I hope everyone had a joyful holiday season. I would have said "restful" but if your past couple of weeks were anything like mine, there was not a lot of rest involved. Between the flu sweeping through my family for Christmas, family visits, special programs and dinners, a teething baby and school-age kids who are getting a little restless...there has not been a lot of down time. Lots of joy, just not a lot of rest. I will count it as a win, but I am ready to move into the new year.
2014 holds a lot of promise for Joel's Place. The staff and the Board are eager to move forward and see what God has in store for us. I just finished a grant that will hopefully bring another staff onboard to help me work on grants and fund development. We have a number of teachers ready to bring their classes over for field trips.
On the financial side of the operation, we ended 2013 in the black. We are so blessed and grateful to everyone who partnered with us throughout this past year. We still have some long term debt that we are working to retire, but that is easier to handle when the day to day operations have enough money to sustain them. Towards that end we are enrolled in a couple of programs that make giving to Joel's Place really easy.
Pick.Click.Give.
The Permanent Fund Dividend application process is now open and over 40,000 people have already signed up. The expectation is that this years dividend will be higher than the past several years; the hope is that this year's may double last year's. When you sign up for the PFD there is a green button on the website for Pick.Click.Give. When you select it, you are given the choice of giving part of your dividend towards the non-profit of your choice...like Joel's Place. You can edit your choices through August 17th, so you don't have to make up your minds yet, but I would encourage you to join with me in generously giving to Joel's Place through this amazing program.
Fred Meyer Rewards Program
The Fred Meyer Foundation is changing its giving structure. Instead of having its generous donations decided by a small selection committee, it is linking charitable giving to the Fred Meyer Rewards cards. Here's how it works: After January 6th, anyone with a Rewards card can go to this link and link their rewards card to one non-profit organization...like Joel's Place. It costs no money and does not take away from any of the other points or benefits of the program. Purchases are linked to Joel's Place and tallied. Each quarter Fred Meyer gives out a certain amount of money in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. The higher our tally, the greater the percentage of that money we will receive each quarter. I don't know how much money we are looking at with this program, but it seems like a low cost way to bring in unrestricted revenue. When signing up our Organization number is 84078. I will keep you updated.
Again, thank you to everyone who has supported us this past year. We had 816 individual youth visit us this year with hundreds of meals served and thousands of kid hours logged. Joel's Place truly is a community endeavor and we deeply appreciate each one of you who gives of your time, money and resources. May you have a blessed and joyful 2014.
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