The First Pancake

I got a package from my mom yesterday.
The first thing I pulled out was a box of pancake mix.
Which both my roommate and I thought was a little weird... until I was reaching into the box to see what else was in there and suddenly it hit me:
"Hillary, it's the first pancake!!!"

All week leading up to our "An Evening For Africa" fundraiser, I was referring to it as my "first pancake." See, the first pancake is the experiment, and therefore the one that usually gets thrown out. Maybe the griddle's too cold and it's all runny and weird. Maybe it's too hot and then it gets burned. There's no shame in throwing out the first pancake.

As our first official event as a foundation - not to mention the first time I've personally ever tried to plan an event on that scale - I was pretty worried about the outcome of our first pancake.

My anxiety didn't get much better when we had a smaller turnout than I would have liked. There wasn't much of a difference between the number of people in attendance and the number of people we needed to cover the cost of our overhead, so I wasn't overly optimistic that we'd made enough money to justify the time, energy and funds I'd put into hosting this event.

Despite my worries, it was a lovely evening. I was so amazed by the interest and support I received from our guests. They were generous and responsive. Afternoon Delight Cafe provided us with delicious desserts and we had two professional cellists playing duets. My presentation went off without a hitch. I figured that I may not have raised much money, but at least I'd gotten the event-planning experience.

That night I went home and did the math.
Then I did the math again.
Then I made my mom do the math.

"An Evening For Africa" raised over $1,500!

Little did I realize that the fundraiser was only the beginning...
Wednesday was Bonus Day, which meant that Global Giving was matching donations at 15%. We urged people at the fundraiser to wait to pay for their auction items or make any further contributions until then.

As Bonus Day dawned, Karina called me to discuss some things, and told me that we were at almost $3,000 and 29 donors. (Our participation in Global Giving's Open Challenge is threefold: To earn a permanent place on the website we must raise at least $5,000 from at least 40 unique donors, and we also set a personal goal of $7,500.)
By the time I got home from class at 2 pm, I got the news from my mom that we had met the $5,000 and 40 donor mark.  
We were officially part of Global Giving.

I went to work at 3 pm and ecstatically told my boss the good news.
About two hours later, one of my friends who was keeping an eye on the website for me (without me even having to ask!) told me we had broken $6,000.
The texts and phone calls were pouring in for those several hours when we were rising by more than $500/hour. I walked around work in a daze.

By the end of the day, we had raised over $3,500 and earned 4th place for the most donations received for Bonus Day.

Currently we are at over $6,800 - just shy of our personal goal - from over 60 donors, and only just halfway through Open Challenge month.

I am amazed, and moved beyond words by these results. Unless you have lived in a developing community, it is almost impossible to convey the impact this amount of money can have.
More than that though... I cannot describe the feeling of realizing that somehow we have gotten people to care about what we're doing. I have carried around this fierce love for Ghana and my Aflao family for nearly four years now. Suddenly I have come face-to-face with proof that those sparks have somehow set light to a fire. Somehow we have convinced other people to care about my Aflao family too without even having met them - enough to raise almost $7,000 in two weeks. 
That is astounding.
How can I express how powerful that is?
I have worked single-mindedly since July to accomplish exactly what we finally achieved on Wednesday, March 12th: a permanent place with Global Giving, and with it the means to sustain the work we've begun half a world away. We have been given this wondrous ability to make a real impact on this world because 60 people (and many more, really) chose to believe in our vision for our students. I hope I never fail to be humbled by and grateful for that responsibility.

The rest of the package from my mom included a bottle of maple syrup and a card that read, "Sometimes you don't throw out your first pancake after all..."

Marvelous Golden Moments

I'm back in Ann Arbor, scrambling to finish organizing our "Evening For Africa" fundraiser before Sunday. And so the day was spent tromping around downtown to ask local businesses to donate to our silent auction, which until today only had 2 items. (Some awesome jewelry from the Silver Crow and a basket of Alaffia body products from the co-op, both in Marquette.)

