Writing your personal fundraising letter: A Roundup

Last night we discussed how to write your personal fundraising letter. If you missed the meeting, you can find handouts here. Or feel free to use the online versions to cut and paste from (but remember, personalization is absolutely essential! No one loves a form letter!)

For more information, see last year's post that goes a bit more in-depth on the criteria list. (Scroll down)

Need help finding your elected officials? Try this link. And Google is always your friend, too.

Remember: draft letters and your list of target donors (with addresses!) are due next week. You can always email your advisors drafts early, though!

Online Auction!

It's not too late to submit items for the Online Auction - our delegation will get credited for your items selling price!  Click here for more information.

[Nearly] Everything you'll need to know about Bob I, you'll learn in this post

Get your Bob I info here! Bring back the parent sign-off slip to the November 1 meeting and earn $1 for the pizza fund!

First Fundraiser - Success!

Thanks to the tremendous efforts of our delegates, their families, and the Y, we're pleased to announce our first Spaghetti Feed fundraiser netted the delegation scholarship funn [drumroll!] $650!

Congratulations, Sac Central!

Scholarship Application Available

Click here to download the Y's Scholarship Application.

Read and follow the directions on the first page. The second page is blank and the application begins on page 3.

Things to remember:

• All delegates may apply for scholarship money.
• No delegate will be considered for scholarship money without a completed application on file.
• Scholarship applications should be returned to Christiana or Morgan at a weekly meeting.
• There's no box on the form for Youth & Government - we know - that's okay, we know for which program your applying.
• Scholarships will be awarded based on several criteria including, but not limited to:
• Demonstrated financial need
• Demonstrated dedication to the delegation
• Weekly meeting attendance (including timely arrival and departure or notifying delegation president in cases of late arrivals or absences)
• Meeting participation (positive contributions to discourse, bill or proposal ideas, respect for fellow delegates, etc)
• Demonstrated fundraising efforts
• Attending fundraisers, selling tickets, selling coupon books, etc
• Effort will be every bit as important as results
• Participation in scholarship opportunities
• Timely return of required forms (medical release, delegation contract, etc), completion of requested actions (online registration), requested replies to emails, etc.
• Effort at making incremental payments when possible (i.e.: if you/your family can afford $10/week toward program costs, bring us $10/week; bring whatever portion of a payment you can on a payment due day, etc)

The bottom line: need isn't the only or most important factor, participation isn't the only or most important factor - we'll take a holistic view of  your participation in the program and your need for aid and do our best to equitably distribute available funds.  Please provide us with as much context as possible about your family's situation - especially if you feel the numbers don't tell us the whole story about your level of need.  We can do a lot to help, but only if we have all the information necessary.

If something comes up that changes your family's situation, come talk to us about it before you quit the program or anything crazy like that.

Earn Your Delegation Some Money!

Watch (or listen to) tonight's debate between gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown (on KCRA at 6pm or Capitol Public Radio 90.9 or streaming on-line), write a paragraph about what you observed, who won, who was funny, who you agreed with or disagreed with, etc, email it to your advisor and - presto! - $2 per participant to the delegation pizza fund!

Earn Yourself Some Scholarship Money!

Sacramento Central Delegation Election Year Scholarship

What is it?
A way for you to earn money, learn about the political process, and engage in your community.

Who is eligible?
All Sacramento Central Delegates who have completed the Y’s required financial aid documents.

How do I participate?
1.) Find a candidate, political party, interest group, or ballot measure that interests you. Volunteer to work on its campaign for a minimum of 10 hours between now and Election Day on Tuesday, November 2, 2010 (that’s about 5 weeks from now).

2.) On Election Day, take a photo of yourself visiting your local polling place – yes, even if you can’t vote, you can still take time to figure out where you’ll be voting in a few years.

3.) Finally, write a 2 page paper (that’s only about 500 words) on your volunteer experience. What did you do? What did you learn? What surprised you? How did your candidate or cause do on Election Day?

What do I get?
You get $50 credited to your program costs.

Can you explain this some more?
Sure, here’s the deal: It’s an election year and you’ve chosen to participate in a model legislature and court program, so we’re hoping you’ll find the elections more interesting than you might’ve before. We hope you watch a least a little news and read a newspaper each day and know the basics of who is running for which office, what groups are supporting what candidates and what causes, and what proposals are before voters in November.

We don’t care what campaign you volunteer for: Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman, Barbara Boxer, Carly Fiorina, your local nominee for School Board, your local Assembly nominee (Democrat or Republican), or a third party that is working on behalf of a candidate or cause (for example, if a labor union is making calls on behalf of a candidate for State Senate). There is some group or some person you can learn about and care about, go volunteer to help ensure victory.

You must volunteer for at least 10 hours on the campaign of your choosing. To validate your time, have a campaign manager or some in-charge person sign-off on your time and provide and email address and phone number at which we can reach them.

What kind of work to campaign volunteers do? All sorts – walk precincts, make telephone calls, stuff envelopes, make copies, pour coffee, clean the campaign headquarters, assembly yard signs, answer phones, there’s always something to do.

I don’t have any idea who to work for, can you give me some ideas?
Of course!

I don’t need the scholarship money, but I’d like to participate – can money go to the Delegation fund?
Again, of course! And great idea.

Enjoy A Night Of Entertainment And Support Our Delegation At The Same Time!

To purchase tickets call Samantha Doffo at the YMCA at 916-452-9622 ext 132 or email Christiana at cdominguez [at] cslea [dot] com

See you there!

YMCA Financial Need Application: Required for Grant Awards

Our departure for the first conference is swiftly approaching. We've had tremendous success this year already by adding more delegates and running more productive, and I hope more fun, weekly meetings. Sam, Rob, and I are very proud of what we've accomplished so far this year and we expect it to continue and improve (we have really high expectations, have you noticed?)

I'm pleased to inform you that the Y&G Scholarship Committee has awarded our delegation $250 towards the fees for the first conference and $1700 towards the fees for the remaining conferences in grant money to support our mission of ensuring that everyone who puts in the work and demonstrates the dedication is able to participate in Y&G.

Many of you have also taken advantage of the program's individual scholarship program. The committee deciding that award does not meet until November 20 - so if you have applied, expect to hear back at the end of November or beginning of December.

As we have discussed previously, everyone has the opportunity to participate in delegation fundraisers regardless of demonstrated financial need or financial hardship.

In awarding the grant money given to us by the Y&G scholarship committee, however, it is important for us to also take into account demonstrated financial need - along with meeting attendance and participation, fundraising attendance and efforts, and dedication to the delegation as a whole.

Available here to download is the YMCA's standard financial need application. Note: This is NOT a separate award for which to apply. This is a generic application we would like to collect from those wishing to demonstrate eligibility for the grant money we have received. You'll note that some of the application's information or questions may not apply to our program - you can leave those areas blank. Clearly, we're not using this information to determine membership discounts, nor do you need to be concerned with the "what programs are you applying for" section on the back, since this isn't about camp, sports, or swim lessons.

You do need to fill out the family member and income information and provide the requested documents.

You have until Friday, November 6 at 5pm to submit this information. If you are attending the Auction, you may submit it to Christiana at the Auction until 7pm. I will have extra copies of the application at the meeting on Thursday as well if you cannot print out the attachment. That won't leave you much time to complete it, however, so keep that in mind.

We encourage you, however, to bring this to the meeting on Thursday.

If you have questions or concerns about this application YOU or a parent MUST CALL CHRISTIANA ASAP at 916-508-3299. Otherwise, I will expect to see applications from those who have expressed financial need and requested accommodations thus far this year.

Thank you for a great year and a great program.