Dear Making Spirits Bright Community,
As the Executive Director of our nonprofit organization, I wanted to take this moment to share a few key takeaways from our year here at MSB.
This last year has completely changed my definition of COMMUNITY. I’ve always known the importance of connecting with others. As a mother of three, I found so much comfort in the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group when our babies were young. We were all new moms navigating the hardest job in the world. We were better together!
Step outside of that small circle and into METRO DETROIT. Making Spirits Bright took on the role of spreading the joy of reading to children across multiple counties! Looking back, our board never once tried doing all of this alone. We have spent countless hours connecting with other organizations with similar visions in making a difference in the area of literacy. We are better together!
We have teamed up with over a dozen partners this year! We helped fill the gap in their need for literacy programs and books for their families, they provided the opportunities for us to work with their families, people who they have worked to build trust and relationships with.
Below are our three areas of emphasis for Year One. At first glance, I can tell you that we have been strong in areas #1 and #2 but that with more volunteers that will help us at a higher level, we will grow in the area of #3 this year.
Strategic Area of Emphasis #1 – Ensuring Effective Communications & Engagement
Strategic Area of Emphasis #2 – Securing Funding & Financial Resources
Strategic Area of Emphasis #3– Building Administrative & Operations Support
Here are a few highlights from this year of great growth!
- In one year alone, we have distributed over 100,000 books
- We have partnered with large corporations for volunteer opportunities
- Over 400 volunteers have worked with us to collect, sort and redistribute books!
- As over mid-November, we clocked 2,128 volunteer hours!
- We have secured funding from individual donors, grants and foundations for our programming and operational costs.
In the new year, we will be working on our Summer Programming. We are creating a curriculum that we can take to subsidized summer programs in lower income areas, bringing books and a love of reading to existing programs!
This year we will continue to fill our mission and do so with love. We will grow our partner collaborations and focus on representing children authentically with diversity in our books!
Thank you for your continued support. If you are looking to make an end of the year donation, please consider MSB. The money will go toward our current fundraising effort to purchase new journals and diaries to give out during our Free Book Fairs. Children and teens get super excited when we have blank journals. Writing can be therapeutic and a great way to focus on mental health.
With Gratitude,
Maria Dismondy
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