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Dear Friend,
I have two urgent questions for you.
So please don't stop reading, even if your initial reaction to the first question is, "I don't know anyone like that." If you read the entire letter and pray and reflect on it, you just might have an insight that will really help us.
Plus, your answer to the second question can also make a HUGE difference to our ministry.
So here's the FIRST of my two questions.
Would you please help us find an experienced development director (fundraiser) with a truly tender heart for women hurt by abortion?
The odds are you can't personally fill that role. But it is also true that you just might know someone who can help us find just the right person.
Most schools, hospitals, and non-profits of every sort have a development director. So please think about who you know who is connected with nonprofits. They likely know and work with development directors. Please ask if them if they know someone who might be a good match for our ministry. You even pass this email on to them.
Please try to think of just one person you could ask.
This is a really important need for us.
If you've seen our fundraising letters over the last couple years you know how we are hurting. Our donations are way down.
This last fiscal year (ending in July), we had sales income of only $8,041 and donations of $95,895. Our combined revenue, including interest and reimbursed expenses, was only $105,437. But our expenses for three employees, printing, postage, supplies, and utilities was $123,771.
The resulting $18,334 deficit took a huge bite out of our savings. If it happens again this year, we may not be able to survive.
But here's the surprising part. Our $95,895 in donations came from only 365 donors who made a total of 723 donations.
What a great bunch of donors we have! That's an average of $132 in donations per donor. That's high for any non-profit. (If you are one of these donors, thank you so much!)
But did you notice how few donors we have? Only 365!
Think about it. Here we are, the nation's leading post-abortion research and education group. Our web sites generate over two millions hits per year and are consistently ranked in the top ten for Internet searches related to abortion research and risks.
We've published dozens of groundbreaking studies, books, fact sheets, and advertising/outreach materials.
Just 365 Donors Are Educating Millions!
Our work and materials are relied upon and quoted by hundreds of the media outlets, pregnancy centers, post-abortion ministries, churches and pro-life groups . . . most of whom give us their sincere thanks, but no donations.
Through this multiplier effect, literally millions of people in the United States, and around the world, have seen our materials quoted and cited by others. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of students use our resources for presentations and term papers each year.
We've had numerous letters of thanks from women saying we saved them from the mistake of having an abortion. And even more tell us we helped them to find healing after an abortion.
So we are clearly making a difference. In fact, we're making enough of a difference that we have been singled out for harsh criticism from the likes of the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the American Psychological Association, and the New York Times.
Our critics are angry because national polls show that over 85% of the public now agree that abortion causes emotional harm to women. More than half believe coerced abortions are common or very common. One of those people also happens to be the swing vote on the Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who indicated exactly that in a recent case in which our studies were prominently included in the court briefs.
Clearly, our 21 years of leadership in educating the public that most abortions are unwanted, unsafe, and unnecessary is helping to redefine the abortion debate.
With your help, we are making a difference.
But we still have only 365 donors?!!
What's going on here?
Why don't we have at least ten times that number?
Even if we had 3,650 donors, that would still be only 73 people per state! Surely there are far more people per state who would support our pro-woman/pro-life ministry if they knew more about our work and our needs.
The answers are simple. We don't have a development director. We're not well known enough. We are relying on too few donors. They are very generous donors. But they are far too few in number.
Millions of people may hear about snippets about our research or see copies of materials redistributed by other groups. But those millions don't know us, the full extent of our accomplishments. And far, far too few ever see one of our appeals for financial support.
Another problem we have is that most people who see our work imagine (as several people have told me) that we are already a well-funded institution receiving significant grants and donations of a million dollars per year or more. They don't realize that we are desperately short of the funds need to continue, much less grow, our ministry.
20 Years of Progress -- With No Major Donors
Indeed, if you have seen our 20-year anniversary report, it's easy to see why people think we actually have far more funding than we really do. (Check it out at http://www.theunchoice.com/20thanniversaryreport.htm)
But no organization can grow to an annual budget approaching million dollars without a full-time development director.
Plus, another telling sign of how underdeveloped we are is the fact that we have only a few patrons supporting us with donations of between $1,000 and $5,000 per year, and none in the $10,000 to $50,000 range, or more.
Think about it. We have a solid record of accomplishments. There is no reason that a group with our track record shouldn't have the substantial backing of at least a few big donors, a couple of big foundations, and a couple dozen family foundations.
But it is very hard to find such donors.
Trust me, other non-profit groups like to keep their major donor's names a secret. It takes a full-time detective--that's another term for a good development director--to find the big donors.
The simple truth is that fundraising is a full time job.
The dilemma is this. When I first started the Elliot Institute 21 years ago, I quickly discovered that developing new research and publishing educational materials required 90% or more of my efforts.
I simply didn't have the time (and perhaps not the talent) to do as much fundraising as should have been done. So, I did one fund-raising letter per year. Along with the sales of our books and other materials, that was just enough to make ends meet.
But that model isn't working any more. Today, with even three fund raising appeals per year, we're coming up short.
So back to my first question. Can you help us find an experienced, talented development director?
Which leads to the second question . . .
Can you help us to afford a development director?
It takes money to make money. We need to raise money to pay a development director. I don't know how much yet, but I know we don't have any money in our current budget.
Obviously, anyone we hire, even on a part time basis, will need to quickly earn enough to cover his or her own salary, plus more. But I need to be able to afford at least a couple months' salary to get them started.
Can you give $50, $100, $500, $1,000 or even $5,000 to help us grow from a barely surviving non-profit to a significant institution with proper funding?
I pray you will agree that we truly are making a difference and helping women, men, families, and children.
If so, I'm sure you will also agree we need to be doing more of what we do best, not less.
Please give today. You can donate at http://www.unchoice.info/donate.htm.
Please help us to find and pay for the development director who can help us to not only survive, but to grow.
Thank you for your consideration and prayers.
Yours for Life in Christ,
David C. Reardon, Ph.D.
Director
P.S. If I may add just one more question, would you please pray for our success on this uphill mission to grow our staff and to grow the Elliot Institute?
To make a donation today, please go to http://www.unchoice.info/donate.htm.
Thank you.
You are in our prayers. Please remember us in yours.
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