Our mission is to support local community-based organizations by providing them with the resources they need to support their communities and connect with their neighbors in a tangible. Small Things distributes food, hygiene, and household goods to our network of 80 local partners, comprised of community centers, churches, mosques, and synagogues in and around Philadelphia, PA. Our primary operations focus on foods and goods distribution, where we distribute 160,000 pounds of food each week, including culturally appropriate food and rescued foods, but we also operate senior meals, homeless kits, and kid's programs. In 2023, we will be launching several new programs: warehouse skills training to increase employment opportunities, a choice food pantry where individuals are able to "shop" for goods they want rather than just being handed a box of pre-chosen goods, and a hot meal program where individuals are waited on and receive hot meals in a large group setting. We also plan to expand our food rescue operations to retail where we will pick up and redistribute food that would be thrown away form corporations such as Trader Joes and Amazon.
Currently, our fundraising sources are:
- Individuals
- Family foundations
- Churches
- Businesses
- Grants
We build and maintain relationships with each of these funding partners through in-person meetings, warehouse tours, social media, and newsletters, and we run periodic campaigns to fund and grow programs and to support general operations. However, we are often revisiting the same donors, which can be exhausting for them.
We would like a Fels student to develop a fundraising/marketing plan which would include:
- A review of fundraising and development best practices that could apply to an organization of our scope, mission, and size
- Recommendations for a set of standard practices we should use to maintain organized and consistent communication with funders
- Strategies for growing our donor pool which could include specific suggestions for reaching out to new individuals, foundations, and grant sources
- (If time permits) Presentations for potential funders
