Tuesday, December 22, 2009

How do we keep this year in perspective?

What a wild year for SOFTIN, and just about everyone else! Nonprofits are having a tough time and donations are generally declining. SOFTIN was able to buck that trend. Our revenues increased. The reason? Twofold, really. One is that people who understand the power of the sea… in terms of healing and in terms of being a place where change can happen… have come to SOFTIN’s aid with donations to fuel our program. The second reason is that we have worked very hard at attracting funding.

One of our fundraising enterprises was to begin what will be an annual car show. That was a boatload of work, but a truckload of fun. We are anxious for next year’s show (Sunday, July 25th, save the date.) which will be at the WWII Air Museum in the Camarillo Air Field). We’ll have hot rods, classics, low riders, trucks, motorcycles and bicycles, along with vendors and stuff for everyone (kids, too) to do. Thanks to the folks are the WWII Air Museum, there will be vintage war birds mixed in. Can you imagine a WWII fighter plane next to a 1940s classic car? Awesome!

SOFTIN’s Board of Directors put in a tremendous amount of volunteer work to provide direction, oversight and just good help. They help drive this boat and thanks to them we are on the right course.

For the staff, the most memorable part of the year has been providing services and giving hope to hundreds. We have memories of trips which bring a tear to our eyes every time we think about or talk about those profound heartwarming experiences. We helped people overcome trauma, work through disabilities and impairments. We helped families stay together and learn to have fun family adventures to break cycles of abuse. We are making a mark on this world and it is a wonderful mark. Thank you for sharing the story and I hope you will find ways to help.

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director,
SOFTIN
dbacon@softininc.org
www.softininc.org

PS: Our website (www.softininc.org) has buttons for Paypal and credit cards, to make donating easy.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Donations Keep SOFTIN working

Sharing good news makes my fingers quicker on the keyboard and right now I have happy fingertips. Two successive donations have helped SOFTIN to continue to provide services to our special-needs community.

$500: I put on a talk about SOFTIN at a meeting of a fishing club. These are boat people who understand the value of lessons learned at sea. After the meeting, a feller (who wishes to remain anonymous) came up to me and asked for my address so that he could send a check because he felt deeply touched by what we do for the disabled, impaired, victims of abuse, frail elderly and youths-at-risk. Two days later his check for $500 arrived in the mail. He lived up to his word and thanks to him, more services can be provided.

$1,603: In mid-November SOFTIN was invited to set up an information display for the corporate Charity Fair at FLIR Corporation, a high-tech company. I wrote a blog entry here at the time. We just received a letter from FLIR describing donations from employees, matching amounts from the company and an award from their community philanthropy fund. Along with the letter were checks totaling $1,603. Wow! There are plenty of special-needs people who are going to benefit greatly from this donation.

SOFTIN is SO thankful for these two generous donations, especially here at year-end. We get a little misty-eyed about such things. We are, after all, SOFTIN softies and this is the most meaningful work we have ever done.

Able to move forward,

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director,
SOFTIN
dbacon@softininc.org
www.softininc.org

PS: That address for donations is:
SOFTIN
691 Camino Campana
Santa Barbara, Ca 93111