Fundraising

Historically, I think the Board has been afraid to engage in direct fundraising because they were told by many people that the Association’s finances and controls were so shoddy no serious donor would want to be associated with them.  I don’t think this is any longer the case and we’ve made a lot of progress that we can present on paying down our debt and improving our financial controls.  I will be donating, and I know other candidates have donated as well.  To my knowledge none of our candidates are people with deep pockets who are going to make a substantial difference personally to our overall financial situation.  We have structured our Board to be member selected and responding to membership interests and the voting members have been mostly interested in organizational and operational issues.  The Board’s focus on operational issues have detracted from our fundraising mission and that’s something that needs to improve.  We need to ask people to donate, we need to offer compelling examples of what they’re funding, and we need to arrange for professional assistance to develop a compelling fundraising plan that builds a structure of giving like other nonprofits have.