Fundraiser of the Year

Carol Loftur-Thun - Posted on February 16, 2010
We here at WEAVE are thrilled to see Miriam get recognition for all her hard work and efforts to help WEAVE overcome the major funding crisis experienced last September. Miriam has continued to be a valued member of our fundraising team, albeit now as a consultant, in line with both her professional goals and WEAVE's fiscal realities. Both the previous Interim Executive Director, Katherine Morrison, and I, as the current Interim Executive Director, have continued to value Miriam's expertise, knowledge, and dedication to WEAVE's mission. I am so glad to have had the opportunity to work with Miriam since I came on board in December, and have relied on her insights and skills as I work to help the organization through this next phase of re-imagining and re-building WEAVE.

WEAVE actually lost all of its administrative and development staff last September as part of preparations to responsibly close its doors in an orderly way in the face of these major funding losses. As news of its planned closure broke, past staff and long-time donors rallied via an on-line donation campaign launched by Lydia Watts, the founder and former executive director of WEAVE, along with several other former staff and long-time supporters. This campaign eventually raised over $125,000 to give the agency a new chance of survival. This amazing campaign--aided by a blitzkrieg Twitter campaign launched by another friend of WEAVE and bolstered by over $50K secured in corporate donations by another supporter who has joined WEAVE's board--will surely become a textbook example of pioneering efforts in on-line fundraising for nonprofits. On the strength of these on-line campaign results, and $300,000 pledged by local area foundations, WEAVE has been able to keep our doors open these past many months.

Along with WEAVE's Board President, Anne McFadden, who graciously stepped into the eye of the storm as Acting Executive Director for two very challenging months last fall, Miriam has been an integral part of helping us "right the ship" to stay afloat. Anne accomplished an amazing amount during her brief two month volunteer stint--we paid off our $100K line of credit, re-negotiated our lease, secured new space at 60% less cost to save $96K a year, and secured over $200,000 in continued funding from foundations and government agencies--all by December! Now Anne and our other dedicated board members are strategically recruiting key donors and leaders to join WEAVE's Board, and are engaged in strategic planning with staff, a well as working to secure additional corporate and individual funding to carry us through this year. Now that's board leadership at its best indeed.

Miriam has worked side-by-side with Katherine, Lydia, Anne, and now me, and has done a wonderful job of following up on the "SaveWEAVE" campaign to thank donors, write grant proposals, and help keep things functioning for the agency. In turn, we are so glad WEAVE could be part of Miriam's long-planned professional evolution by providing her with a base of consulting to enable her have the time to develop new clients and transition to become a development consultant. Ultimately we hope this is a win-win for both WEAVE and Miriam.

As a result of all these efforts by so many people, "Save WEAVE" has truly been a community-wide team effort among WEAVE's founders, staff, board, foundations, government funders, and most importantly our donors. Our base of support is re-engaged, energized, and expanded as everyone worked together to get through this crisis. As a result, WEAVE has an unprecedented opportunity to develop the more diversified funding base that the organization has so long sought since its founding days as the key to sustainability.

Now the challenge is to capitalize on this opportunity, and as is so frequently true for nonprofits, it's not a lack of vision, or a lack of understanding that we need to retain talented staff, but instead limitations in capacity and band-width due to funding constraints that are the challenge. Unfortunately, no matter how heroic nonprofits and their staff and supporters often are, we're always expected to turn water into wine without the benefit of miraculous powers--rather with only severely limited staffing and dedicated volunteers who put in many long hours to do the impossible.

So thank you for your recognition of one WEAVE's many "heroes and heroines", and we hope you will help us recognize all the outstanding staff and volunteers who have done the impossible to get us to where we are today, and who keep doing the impossible to ensure we're here for those we serve tomorrow.

Carol Loftur-Thun
Interim Executive Director
Women Empowered Against Violence, Inc

Carol Loftur-Thun - Posted on February 16, 2010
We here at WEAVE are thrilled to see Miriam get recognition for all her hard work and efforts to help WEAVE overcome the major funding crisis experienced last September. Miriam has continued to be a valued member of our fundraising team, albeit now as a consultant, in line with both her professional goals and WEAVE's fiscal realities. Both the previous Interim Executive Director, Katherine Morrison, and I, as the current Interim Executive Director, have continued to value Miriam's expertise, knowledge, and dedication to WEAVE's mission. I am so glad to have had the opportunity to work with Miriam since I came on board in December, and have relied on her insights and skills as I work to help the organization through this next phase of re-imagining and re-building WEAVE.

WEAVE actually lost all of its administrative and development staff last September as part of preparations to responsibly close its doors in an orderly way in the face of these major funding losses. As news of its planned closure broke, past staff and long-time donors rallied via an on-line donation campaign launched by Lydia Watts, the founder and former executive director of WEAVE, along with several other former staff and long-time supporters. This campaign eventually raised over $125,000 to give the agency a new chance of survival. This amazing campaign--aided by a blitzkrieg Twitter campaign launched by another friend of WEAVE and bolstered by over $50K secured in corporate donations by another supporter who has joined WEAVE's board--will surely become a textbook example of pioneering efforts in on-line fundraising for nonprofits. On the strength of these on-line campaign results, and $300,000 pledged by local area foundations, WEAVE has been able to keep our doors open these past many months.

Along with WEAVE's Board President, Anne McFadden, who graciously stepped into the eye of the storm as Acting Executive Director for two very challenging months last fall, Miriam has been an integral part of helping us "right the ship" to stay afloat. Anne accomplished an amazing amount during her brief two month volunteer stint--we paid off our $100K line of credit, re-negotiated our lease, secured new space at 60% less cost to save $96K a year, and secured over $200,000 in continued funding from foundations and government agencies--all by December! Now Anne and our other dedicated board members are strategically recruiting key donors and leaders to join WEAVE's Board, and are engaged in strategic planning with staff, a well as working to secure additional corporate and individual funding to carry us through this year. Now that's board leadership at its best indeed.

Miriam has worked side-by-side with Katherine, Lydia, Anne, and now me, and has done a wonderful job of following up on the "SaveWEAVE" campaign to thank donors, write grant proposals, and help keep things functioning for the agency. In turn, we are so glad WEAVE could be part of Miriam's long-planned professional evolution by providing her with a base of consulting to enable her have the time to develop new clients and transition to become a development consultant. Ultimately we hope this is a win-win for both WEAVE and Miriam.

As a result of all these efforts by so many people, "Save WEAVE" has truly been a community-wide team effort among WEAVE's founders, staff, board, foundations, government funders, and most importantly our donors. Our base of support is re-engaged, energized, and expanded as everyone worked together to get through this crisis. As a result, WEAVE has an unprecedented opportunity to develop the more diversified funding base that the organization has so long sought since its founding days as the key to sustainability.

Now the challenge is to capitalize on this opportunity, and as is so frequently true for nonprofits, it's not a lack of vision, or a lack of understanding that we need to retain talented staff, but instead limitations in capacity and band-width due to funding constraints that are the challenge. Unfortunately, no matter how heroic nonprofits and their staff and supporters often are, we're always expected to turn water into wine without the benefit of miraculous powers--rather with only severely limited staffing and dedicated volunteers who put in many long hours to do the impossible.

So thank you for your recognition of one WEAVE's many "heroes and heroines", and we hope you will help us recognize all the outstanding staff and volunteers who have done the impossible to get us to where we are today, and who keep doing the impossible to ensure we're here for those we serve tomorrow.

Carol Loftur-Thun
Interim Executive Director
Women Empowered Against Violence, Inc