South Georgia Summit:
We recently held a summit in South Georgia. This was a first for the foundation-we took our show on the road! Our first stop was Epworth by the Sea on St. SimonsIsland and then onto the Thomas County Library in Thomasville. We had 30 team members representing 15 communities including one nonparticipating community- LowndesCounty! We would like to thank you for opening up your community to us. We enjoyed our time spent with you.
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Quick Links...
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=59816594055
http://groups.myspace.com/ferstfoundation
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Welcome to our newest community: WilkinsonCounty! Irwinton is the county seat. Other cities in Wilkinson include Allentown, Gordon and Ivey.
Wilkinson County has substantial kaolin deposits, which are important to the local economy. Wilkinson County shares the Beaver Dam with Laurens County to the southeast. This was once a Wildlife Management Area owned and operated by the Department of Natural Resources, but now is privately owned. The Oconee River forms the county's eastern border. [1]
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Fundraising
Grants:
If you have a Target store in your community please visit here to apply for their grant: http://sites.target.com/site/en/company/page.jsp?contentId=WCMP04-031767
The Foundation Center - Located in the Hurt Building, the Foundation Center is a library specializing in philanthropic and a remarkable asset for grantseekers. The Center maintains periodicals, hosts special programs with local funders, and offers training programs to help emerging grantseekers and build skills. It has access to a sophisticated, searchable database of foundations across the country that can significantly short-cut research, particularly of foundations that fund in Georgia but are located elsewhere. The local foundation community actively supports and advises the Center. Locate it at http://foundationcenter.org/atlanta/ .
Southeastern Council of Foundations (SECF) - SECF, also located in the Hurt Building, is a "trade association" of foundations in the 11 states in the southeast region. Although you would want to visit its home page at: http://www.secf.org/, you may be especially interested in its membership list for Georgia. This list is a quick reference for larger foundations and includes links to those members that list a webpage.
Government Grants: Contact the branches of local government that address the issue of your organization. Many nonprofits would fit somewhere in arts, human services, community development, or health. Remember to contact all the cities and counties where your organization offers services, along with the State of Georgia.
There is an elected official at each level of government for the areas you serve. Make sure they know about what you do and how you are successful. They or their staff members can help you connect with government employees who might be in a position to help.
Direct Ask: Remember 80% of support for a community comes from individuals! Now is the perfect time to prepare your presentation before your local school board and teachers to ask for payroll deduction. Putnam, Haralson, McDuffie, Gilmer, Stephens & Franklin Counties receive funds generated by payroll deduction each month. We have a sample form and presentation online at http://ferstfoundation.org/FundraisingforCATs.htm look under additional fundraising resources.
Fundraising Event: Catoosa, Glynn, Grady and Thomas Counties held very successful Spelling Bee Events. Look for more information to be posted to the website soon.
Quarterly Reports: If your community does not use Ferst Foundation as your fiscal agent, please remember that your 2nd quarter reports are due.
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Public Relations
Ferst Foundation is now on You Tube! That's right; post your videos from your CAT events. Anytime you hold a registration drive, fundraiser or even a CAT meeting, why not video it and post it to You Tube? Let's let everyone know what you are doing locally for the program. You can log on to the site by www.youtube.com and enter the username: info@ferstfoundation.org and password: ferst1999 to post a video. We will be monitoring this site and we will remove any videos that we feel are inappropriate.
Be sure to check out Vista Print for some of your printing needs. They offer business cards, post cards, magnets, car door magnets, decals, letterhead and much more. A lot of these items are FREE you only have to pay shipping-the only negative would be the add-ons they encourage you to purchase at the end of your order-just click no to those offers. We use Vista Print all the time! www.vistaprint.com
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Registration
Everyone should take the time to download their database at least every other month to check for duplicates. In one community I found over 30 duplicates, sometimes parents will register their child again when they move. The system will not tag that child as duplicate. I know you all work very hard to raise money to support the children in your community so let's be sure we are sending books to children that should be receiving them otherwise the post office may be throwing those undeliverable books away.
TO ENTER NEW CHILDREN:
-Log in to the database
-Go to Data Clerk
-Children
-Add
-Enter the child's name and birthday, click GO. The system is checking for duplicates. If it is flagged as a duplicate and the info is the same as the new form, do not add the child again. If it is a new address in your county, just follow the steps below to change the address. If the existing info is from a different county or state, email the child's info to Sandy and she will remove them from the existing county so you can enter the child into your database.
-Complete the registration form and Save
TO ENTER CHANGE OF ADDRESSES:
-Log in to the database
-Go to Data Clerk
-Children
-Search/Edit
-Enter the child's last name and/or first name and click GO
-When you find the child, click the EDIT button to the right of the child
-Make the changes to the registration and click Save & Exit
TO DELETE A CHILD:
-Log in to the database
-Go to Data Clerk
-Children
-Search/Edit
-Find the child you want to delete and click Edit
-Click on Delete. You will be prompted to confirm. Click Yes
***If a book was returned and you find the child, make sure the address in the database is the same as the address on the book. If so, delete the child. Many parents will call us to change the address, so if the address in the system is different than on the book leave the child in. If the child's new address is not in GA, delete the child. If the new address is in a nonparticipating community, leave the child in. If the child has moved to another participating community, email us the child's new info. We will go into the database, print the registration so we have the birthday and parent's info, and we will delete the child then reregister them in the new county.
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Thank you for joining us as we Imagine the Possibilities as we grow a more literate Georgia!
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Sincerely,
Tera Cochran
CAT Coordinator
Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy |
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