a family who could totally use the money but God told them to give to us. I can only hope and pray that God continues to burden peoples hearts to give. I don't want to hear about how what we are doing is so awesome blah blah blah WRITE THE CHECK. SAVE LIVES. GIVE. CHANGE.REPEAT.
The marketplace is set to be open sometime in September but that could all change depending on pretty much anything. Ha! For example, we were just pushed back a month in the accepting of applications for a booth space because of the World Cup. Apparently, Haitians don't have enough food or clothing and shelter but they can find a way to watch soccer???? It's kinda along the same question I have as, 'it seems every Haitian has a cell phone but they may not have clothes. So... where do they keep it?" These are the things that keep me awake at night. Nah, just kidding.
Our organization has hit a major hurtle. Alisha and her family are relocating to Brazil for her husbands job. What this means for the future of Open Hand we don't know. Besides that, she is my best friend and not having her around to be with and to work with is going to suck. We are a great team. The plan is to obviously give out the loans in Haiti and then spend the next year making sure that money is recollected so that it can be given out again in other places in Haiti and focus on the 2,000 pairs of Crocs we need to fulfill the promise we made to a man named Onesphone and Pastor Simon back when we went to Burundi in 2012. I'm sure they think we have forgotten about them. When we look all those shoes - we are going to go back WITH them to help distribute them.
But I'm getting away from my title of my post - so Alisha's family did a road trip down to Ft. Myers to drop off all the boxes of supplies, set design etc.. for the women's conference we are having at the end of October. Those boxes will be put on a container and shipped to Haiti and be waiting for us when we get there (side bar: No clue when we are going back or if we are going back before then). Alisha has had a huge heart about doing the women's conference. We are calling in Bloom - Dare to Bloom and we are focusing on encouraging these women (600 of them will be attending) to not give up, to figure out how they can be what God has called them to be etc.... and there has been one thing I have wanted to do from the very beginning - of course, leave it to me that I care about the shallow but if you were to know me in real life - it really is the little things that I can get excited about.
My husband Ty, gave me a polaroid camera for Christmas. I have ALWAYS wanted one. And before he got it for me I had in my mind that I wanted to take a polaroid picture of each woman that attends our conference and give it to her as a memory. Some of these women have never seen what they look like. Well.... after doing my research come to find out that it is going to cost ONE DOLLAR PER PICTURE for me to do my brilliant polaroid photo booth idea. Umm... that's $600 bucks. Yeah, Right. I even reached out to Polaroid themselves to see if they would donate the film but of course, no. After many months of resigning myself to the fact that the polariod pictures aren't going to happen Lisa, let.it.go I settled into the knowledge that I would just take regular pictures of the women and figure out how to get them developed before the conference was over.
Enter my awesome lunch date today - She has been a very vocal supporter and contributor in what we are doing and we were talking about being generous and how one of the things I wanted to do was a polaroid picture for each lady to have but it's $600 dollars. This new friend of mine barely lets me finish my sentence before she says, "Oh, I can do that." (jaw drop) And then she said something I hadn't thought about before regarding pictures - she said, "everyone deserves to see what they look like and it also makes you feel like you really do exist." So for my new friend, she understands the value of these women being able to have a picture of themselves and gladly wrote the check to cover all the film. I can't wait to order it all!
We have another donation earlier in the week from a family who could totally use the money but God told them to give to us. I can only hope and pray that God continues to burden peoples hearts to give. I don't want to hear about how what we are doing is so awesome blah blah blah WRITE THE CHECK. SAVE LIVES. GIVE. CHANGE.REPEAT.
Monday, June 16, 2014
The Dream Giver
Alisha let me borrow a book called the Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson and I am eating it up. She told me it would help encourage me to continue on in what we are trying to accomplish and it I just wish I could read it and remember every line in this book. I think I'm going to go to Barnes and Noble and buy myself a copy.
Some points to take away from the book:
1. God gives dreams that are intended to help the world in some way
2. You will encounter many 'bullies' in your pursuit of your dream and they more than likely will be people you know and love.
3. You will go through a desert time but look for the diamonds
4. Be a greenhouse for someone's dream
5. It's important to be 'in over your head' - HELLO Open Hand!
We've had such a stall here in the last few months. The money isn't coming in, we don't have people we can ask to throw Sole Sister parties and we still need $70,000 to reach our $100,000 goal. This marketplace, which is again scheduled to open sometime in September is going to be the 'cream of the crop.' From the indoor air conditioned offices/to the 24/7 Christian music, to the gorgeous playground for the kids, to the food court it is all being done with excellence. And WE get to be a part. Who would have thought... Joyce Meyer, Jentzen Franklin and Open Hand?! WHAT? LOL
There are a few big money deals on the horizons of those who would like to give but they haven't come through yet so we wait. And wait. And pray that God will not let us down. That this is part of the dream He has placed in our hearts and it will come to pass. That all the diamonds we have found along this journey so far - add up to a beautiful pile of jewels that we can throw at His feet, for His glory. Because this will truly be His win. When the money comes, when every loan is given out that we are committed to - to God be the glory because without Him - there's.no.way.
Some points to take away from the book:
1. God gives dreams that are intended to help the world in some way
2. You will encounter many 'bullies' in your pursuit of your dream and they more than likely will be people you know and love.
3. You will go through a desert time but look for the diamonds
4. Be a greenhouse for someone's dream
5. It's important to be 'in over your head' - HELLO Open Hand!
We've had such a stall here in the last few months. The money isn't coming in, we don't have people we can ask to throw Sole Sister parties and we still need $70,000 to reach our $100,000 goal. This marketplace, which is again scheduled to open sometime in September is going to be the 'cream of the crop.' From the indoor air conditioned offices/to the 24/7 Christian music, to the gorgeous playground for the kids, to the food court it is all being done with excellence. And WE get to be a part. Who would have thought... Joyce Meyer, Jentzen Franklin and Open Hand?! WHAT? LOL
There are a few big money deals on the horizons of those who would like to give but they haven't come through yet so we wait. And wait. And pray that God will not let us down. That this is part of the dream He has placed in our hearts and it will come to pass. That all the diamonds we have found along this journey so far - add up to a beautiful pile of jewels that we can throw at His feet, for His glory. Because this will truly be His win. When the money comes, when every loan is given out that we are committed to - to God be the glory because without Him - there's.no.way.
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