The Donors: Cesia Green and friends
The Gift: Raising $750,000
The Cause: Barrie Public Library
The Reason: To build a new branch.
Cesia Green can still remember the first time she decided to raise money for charity.
“My first campaign was when I was nine years old,” Ms. Green recalled from her law office in Barrie, Ont. “My sister and I and some friends put on a production of Cinderella. We charged $5 and raised about $200 for the hospital.”
Now 31, Ms. Green has been involved in several fundraising ventures since then. But a few years ago, her father, Marshall, gave her a new and bigger challenge. Mr. Green had helped raise money in the 1980s to build the downtown library in Barrie. When the library asked a couple of years ago if he would get involved with raising money for a new branch, he suggested his daughter.
Ms. Green and Andrea Peacock Ryan, the daughter of another fundraiser for the downtown library, put together a team of 10 young professionals. They launched their drive in 2009, just as the recession hit and donations to many charities dried up. Rather than tapping into the usual sources for gifts, the group focused on gathering smaller donations. They had a children’s colouring activity called Marvin the Moose that allowed kids to contribute up to $20. It became so popular that an entire school raised $1,000 for the campaign. The group also held fundraising events including a gala. Within a year, the team had raised $750,000 which gave the library enough money to build the new branch.
Targeting nontraditional donors “gave a lot of people who don’t normally get asked a chance to be involved,” said Ms. Green who credits the other team members for the success. “It was actually very easy to get people involved. They really did see the value of this.”
Ms. Green plans to keep fundraising for other charities and she hopes the team will stick together. After all, she said that for her and her family, doing nothing “is not an option.”
