It Takes a Village
Grateful For A Bountiful Harvest!
On October 28th, 2024 Village supporters gathered for a Harvest.
Many came in-person to the Seattle Fremont Abbey or joined virtually for a program of games, food, and a presentation from Christine & Jason about our need for support.
At the end of the night, we were astounded at the incredible generosity supporters showed. In fact, we surpassed our 2 goals and received an unexpected gift!
Photo Credit: Corbin Charpentier
The Harvest is an annual fundraiser to support the ongoing work of VillageCo to make a more locally connected world.
The Village Harvest is inspired by both the history of the idea of a “village” and the potential we have for creating and sustaining a common gathering space for an interdependent community. The Harvest welcomes all Villagers and facilitates interpersonal connection, awareness of our interdependence, and ways for Villagers to sustain the work of VillageCo.
Our 2024 Harvest Ask
Christine & Jason, VillageCo's founding volunteers, laid out an appeal for support.
They started by sharing the context - that we are in a wide field of organizations and individuals doing similar work, with a passion to bring folks together. It's a quiet movement of people committed to making the world a better place.
They then shared three aspects of the word "local" in our vision statement: A Locally Connected World;
Local to Place - we want to connect people who live and work near each other. We ask: who is being left behind in these places? Who is feeling alone?
Local to Time - we want to connect live, in THIS moment. We find much of our connection brings us into the past, into the future with worries. We ask: are we enjoying this moment we have? Real human connection always requires being in the moment.
Local to Yourself - we use the word authenticity to describe what it's like when you can just be yourself. We ask: do people feel like they need to put on a happy face, or pretend to not have a personal life, in order to be seen? Yes! We hope to create spaces for connection that let everyone feel close to their true selves.
Finally, Christine & Jason talked about this moment in time for VillageCo - a time of critical growth. We have not yet proved our core Village Gathering Model, but hope to do so in the next 6 months with our Village Builders Cohort project.
We need help supporting our work through this start-up phase.
And, at Village Harvest 2024, we received it!
👪 Goal 1: 28 Supporters
🧺 We received gifts from 33 supporters!
We set goals for individual supports because we believe that fundraising is about relationships with humans, not just money. We value equally each donation because it comes from love and generosity of people who care about our work.
We launched in 2022 with support from 22 supporters. In 2023, that number grew to 20. And this year, we've received support from a total of 36 people.
We believe our network of supporters is growing because people see the value in our work, and feel aligned with our vision: a locally connected world.
💰 Goal 2: $4,000
🧺 We’ve received $4,226!
Money received from our fundraisers is used to pay some of our volunteers a stipend for their dedicated time and energy.
We also pay for $200 a month in software and administrative costs.
In 2022 we raised a total of $7,432. In 2023 that number jumped to $16,823. We are expecting to end 2024 with a total of $24,606 in funds raised.
VillageCo is an all-volunteer organization with no paid staff. Rather, we pay small stipends to our most decidated and regularly contributing volunteers to reward their efforts. While these stipends could never get close to compensating the skill and time being offered, they do provide a financial reward and help us maintain a stable core of volunteers.
🥗 Surprise Bounty!
We unexpectedly received a gift from the Baker Family Foundation of $4,000 to support our work in the new year!
A HUGE thank you to Harvest attendees James and Rebecca Baker for making this gift possible!
As VillageCo is a new nonprofit, we are not an ideal recipient for grant funding. Most funders want to see a record of direct service to the community and financial stability.
That is why this gift is so incredibly important to us - it comes out of a relationship with our volunteer leaders, and a belief in our vision and mission.
We believe that once we have evidence of our Village Gathering Model working in different communities around the world, we will attract more grant funding.
Giving Circle Members
A HUGE thanks to our many supporters! See who they are and read their words of support for Village!
Giving Circle Members pledge a monthly gift in January to support our expenses throughout the year. These pledges end in December when we thank all monthly givers, then ask for fresh pledges in the new year.
Join the Giving Circle!
The Giving Circle is a group of people supporting VillageCo with monthly financial gifts
🥳 In 2023 we raised $1,150/mo with an average monthly gift of $52
Curious about how we raise & spend our money?
Use the buttons below to start your monthly contributions.
Recurring donations will be charged monthly for the current calendar year.
All recurring donations will stop on December 31st of this year.
One-Time Gifts
We have two options for you to make your one-time donation: Paypal and Stripe
PayPal has some limitations on the types of payment methods, so if that doesn't work for you, use our Stripe method.
Checks Accepted
You may also mail a check donation to:
VillageCo
9169 West State Street Suite 867
Boise, ID 83714-1733
Past Fundraisers
💰We Did it!
($15,000 with an average gift of $50/mo)
Here's how we made our goal:
We asked 140 folks with some connection to Village for support - 45 responded with support!
26 Supporters offered monthly gifts averaging $50/mo
4 Supporters offered one-time gifts totaling $600!
15 Supporters could not help financially, but reached out to show their support
6 Supporters increased their gifts to help us close the gap in the final days of the campaign
2024 Giving Circle Campaign
We raised $15,000 for our work in 2024!
2023 Village Night Out
We raised $2,250 in donations - exceeding our goal of $2,000!! Thank you to our many supporters!
2023 Giving Circle Campaign
We raised $1,150/mo in donations - very close to our goal of $1,200/mo!!
2022 VillageCo Launch Campaign
We raised $5,011 in both one-time and recurring donations to help launch VillageCo as an official nonprofit!