Thanks to Our Premier National Supporter
The Hartford is the first life insurance company to offer policies at
standard rates, with no postponement period, to qualified breast cancer
and prostate cancer survivors.Visit The Hartford's website for more information.
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National Office
Contacts:
You should find this brief summary of national office "helping hands" useful:
For anything dealing with program budgets, facilities, staffing, retreat planning, general volunteer questions: contact
Jacki Lappen
For expenses, reimbursement, donations, and payment requests: contact
Suzi Dorgeloh
For questions about participant applications, shipments of retreat materials: contact Martha Robertson
For help with public relations, media outreach, branding issues, and news from the field: contact
Kate Fox
For help on development, fundraising, and events, contact: Sandy Trudel
To reach the Executive Director, email Lori Simon If you have any questions about equipment or equipment shipments to retreats, please email equipment@castingforrecovery.org |
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If you want to download a single copy of CFR's official video for use in presentations, it is also available from another site:
click this link
and follow the directions.
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Pssst...CFR's Official Facebook Page
Did you know you can become a fan of CFR? There's been a "quiet" national page up and we're beginning to get traction!
The Vermont/New Hampshire and the Mid-Atlantic teams also have pages to help keep alumna connected. We're moving into the new world of social networking!
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The Heritage Award - Update
The American Museum of Fly Fishing will honor Casting for Recovery with its 2010 Heritage Award, to be presented on
April 29, 2010, at a special ceremony
at the Yale Club
in New York City.
If you're interested in receiving an invitation from the Museum for this $500 a plate event, or for more information, please contact Kim Murphy at the Museum via email or phone at 802-362-3300.
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A Note From Lori Simon
I'm very pleased to share the news about some new tools at the national office that will better help our mission of service to women!
- Our new online application process has been connecting us across the country with breast cancer survivors who want to experience a CFR retreat. In the period between January 1 and February 11 599 women nationally applied online for a spot at a retreat through the CFR Retreat Page online application link.
- We are now also offering online registration to those women whose names have been drawn as participants or alternates! By sending a personal email alert which includes a private link to a secure web page, we are providing them with an easy-to-use form and giving access to the medical release and liability of waivers that need to be returned to the national office.
- We're already seeing that the online application and registration process helps us more effectively and efficiently compile information submitted by participants, especially helpful in avoiding the difficulties involved in interpreting - and entering - information from handwritten forms. (Needless to say, I know we'll still deal with some questionable spellings of "tamoxifen", but we can all appreciate that we know what is meant!)
- The new general brochure, based on the design of the Ripple Effect brochure now offers more program explanation to prospective participants (one side of the brochure) while still providing information on how friends can help "spread the Ripples" on the other side (volunteering, donating, advocating). Directions on how to apply for a retreat, volunteer, and donate online mean we don't use valuable brochure space for donation forms.
- Close to one hundred prospective volunteers have used our online volunteer application form since it went "live". Program coordinators are now receiving extensive information on these applicants - helping you widen the circle of advocates and assistance for the women we serve!
- We have applied to the Combined Federal Campaign! CFC is an annual workplace charity campaign: pledges made by Federal civilian, postal and military donors during the campaign season (September 1st to December 15th) support eligible non-profit organizations that provide health and human service benefits throughout the world. Keep your fingers crossed that CFR is approved!
- Some of the teams have already taken advantage of the online ticket sales feature that we started testing at the beginning of the year. The latest program that is taking advantage of this, Colorado, is using the secure link to sell tickets to their 4th annual fundraiser, the newly named "Fish Tales & Cocktails" event scheduled for April 22.
Kudos to Bonnie Holding of Maine, as the clever "Fish Tales & Cocktails" name she has used for the Maine fundraiser for years has inspired our adoption for the Colorado fundraiser, and for we hope for many more successful events around the country!
Tax Time
Just a reminder that if you or any of your retreat staff receives a stipend of $600 or more from Casting for Recovery, we are required by law to issue a 1099 form for this, and to report accordingly to the IRS.
Spring Appeal
An appeal mailing has been sent out to kick-start the coming season! Thanks to all of you who provided the requested opt-in and opt-out information. The letter samples are posted on the bulletin board, but you can also download them here for sparking your own ideas:
Trout Unlimited Chapters, General (unrestricted) appeal, Alumni donors.
Online Auction Report
The next online auction is planned for May 9 - 22. And if you're interested in listing any items that have been donated, please email Kate and she will send the you the form to complete. As always, the allocation of proceeds will be 40% to the general fund and 60% to the program that supplies the item. The year-end holiday auction generated $20,000 (gross) for Casting for Recovery. There was a bidder from Louisiana who won a trip to the Adirondacks, and a bidder from Massachusetts who's traveling to Alaska. This online auction can really expand the reach of fundraising efforts: if a local outfitter wants to donate a trip, or if a lodge wants to provide a weekend, you can take advantage of a nationwide audience with this opportunity! |
Volunteer & Volunteer Leadership Council News
Grants Update
As
you know, we're working on providing grants templates for you to use in
reaching out to your community...especially to Komen affiliates. The
templates will give you a basic structure on which you can build your
unique case for support. By making applications locally to foundations
and companies in your own backyard, you're very likely to succeed!
Here's
what coordinator Dr. Richard Davis (TN-2) had to say in a recent note
about their first-time success with the local Komen affiliate:
"In
completing a grant application for your Casting for Recovery (CFR)
retreat financial aid, the right answers to the questions may seem as
far off as stars in our galaxy. Having recently been through the
process, I want to share a few simple ideas to improve your success to
get in get your grant approved.
- call and make an appointment to meet personally with the director of the organization to which you are applying for financial assistance before the grant deadline.
At this meeting you will have an opportunity to define how a CFR
retreat helps breast cancer survivors in diverse ways beyond the usual
support group milieu.
- take a sampling of pictures of your last retreat to leave
with the executive director. They will most likely be passed around to
the board making the funding decision. Each picture should tell a
story, show diversity of participants and emphasize their involvement
in the weekend retreat activities. These photos exemplify the old
saying "...a picture is worth a 1,000 words."
- bring a copy of your participants' candid comments
or feedback received about the value of a CFR retreat to the breast
cancer survivor's lives. Omit names, initials will suffice. This
storytelling will be the script for your photos!
- do leave one
of CFR's most recent brochures (Casting for Recovery - Guiding
Survivors - otherwise known as the "Ripple" brochure) which describes
the organization, its function and the target audience served by a CFR
retreat. The text and photos will enhance your grant responses.
Thanks to Dr. Davis for his suggestions!
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Regional & Retreat News & Events
Events
There's been a lot happening over the winter in outreach and news from the field!
- click here for current postings
or use these links for complete details: CFR Mid-Atlantic/Southeast Regional News
CFR Northeast Regional News
CFR Midwest/South Regional News
CFR Southwest/Rockies/West Coast Regional News
Can't recall where you saw some information? We now are archiving all editions of the Executive Director's and TherapyFish Newsletters.
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Keeping in Touch
If there are any changes in your contact
information (home phone, work phone, preferred phone, email or address) please email your changes, or any
updates of alumni information you come across, to Suzi.
All Planning and Retreat Team members can have an opportunity to get these updates. Please send this to other team members using this forward link. |
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Thank you! We're ever grateful for all your hard work.
Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see in these updates. As we begin to see signs of a long-awaited spring, I wish you the best and thank you for all the hard work you are doing to spread the "ripple effect" of Casting for Recovery.
Lori Simon
Executive Director | |
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