The day got off to a rough start. For some reason I just felt really unsure of myself, scattered and awkward. It didn't help that most of the businesses I specifically wanted to visit didn't open until 11 (it was just after 9). Or that the first business I approached very dismissively answered my pitch with, "Fine, fine. Just leave me your stuff."

To which I replied something along the lines of, "....Uhhhhhhh, stuff?"

Oy. Smack forehead. Go home and whip up a short letter explaining who we are and why we're fundraising. Print off a couple dozen. Return downtown. Remember to wear gloves this time.

One deer-in-the-headlights moment at a time I will learn how to do this job properly!

I got a lot of maybe's - some of them more promising than others. I'm expecting quite a few calls - some of them more likely than others. Got a handful of regretful no's. Got one or two unapologetic no's, come to think of it.

Then there were the marvelous golden moments when people said YES.

The owner of Elixir Vitae Coffee & Tea handed me two $20 gift cards without a moment's hesitation. I don't think I'd even finished my sentence.
A worker at one shop volunteered her own time as a professional photographer even though all I'd asked about was the store.
Bivouac (Yikes. This is about the 10th time today I have spelled that word and I am still spelling it a different way each time...) didn't even ask who we were or what we do until after they'd handed over a $25 gift card.
Dawntreader gave me a $40 gift certificate as soon as they heard the word "literacy."
The owner of La Marsa Mediterranean restaurant refused to give me a gift card because he wants to run a week long promotion instead where he will donate 20% of the bill of anyone who brings in our coupon.

And at the end of my long day I came home to discover that someone has made the largest donation yet. As a result, we have raised more than $400 in 4 days! 

Today was frustrating. It was tiring and stressful and I am really, really worried my event is not going to be nearly as successful as I'd hoped. No matter how excited I am about our progress so far, I will probably not sleep easy until we hit at least our minimum $5,000 mark and secure our spot on Global Giving.

And yet... there's those marvelous golden moments.

Today was a good day.

4 days, 5 hours, 19 minutes and 24 seconds

I just received the news that our project (the posting for our foundation) has been pre-approved for Global Giving!!!

In other words, we're on a website I didn't make myself!

Becoming a non-profit was an unbelievably enormous and exciting step. I will never forget the feeling of holding our first set of certificates the day Karina and I flew home from Ghana, or how it felt to receive Daniel's emailed photograph of the final certificate that signaled our full certification with the Ghanaian government.

Being accepted to compete in Global Giving's Open Challenge was another monumental landmark for us. I got together as many friends as I could on such short notice (about 7...) when I received the email and we popped a bottle of champagne to celebrate that victory.

And there have been a thousand other thrilling moments in between. Opening our bank account... Creating our website... Planning our Evening For Africa event in just two short weeks...

But this.
Oh this.

This makes all of that other stuff real. THIS represents everything we've worked for over the past 7 1/2 months. Joining Global Giving, earning the ability to fundraise in the US and give our foundation a real chance to do some good in this world... that is everything.

I didn't expect this moment to be quite so exciting, but I find myself ecstatic. I can't stop staring at our Global Giving page and watching the clock that is counting down to midnight on Saturday, when the Open Challenge officially begins and we can start accepting donations for the first time.
This is really happening. All of the pain and the challenges and the setbacks and the effort and the agony of not knowing how things would work out is paying off.
I feel like I've been handed the keys to the kingdom and I just can't stop grinning ear to ear. None of my roommates were home when I found out, which is problematic because squealing and jumping is best done with company. But instead I took advantage of the empty house to blast happy music and throw myself a dance party. Every time I paused to catch my breath, I remembered what this means and the journey it took to get here, and got the itch to dance to some more. I ended up jumping around my room for a good 45 minutes before my joy was exhausted enough to sit down.

So check out our page http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/better-education-for-students-in-ghana/ and think of us at midnight on Saturday!

4 days, 5 hours, 19 minutes and 24 seconds from now!

