In Materials
One effective way to raise "funds" for Las Manos is to do a material drive before you come. This can work in at least two of many ways. A first option is to contact the Las Manos volunteer coordinator to see if there are particular items the school(s) is in need of, after which you can email a "Wish List" to your friends and family, asking them to buy the supplies for you to bring down when you come to work. (Due to limited space for storage and a set curriculum, we prefer not to have a random collection of books. Of course, small personal presents for the children are welcomed.) A second option is applicable if you have plans to complete a personally designed project for the kids, and in this case, you can compose your own list to cover the cost of the supplies needed for your specific project. The Paypal Promotion
Family and friends come through amazingly well when you are involved in a project like Las Manos, so one way you can help us continue and expand our efforts is to send group emails to your relatives, supporters, and fans, explaining your upcoming plans, the organization, and provide them with information (Paypal account) on how to make a small donation on your behalf. If you need further explanation regarding Las Manos, we can send you a few paragraphs of information that can be copied and pasted into your email. The few minutes it takes to compose and send such an email can be extremely beneficial to the organization and a means of helping out before you even board the plane, bus, ship, or submarine. The Personal Leftovers
Party for the Cause
Of
course, if none of these methods suits you or you find them to be less
than successful, you can always revert back to door-to-door cookie
selling (a la girl scouts) or setting up that lemonade stand in the
front yard ("garden" for ye Brits).
The Spread-the-Word Package
After
you've finished your stint of volunteering, you can help us more with
the cost* of a package of propaganda (t-shirt and CD of printables) to
tell all of your friends, family, neighbors, and other interested
parties about what you've been up to up here in the mountains. Using a
laptop, you can help them set up a one-time PayPal donation or monthly
direct debit to support Las Manos, or perhaps a little less effective,
you can give them the website to do the deed on their own. This again
would probably coincide well with the welcome home fiesta your pals most
likely have got in the works anyway.
*It may be cheeky to ask you to buy promotional material from us after you've just volunteered and pledged your willingness to help; however, it allows all of the money that is donated to go directly to the children rather than the organization using it to fund our fund raising, which is a necessity to gather the income needed to get the project going. In this way, your $10 or less can be turned into much more without costing Las Manos or the children a dime. Organizational Outreach Another way you can help is by utilizing any organizations you are currently in or aspire to join to spread the word. You could easily set up an unofficial donation jar at work, ask a church to pass an offering plate, or run a charity 5K in order to raise a little extra money for us. In this case, acquaintances and Las Manos would entrust you to get the funds to where they are intended to be, but if you've volunteered with us, then you should be a trustworthy humanitarian and deserving of such responsibility. You are by no means obligated to do any of these fund-raisers, but such efforts provide Las Manos and the students of Guatemala with hundreds and hopefully thousands of a new friends and dollars, all of which will go into enriching the lives of children who are really deserving of our love, concern, and hearts. All efforts, no matter how small, are appreciated and taken to be one more step closer to procuring a more rewarding existence for our clients. |
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Volunteer Fund-Raising |
