Fundraising Dinners

A couple of weeks ago we had our first fundraising dinner for All Things New.  One of our advisory team members, Karen Whalen, came up with this idea for people who believe in this ministry to help get our name to as many people as possible.  The idea is simple.  A family expresses their desire to host one of these dinners (it could also be a dessert or appetizer get-together) and then they invite people who are not already involved in the ministry of All Things New.  The event starts with prayer, food, and fellowship where we just get to know and talk with the people who have been invited.  After this time, we move to a time where Jessica and I can present the vision, needs, and ways to get involved with All Things New.  We have a thorough presentation (approximately 30 minutes) that covers everything about All Things New, and we have a time for questions at the end as well.  

Our first dinner was a great success!  Thanks to Jessica’s parents (Phil and Jill Atter) who hosted it for us and to all the people who came to that first dessert.  They made it easy to present and they gave us both encouragement and confidence moving forward with this.  We also gained a couple of new sponsors, a couple of financial donations, and someone who has agreed to help immensely with our ministry moving forward.  

The other things these dinners do is allow us to present our vision to people who otherwise may never have heard about it.  It gives us a chance to get in front of people who have friends and connections that we could never have known without being introduced.  It also gives these people a chance to host additional dinners and extend our network to people both locally (meaning Jacksonville, FL and LaGrange, GA) and to other places in America.  These fundraising dinners are very important to us for all of these different reasons, and we so appreciate all of the people who have agreed to host dinners for us already!  I actually just talked to my pastor, Danny Adams, and he and his wife are going to host one for us as well.  

Here are some ways you can help us in this important new aspect of our ministry:

• Pray for the dinners as they happen.  Here is what we have scheduled so far – September 5 (Thursday) and September 14 in Jacksonville, September 24, 26, and 27 in LaGrange, and then a couple of others that do not have specific dates yet.
• Host a dinner/dessert/appetizer  for us if you have friends/family that you think would like to hear about All Things New.
• Pray for our ability to raise funds and get other people involved.  We need to get our name out to as many people as possible, and this is a step in that direction.
• Let us know if you have any other ideas that we have not yet thought of.

If you would like to host a dinner or find out more information about how that could be done, please contact me at matt@allthingsneworphanage.com or 904-673-0350 and we will see what we can work out.  Thank you so much for everything you do and for being interested in this ministry that GOD has laid on our hearts and we will continue to keep you updated about things as they happen!