200 Characters or Less

I'm putting in some late-night effort to get the foundation ready to be posted on Global Giving. (*Coughcough* the Open Challenge starts in less than 2 weeks!) I have to do things like describe our entire mission - compellingly - in 200 characters or less. State the problem, our solution and the long-term impacts of our work, each in 200 characters or less. Pick pictures and create captions that will be informative and speak to people's soft sides. I feel like I'm trying to explain the most monumentally important part of my life through a series of tweets. Hmmm, how to sum up the impact we're trying to make on the lives of hundreds of people in less words than I would use to describe what I made for dinner...
I'm being snarky; I'm actually enjoying the challenge of trying to frame the foundation in a marketable way. And of course I'm BEYOND excited for us to be officially posted to the Global Giving website. Anticipation of the moment I see that is fueling this late-night rally.

But as I struggle to shrink our mission into bite-sized pieces, this... I don't even have the word for it... little ache... keeps resurfacing that nothing I could ever write could ever be eloquent or professional or effective enough to convey just how much I care about what it is I'm describing.
I guess it's something I mention a lot, but it's something that never fails to startle me when I'm acting as founder of Students of Success and not just regular me. I mean, people hear my pitch and most of them want to help, but...do they really understand? What words convince people, "This is my second home. This is my family, my community I'm asking you to help" ? I think regular me can portray that pretty well with all my ridiculous jumping and squealing and raving, but can founder me manage to do it when I'm wearing my dress pants and politely shaking hands?
Well, appropriately as this nagging thought was tumbling around, "Hey Brother" by Aviici started playing on my Itunes. It's already a favorite of mine, and some of the lyrics hit home tonight: "What if I'm far from home? Oh brother, I will hear you call. What if I lose it all? Oh sister, I will help you out. Oh if the sky comes falling down for you, there's nothing in this world I wouldn't do."
Such simple words and yet they sum up so beautifully how I feel about my Ghanaian family.
Hmm....and it's just about 200 characters....

Sincerely, A Happy Do-er

"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt 

those who are doing it"

~ George Bernard Shaw

With the marvelous news that we have been accepted into the Open Challenge, the scheming part of my brain has taken off like a racehorse. The good kind of scheming. The happy, dream-big-or-go-home scheming, because I finally get to do more of what I have always loved most about being part of this foundation (second only to being a living jungle gym for 300 kids): FUNDRAISE.

Which, although primary revolving around raising money of course, really has more to do with helping people fall in love with what we're doing, and the people we're doing it for/with. Perhaps I am too sentimental, but I personally believe that generosity has more to do with the heart than the actual wallet. Plus, it doesn't hurt that I think my strengths lie more in this type of work than the technical, legal, paperwork-y stuff I've been doing pretty much exclusively for the last six months.

So, this week finds me busily preparing for a fundraising benefit on March 9th! It's an ambitious project and I don't want to speak too soon, but so far I am quite hopeful! The businesses I've approached so far have been so generous and willing to help us out. If I can pull this off, it will be a fun, memorable event to kick start Students of Success Foundation's fundraising efforts!

As an aside, I/the foundation now have a Twitter account! I must admit it's not my social media of choice, but it seemed like a logical choice to get some more publicity. So if you're a fellow tweeter, follow us @GhanaWithLove !

A Well-Earned Victory Lap

In contrast to my last post, today finds me full of hope.

Although Global Giving's next Open Challenge does not begin until March, the application deadline passed yesterday -- And I am beyond pleased to say that, this time, Students of Success Foundation managed to throw its hat in the ring on time. Which is not to say we are guaranteed a spot in the Open Challenge, but at least we have the chance.

As always, each step forward comes with a mixture of celebrations and frustrations. The richness our foundation has from its multinational representation is often tempered with the challenges inherent to working across multiple cultures (Not to mention time zones...). We are all still learning to work together as a team, as well as learning what running a foundation entails - yours truly more than anyone. It took late-night effort from many people, but at the end of the day I clicked "submit" with everything I needed in place. And that is a victory that should not be understated.

Therefore, in light of that victory, I want to take this chance to honor the many, many people who made it possible. Whether our application is accepted or not, we are growing and moving forward, and that is worthy of celebrating.

