As 2020 comes to an end, we look back at our achievements!
December 2020 was a nail biter for Evie Grace Foundation, but ultimately an astonishing success. We surpassed our greatest fundraising expectations. We’re excited to share our news and face 2021 with renewed hope and much broader horizons.
Throughout the latter months of 2020, we’d been preparing to enter Global Giving, an online crowdsourcing platform, with the aim of raising $5000 US to enter its graduation program and so access expert tailored guidance and international exposure. Raising an amount like this is no mean feat and a sizable challenge for a small NGO. How did we do? We blitzed it! We reached the target in just ten days, with 40 donors and heartwarming support from our online community and fundraising events. NGOs rarely graduate into a Global Giving partnership. So this was not just an accomplishment, it was, and still is a game-changer. Watch this spot in 2021!
Things just kept getting better for us throughout December. The $5000 target was just the start. How much did we raise throughout the month? Not $10 000, not $20 000, but AU$28 000! This has fully funded the construction of a kitchen for our transitional home for street girls in Malawi. This home will save lives. It will provide safety and therapy for girls from 0-18, and by the end of next year, we hope the sustainable home will be fully built and accommodating up to 60 girls!
None of our achievements this year would have been possible without the tireless efforts of our founder, Maddi Kent, and a growing community of volunteers and generous sponsors. 2020 has been a time of illness, heartbreak, uncertainty, and financial restraint. The closing of international borders thwarted so many of our plans, as we couldn’t have people on the ground in East Africa. Despite this, we grew. We joined forces with the incredible EcoPads, in our mission to end period poverty. We partnered with WAYF (We Are Your Friends), a social enterprise for international students in Australia, that helped us launch our Global Giving campaign. We Zoomed, and Microsoft-teamed our way through the year, seeking out small donations. And we grew our following bit by bit. Evie Grace, along with so many struggling NGOs, could have given up, but instead, we pulled through and came out on top.
So to end the year on this positive note, and see fundraising events happening, and witness the generosity and growth we’d been waiting for, was a huge delight. All of this progress will help rescue girls from the streets of Malawi and ensure the provision of their human rights, their growth, and their happiness.
There is still much to be accomplished next year. Construction of the transitional home will require a volunteer team on the ground in Malawi. We’ll need to continue fundraising to realise our dream. But we have now achieved official recognition with the Malawian government as a registered charity there. This first momentous step, along with our outstanding fundraising effort for Global Giving, will set us in good stead.
To all our supporters, sponsors, and community, we say thank you. 2020 was a year of resilience, and it was all worth it to keep working towards our goal – saving the lives of street children and youths in Malawi.
Written by Lucy Oliver
