(From the email invitation that is going out this week). Hi Everyone,
We've launched our website, which, according to the 21st century, means we actually exist.
So we hope you'll celebrate our existence by stopping in at http://beautifuldayri.org/ and learn about our efforts to mobilize refugee employment. Ultimately we hope to develop a replicable community-based model that could enable people who face incredible barriers to employment to find work.
We've set a few existence-related goals for the month of August. You can help us accomplish them.
1) Get the word out about Beautiful Day. We know there are a lot of people out there who care about refugee employment. If this is you, then please join our mailing list. If you feel comfortable forwarding this email to friends or contact lists, please do so. We are a new organization with ambitious goals. Very little can happen until we spread the word. Our goal is to make 1000 connections this month with people who will request to receive occasional updates on our work.
2) Feedback. Maybe set aside 10 minutes to read through a few pages of our site and let us know what you think. For now, we've left almost every page of the site open for feedback of any sort. Give us your thoughts and reactions--big or small. We're listening.
3) Start-up funds: We hope you'll consider giving an initial gift to help us get started. You can do this easily with a credit card, Paypal account, or by sending a check.
Some of our thoughts on money: tackling the challenges of refugee employment is certainly going to take money, but we're not looking for big-bucks Super PAC type money. We will apply for (local!) grants soon enough, but we're convinced that effective solutions will always need to be connected to individuals and communities at a very local, relational level. Even a very small donation given by someone who wants to have a stake in putting at-risk refugees to work (not just here in Rhode Island, but eventually in your neighborhood, wherever you live) can have a huge payoff. We do need about $20,000 to cover our initial expenses and to lay the groundwork for programming this fall. If most of these initial funds come from individuals, we'll know we're off to a great start. For the nuts and bolts of giving you may click here.
Thanks. We look forward to hearing from you.
Please note: most likely you received this email as a friend of Providence Granola Project or Abyssinia restaurant or as a friend of a friend. Receiving it does not mean you are on our mailing list. To join our mailing list you can click the link below.
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Yours,
Keith Cooper