Impact During the Holidays

December has traditionally been our biggest fundraising month and 2022 was no different. Learn about how we managed to turn holiday cheer into impact.

A picture from our in-person Christmas fundraising event at Chelsea's in Vero Beach, FL

"As a teacher at an all-girls school, I see first-hand how education makes a significant and enduring difference to the lives of young women. A donation to Education Access not only changes the trajectory of girls' lives in developing countries, but also the generations that follow them.

- Carol Zortman

Fundraising is Challenging

In fact, we'd argue that is an understatement. In a way, nonprofits are almost running two businesses: one is dedicated to creating impact and the other is occupied with finding the funding to make that impact possible. The question is always what is the right balance?

Our team has tried to leverage our backgrounds in finance and business management to help us answer this question. So our focus over the past years has been to grow in terms of fundraising even more quickly than we have grown our programs. We are starting to see tha strategy pay dividends as well, as it gives us the flexibility to make the right investments to create a sustainable growth path.

We Couldn't Do This Without You

Count that as the second understatement of this article. The central tenet of this strategy is retaining a core of committed supporters and donors. And we have been lucky enough to find that. Some of our donors have been supporting us since the start. Many have decided to donate monthly. And of course in December ever year so many of you show up to demonstrate that. We're proud to announce that we raised over $8,000 this December, an increase from our already-significant sum last year. That amount alone translates into about 50 scholarhips. 50 more girls can go to school for an additional year because of you.

If that's not an inspiring way to close 2022, I don't know what is.