Dear SYPP alumni and supporters,
Seattle Young People’s Project is about to make a heartfelt, but risky change to our fundraising strategy, and we’re counting on your support to pull it off.
After extensive discussions among members, staff, some alumni, and the Board of Directors, we have decided to discontinue our annual auction fundraiser. Instead, we are excited to pursue some new fundraising ideas that better reflect our values and capacity. Please, read on to hear about our reasons, our plans, and how you can help us take this bold step.
Saying Goodbye to the Auction
Year after year, SYPP has been able to pull off auction fundraisers that are warm, fun, and also sustain our youth-led organizing work. In fact, last year was our most financially successful auction yet, raising almost $27,000. However, there are a number of things about the auction that just don’t sit right with us, and don’t feel like a good fit with our mission.
For example:
- Youth members often feel tokenized, standing behind products and on stage for just a few minutes to ask for money. For all the work this event takes, they want an opportunity for more authentic interactions with their supporters.
- As a social justice organization, critical of cutthroat capitalism, we feel sad to have our biggest event of the year so focused on consumerism. In fact, many youth’s own families and communities feel priced out of the event. We want to connect with you about our work, not about buying things.
- With only two staff and two youth interns, the auction monopolizes almost 3 full months of SYPP’s capacity. This is time that can and should be better used to push our organizing forward and to grow youth power in Seattle. If we are going to spend three months going door-to-door across Seattle, we want to be asking our neighbors to build a movement, not just donate gift certificates.
- Just as we’ve seen more and more organizations borrowing the fun Bowl-a-Thon model, it seems that every year more local groups are doing auctions. In fact, Seattle has an incredibly auction-heavy fundraising climate compared to other cities. At SYPP, we think it’s time to try something different.
- While we loved professional auctioneer Laura Michalek’s work last year, ever since our long-time auctioneer Larry Taylor passed, the SYPP auction just hasn’t felt the same to us.
For these reasons and more, SYPP is looking to change things up.
3 SYPP Values, 3 New Initiatives
This year we are launching three new fundraising and community building programs that are rooted in values that matter to us at SYPP:
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1) Building an intergenerational community that honors youth’s justice work.
SYPP FamBam!
A Dinner and Celebration of the SYPP Family
-Saturday, May 21st, 5:30-8pm-
This dinner will gather SYPP’s entire community of members, supporters, alumni, and parents to celebrate together as a SYPP family. Like the auction, there will be giving opportunities like fund-a-need and the dessert dash, but the focus will be on having fun, meaningful sharing about SYPP’s work, and honoring each generation’s contributions to building social change movements. GOAL: $10,000
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2) Appreciating SYPP’s legacy and listening to those who come before us.
SYPP Alumni Story Project and Giving Circle
With SYPP coming up on its 20th birthday, there are hundreds, if not thousands of community members who count SYPP as one of their first activist homes. We are creating a project to reconnect with these SYPP history makers, to learn from their stories, and to seek their support to sustain SYPP into the future.
GOAL: $2,5000
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3) Expanding class-accessible fundraising that values people’s time contributions and relationships
Major Fundraiser Program
While we love our Major Donors and appreciate their sizeable annual contributions, we also want to expand spaces for supporters who might not have deep pockets, but who do have deep commitments to youth empowerment. We are recruiting 10 major fundraisers, who will utilize their own passions and chosen communities to raise $1,000 over a 12 month period.
GOAL: $10,000
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SYPP NEEDS YOU!
This change in our fundraising is much less about the money, and more about sticking to our values. But that doesn’t change the harsh economic realities out there.
In order to make this risk work out, we need our SYPP community to show up for us. We still need captains for the SYPP FamBam!, we need alumni to reconnect with us, and we need Major Fundraisers.
What will your contribution be?
Thank You,
SYPP’s Board and Staff
