24 Hours of GRACE
On Tuesday, March 23 the annual “24 Hours of GRACE” campaign will ask you to help us secure the future of GRACE.
For many years, your gifts to “24 Hours of GRACE” have helped fund GRACE Transitional Housing, the Community Clinic, the Food Pantry, Children’s Services, and last year, our response to the COVID 19 pandemic.
This year, instead of a one-time gift for a specific program, we are asking you for a Recurring Gift to support all of the programs and services at GRACE.
It is not hyperbole to say Recurring Gifts are the lifeblood of GRACE. Some donors give monthly, others every two weeks. The results are always the same: their gifts form a stable source of support that we can count on—funding we can make plans on.
This past year has truly shown just how important Recurring Gifts can be. While we were continuously pivoting to stay ahead of the pandemic and keep our clients, volunteers, and staff safe, our monthly budget always started with a baseline of Recurring Gifts.
Thousands of donors came forward with gifts to add to that baseline and allowed us to serve more than twice as many clients as the year before. Our deepest thanks for all of those one-time gifts that helped keep body and soul together.
Still, on the first of each month, all we could count on were Recurring Gifts. As the year of COVID passed, more and more of you came forward with Recurring Gifts: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, even quarterly.
It was your promise of funding to come—of gifts to expect—that allowed us to anticipate the needs of our clients, and project future costs.
This “24 Hours of GRACE” is your chance to do the very most good for the people GRACE serves. We also ask you to be a campaigner for GRACE and spread the word about “24 Hours of GRACE” and the significance of Recurring Gifts!
This year is proving to be just as daunting as last. Many hit by COVID-related slowdowns and shutdowns are still recovering. New clients coming to GRACE are trending at the same enormous rate as last year.
All of our services and programs are impacted: more food needed at the Food Pantry; more rent and utilities through Client Services; more support for Transitional Housing families; and more food, support, care, and reassurance through our Senior Services.
On top of this, the Community Clinic is now pivoting to provide expensive flu and pneumonia vaccines to reduce underlying health conditions, in addition routine healthcare and medications. The Clinic hosted three days of COVID vaccine clinics in February, and will host another two days in April.
On top of all this, we are determined to open our new Donation Station this Spring. The arrival of so many new clients amplifies the mission-critical duty of Donation Station to provide clothing, shoes, coats, bedding, blankets, housewares, furniture, and supplies for families in need.
A promise from you to support GRACE with a Recurring Gift elevates the capacity of GRACE to serve, and helps us plan months down the road. A gift monthly or every two weeks provides stability, and strengthens our ability to anticipate the future needs of our clients.
This “24 Hours of GRACE” is, perhaps, the most important event of this nature we have ever mounted.
On Monday, March 22, you will receive a post from our Chief Executive Officer Shonda Schaefer. You will be asked to make a pledge to support GRACE over the next year.
Sometime during the following day, Tuesday, March 23, please use the link Shonda includes in her message to make a contribution. May we recommend 24 gifts of $24 or more?
In turn, for your gift at that level we will deliver a reminder of your commitment and generosity—a “Choose GRACE” sign suitable for mounting in your front lawn. In this way you can signal to all who pass your dedication to helping those in need and your belief in a strong, compassionate community.
Then, please send the link to your friends, and tell them you have made a gift to secure the future of GRACE. The success of past “24 Hours of GRACE” efforts was due, in very large part, to the efforts of donors like you who helped the campaign go “viral.”
GRACE needs your help now more than ever—a generous Recurring Gift will help GRACE and our community finally put this crisis behind us, and look forward to a healthy, cheerful, and stabile future.
