I would like to THANK YOU all for your support in 2024. We had a great year and truly appreciate everything our volunteers, donors and staff have done to make it a great year. With your support Peace House Community was able to support to over 33,500 Community Members, provide over 21,000 meals, hundreds of haircuts and manicures, and lots of bike repairs. More importantly, your help provided our community members a safe, non-judgmental environment to gather, get out of the weather, and relax.
Several years ago, one of our supporters told me that he didn’t understand what I was talking about when I encouraged him to give to Peace House Community. The reason? I never told him how much we needed, so he didn’t know if I was asking for $50 or $50,000. A representative of one of the churches that supports PHC made a similar comment when he said, “You know, if you only ask us for $5,000, that’s all we’ll give you.”
It’s taken a while, but we’ve finally gotten a grasp of how to tell our supporters what it takes to serve the community at PHC. We looked at the needs of our community, and how our donations have been dispersed over the last few years. And with that, let me introduce you to our fundraising goals for this year:
| Fundraising Goal: $420,000 | ||
| Amount to be Donated | Number of Donors | Cumulative Total |
| $50,000 | 1 | $50,000 |
| $25,000 | 2 | $50,000 |
| $20,000 | 2 | $40,000 |
| $10,000 | 5 | $50,000 |
| $5,000 | 15 | $75,000 |
| $2,000 | 20 | $40,000 |
| $1,000 | 40 | $40,000 |
| $500 | 120 | $60,000 |
| $100 | 100 | $10,000 |
| $50 | 100 | $5,000 |
| Grand Totals | 405 | $420,000 |
I have to explain a couple of things regarding these goals. First, these goals are aggressive. Our donors have never given this much in a single year before, but again, we’ve never properly asked before. The Board of Directors and I believe that PHC’s supporters as a community have more desire and ability to give than we have given them credit for in the past. We also believe that clearly stating the needs of the community, and the opportunities we have to change lives, will allow our donors to make informed decisions about the amounts they want to give to PHC’s mission and work.
Second, please don’t think your gift won’t make a difference. We don’t want anyone to think, “They only want donations of $50 or more” or “What good is $10 when they need $420,000?” Even our largest donors can’t sustain PHC by themselves. Neither can our smallest donors. The chart above shows that everyone together, by pooling resources, can make a huge difference. And after all, isn’t that the nature of community, and the reason that we come together?
Finally, these goals consider where we are today, and where we want to be tomorrow. As our community’s needs continue to increase, and as new opportunities develop to meet those needs, we are positioning ourselves to make the most of what’s coming. What does that mean? Imagine if we could add onsite staff who could help our community members navigate the complexities of County and State assistance and housing programs. What if we could buy one or more of the vacant lots by PHC to create a larger, better equipped building to provide even more services and bless even more people? How about PHC opening on weekends, knowing that our community members’ needs don’t take days off? All of these possibilities really are possible.
Again, thank-you for bringing PHC through the first 40 years. We’re looking forward to seeing what the next 40 years holds.