We are thrilled to announce that The James A. & Faith Knight Foundation has awarded Active Against ALS a two-year grant of $34,800 to support the costs of an administrator and bookkeeper. The Knight grant will allow us to retain our part-time bookkeeper, Alicia Frenette, and hire founding member and former board president Suzanne Ross as our first Program Administrator. Aside from Alicia, we have been a completely volunteer organization since 2008. Having a paid administrator marks an exciting new chapter for us!
This crucial administrative support will allow our volunteer board to focus energy on additional fundraising strategies and providing appropriate stewardship to our donor base and community partners, as we move forward to the next level of sustainability and growth. Active Against ALS will also need to increase our expendable funds in order to financially support the administrative position beyond the two-year term of the Knight Foundation grant.
We will explore and implement several creative strategies toward achieving these goals. Among them will be developing a “fundraiser-in-a-box” that will provide fundraising support materials,like best practices, sponsorship letter templates, and case statement brochures for community organizations and individuals that want to fundraise on our behalf. In tandem with that effort, we will be working with Betsy Petersen, Director of the Learning to Give Initiative, an organization created eighteen years ago to equip K-12 teachers with lesson plans and curriculum guidelines to educate and develop students as caring and compassionate leaders and philanthropists.
Over the past seven years, our fundraising efforts – organized and implemented through the energy and passion of our volunteers – have enabled us to give over $400,000 to researchers aggressively seeking effective treatments for ALS. This is the second grant we have received from the Knight Foundation. We are humbled and grateful for the foundation’s continuing trust in our work toward filling a small portion of the huge funding gap that still exists for ALS research, while maintaining a focus on raising awareness and building community. With the support of grant funders like the Knight Foundation and our dedicated volunteers and generous donors, we are committed to remaining Active Against ALS until effective treatments, and hopefully a cure, are found.
