It feels as though my life has been consumed with the work for the New Orleans Abortion Fund’s end of the year (EOY) appeal. I had previously had no experience working in this area of fundraising, but it has to be one of my favorite challenges yet. Since nearly 1/3 of annual giving occurs in December, I was more than a little worried about how well all my hard work would pay off. 99.9% of all the money raised goes directly to helping women fund their abortions, so there is a real sense of responsibility that has really motivated me this past month. Last week, we mailed out around 100 EOY appeal letters to established donors, but I don’t get to relax quite yet. We still have to finish our email campaign! Over the next month, three emails asking people to donate will go out to our volunteers, board members, donors and those who have simply stated that they want to be more involved with NOAF. This is the first year that the organization has tried this out, so I’m hoping it’ll increase our average overall funding for the year.
In addition to the EOY appeal, I’ve got to experience a different side to NOAF. Samah and I signed up for a shift to clinic escort a couple weeks ago (pictured above). Surprisingly, no protesters showed up that day. Nonetheless, I was really grateful, since that meant the women entering the clinic didn’t have to deal with their cruel words and accusations. We’re hoping to try to help out with clinic escorting again soon!