Old hands at fundraising know the top three things that draw donors and their donations to a cause.
“Animals, then kids, then veterans are usually the top three that get people to open their wallets,” said Dee DeQuattro, founder and communications and development director for Operation Stand Down Rhode Island.
OSDRI’s mission is to help veterans secure stable housing and employment, as well as other assistance, according to individual needs, including case management, basic human needs, referrals, and education and training services. OSDRI is Rhode Island’s largest veteran-service provider, helping more than 2,000 veterans a year. OSDRI is headquartered in Johnston, with one-stop service centers in Johnston, West Warwick and Newport.
About one-third of OSDRI’s budget, $750,000, is the result of fundraising, DeQuattro said. Federal grants account for $1.1 million, she said. The nonprofit has also benefitted from an endowment established at the Rhode Island Foundation in 2016.
The fundraising slice is a crucial part of the budget, she said, because it isn’t attached to conditions that can tie their hands in special circumstances.
“It’s huge because that’s how we can help a veteran who doesn’t necessarily meet the conditions of a government grant,” DeQuattro said.
The majority of employees at OSDRI are paid from grant funding, DeQuattro said, while most of the donation funding goes toward services for veterans.
“Fundraising is never an easy job,” she said.
The $750,000 OSDRI receives in fundraising each year comes from many small fundraisers, organized by business owners and people interested in supporting OSDRI’s cause.
[caption id="attachment_232697" align="aligncenter" width="696"]
WORLD TRAVELERS: Thumbtacks in a map mark the destinations of the 14,000 military personnel that have visited the Rhode Island Military Organization lounge at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick since it opened in 2013.
/ PBN PHOTO/DAVE HANSEN[/caption]
“They can see the impact we’ve had on the community,” DeQuattro said of the organization’s work to aid veterans that began in 1992.
Some of the more-lucrative fundraisers OSDRI has relied on include the Gold Star Gala in May at Twin River Casino in Lincoln, which raised $75,000, and a $15,000 steak fry. Proactive donors are always welcome on the OSDRI website, osdri.org/donate, as well.
DeQuattro said OSDRI has experienced some recent competition from national veterans programs, which often seek out the same donors and fundraising organizers that have long supported OSDRI.
“It’s not an overly huge state where you need 17 different service providers,” DeQuattro said.
Since 2013, Dan Evangelista has been running the Rhode Island Military Organization lounge, a respite for members of the military and their families at T.F. Green Airport.
The lounge’s main expense is for snacks and beverages for the tens of thousands of active and retired members of the military from across New England who travel through T.F. Green each year. Volunteers man the lounge in three four-hour shifts per day, including Evangelista.
Supplying the foodstuffs requires a budget of about $1,000 per week. “It doesn’t cost too much because you get donations for food,” Evangelista said.
In a given day, about 300 servicemen and servicewomen and their families could stop in to rest in the lounge and relax while waiting for their flight. While they’re there, they can help themselves to soda, snacks and Keurig-brewed coffee. But that’s not Evangelista’s favorite part of the lounge.
“It’s more the storytelling,” he said.
The lounge does well in fundraising, usually through small, privately run fundraisers and private donations. In March, the South County Rod & Gun Club hosted a fundraiser for the lounge, donating $1,200 to the cause. “Little things like that are very helpful,” Evangelista said.
In the past, the Rhode Island Military Organization has organized cigar dinners to raise funds for the lounge, “But those were a lot of work,” he said. Mostly, RIMO relies on the timely, if unorganized, kindness of others to keep the lounge stocked, and on the hospitality of the R.I Airport Corp. for the space at the airport.
“It always seems to work out,” Evangelista said. Prospective donors are welcome to help in that regard with a phone call at 401-691-2365.
Dare to Dream Ranch, a 501c3 nonprofit offering alternative therapy programs for service members, veterans and their families with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, military sexual trauma or mild traumatic brain injury, runs on about $67,000 in fundraising each year, said Karen Dalton, founder and president.
The organization offers veterans equine therapy, woodworking, fly-tying/fishing, gardening, resume writing, career coaching and more. It offers the services for free, and while the organization is run entirely by volunteers, it still struggles to fund its programs.
“So, we’re continually fundraising,” Dalton said.
She said she’d like to get the organization’s fundraising to about $120,000 per year to fund paid positions for people, so the organization doesn’t have to rely so much on volunteers, whose contributions are subject to the ups and downs of their shifting free time.
“Where if it’s a paid position, then we’d have a lot more availability,” Dalton said.
Interested donors can contribute through the website, daretodreamranch.org/donate. Hopefully, Dalton said, Dare to Dream will grow its fundraising soon, though competition for donors’ attention and generosity is fierce.
“It becomes a bit of a challenge. We have a lot of veterans nonprofits in Rhode Island,” she said.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.