So, thank you to Daniel, Worfa, Samuel, David and Thomas, who took on the project of creating a budget and in doing so put one of the most important puzzle pieces in place. Thank you to Dennis Benson-Sayram for writing us a glowing, professional letter of recommendation. Thank you to Karina for sacrificing sleep to design improved promotional materials and always being willing to help in any way possible despite her demanding schedule. Thank you to Sebastian for volunteering at SISCO and taking so many wonderful, heart-warming pictures for our website; it is exciting to be able to say that we have had our first volunteer! Thank you to Janet for advocating for our new organization where it matters most, and taking our efforts so seriously. Thank you to my roommates - Hillary, Kat and Alanna - for being my moral support, having so much patience with my turbulent emotions about this process, and in general keeping me sane.

It is impossible to express how much the efforts and dedication of each and every one of these people have made a difference. I am, as always, grateful for the countless people who have supported our work every step of the way. So whether your role in the foundation takes the form of Board Member, donor, blog reader, or something else - pat yourself on the back today.

Since drafting this post, I would like to announce that I have received the news that we were accepted into the Open Challenge! It has been a week of celebrating for everyone involved with Students of Success!

What Doesn't Kill You

This foundation is actually going to kill me. As in if I drop dead at 21, somebody tell the authorities what happened.

Ok, I was being melodramatic, but now I’m being serious:

The things that we care about most are the things that tear us apart.

This foundation is the most important thing I’ve ever done. I care about Students of Success – or more accurately the people involved with it – more than anything else I’ve ever been committed to. Starting a non-profit may not ever have been my plan, but I’m married to this cause. I jumped into this role knowing that it will quite possibly be lifelong. I am humbled and grateful to have the opportunity to help take care of the people who have taken care of me so selflessly from the first day they met me.

I’m still trying to find my stride in my role as a non-profit founder though. It still feels like a pair of shoes that are too big, and I’m walking in territory that is completely unfamiliar. Representing this foundation sometimes requires me to be someone I am not... to act all grown-up and emotionally detached and in control, when most of the time I am actually stressed and so, so terribly unsure of what to do. And I am anything but emotionally detached; every part of me is invested in these people and this community.

Sometimes I wish that wasn’t the case. It means that setbacks hit me like a sledgehammer. I have trouble staying objective. Trouble viewing challenges with the proper perspective. I have always felt out of my depth in this role, and the waters just keep getting deeper.

I am not trying to whine. I am not trying to be a pessimist. I am trying to portray this experience accurately. And to be accurate – for all its wonderful victories and moments of joy, my decision to take on this foundation routinely tears me apart.

I found out today we missed the deadline for Global Giving’s open challenge. Which means we won’t be able to participate until March. Which means we unexpectedly can’t fundraise for the next four months.

As the founder of Students of Success Foundation, I would say that we will still be working on multiple projects and preparing for the point when we can start actively working towards the $5,000 goal we need to reach to earn a permanent place on the Global Giving website.

As Katherine Niemann, college student and confessional blogger, I want to say that I am discouraged and helpless and beyond frustrated. Perhaps a four month delay isn’t a big deal in the big picture, but today – right now – it certainly feels like a big deal. I feel overwhelmed trying to be a student and an employee and a board member of a start-up organization. Yet even when I juggle all those roles successfully, here I am with my hands tied for the next four months nonetheless.

People often ask me if I ever feel like I gave up my chance to have a typical college experience to be involved in the foundation.

It would be a lie to say I’ve never regretted my decision, however briefly.

But at the end of the day… even an extremely difficult day like this one… I imagine what life would look life right now if I’d said no. 

What if I’d told Worfa to run SISCO independently, and returned to life as a college student without this responsibility?

Perhaps I’d cry less. Metaphorically bang my head against walls less often. Literally throw pillows against walls less often. Use pillows for sleeping more often. Have more free time. Maybe tests and parties would seem more important.

Maybe I wish all those things were the case sometimes. Maybe there are moments I give in to feeling sorry for myself and wish someone else had been called on to do this. No- definitely there are those moments.

But if I could go back and make that decision again – knowing what life would look like after I said yes – my answer would be the same.