By KEN AND NICOLINA STEWART | VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT
SUGAR’S GIFT™ PROGRESS REPORT FOR AUGUST 2023
JULY 12, 2023 – BONUS DAY
First, what a wonderful July 12 Bonus Day we had this year! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts….we raised almost $12,000 that day, including our bonus from GlobalGiving! Your donations put us in twelfth place overall out of all the non-profits that participated in Bonus Day at GlobalGiving this year. As we tell all of you, we try to focus on the July Bonus Day as our major bonus fundraising day during the year, so be prepared for our pleas for July 2024 as we get closer! A special Thank You to the $1,000 Donors on Bonus Day whose donations became $1,500 with the 50% bonus: Susan S, Felicia C and 2 generous anonymous donors. But, again, thank you to everyone, no matter how much you donated because all of your donations mean so much to us!
And we had a wonderful surprise $1,000 this week from Diahann L – we are so honored to receive that and know you support our mission! Susan S also gave us another $1,000 recently toward our veterinary costs, too! Thank you so much!
HELPING THE LITTLE ANGELS – WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP RIGHT NOW!
This year has been incredibly busy for us, which is heartwarming and sad at the same time. So many babies need our help! We are receiving more requests to help pets cross the Rainbow Bridge than we can even help right now. In the Sarasota/Bradenton area we receive 10-15 calls per day. Not all of those people need our help right away – some simply want information for when the time comes. But, realistically, we could be helping 8-10 pets per week if we had the funding. We received a grant for $3,500 from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County (thank you so much!!) to help fund the veterinary costs for a number of pets that we otherwise could not have helped.
But, we need more grants and funds from other Foundations and Corporations to help us with our veterinary costs. We need to be able to not limit the areas in which we provide services, and we also need to be able to help pets cross the Rainbow Bridge sooner that 3-4 days. The ONLY way those 2 things are going to happen is if we can expand and secure more funding for our veterinary costs, which is our largest expense. We need to secure approximately $150,000 each year for veterinary help to be able to help all those we receive requests from, and we would like a multi-year commitment from as many organizations/individuals as possible.
So far, we have helped over 130 pets in the Sarasota/Bradenton area and Jupiter location. If we had the funding to expand our reach and afford more veterinary services, we could have doubled that so far this year. We appreciate your help in spreading the word about what we do. As you know, we do not advertise, or spend your generous donations on overhead such as paying people, rent etc. We are proud of the fact that between 92-95% of all your donations go directly to our mission of helping babies cross the Rainbow Bridge from home.
Thank you again for your understanding with not being able to help everyone we would like, as quickly as we would like (for now). Our geographic areas are not as broad as they once were in Sarasota and Manatee Counties; however, we still try to help everyone we can and the amount of babies we are helping is increasing, despite the limitations in the areas we can serve.
We still have challenges after COVID-19 in other areas of the county for finding veterinarians, as well. For anyone in the Vacaville, CA, Las Vegas, NV, Boca Raton/Miami, FL, and Ft. Myers/Naples, FL areas, please let us know about mobile vets in your area that we can contact to help us in those locations. There is a veterinarian shortage all over the country, and we certainly feel that with our organization.
With all that said, we are still busier than ever and helping more babies cross the Rainbow Bridge from home than ever! So, please don’t think we are slowing down….in fact, we want to help more of you!
NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORHOOD FAVE FOR 2023!
Our followers voted Sugar's Gift™ as a Next Door Neighborhood Fave for 2023 in the Sarasota/Bradenton area! Your votes got us this distinguished honor. We hear from a lot of our pet owners that they hear about us on Next Door, so thank you for spreading the word on there for us!
THANK YOUS
With the challenges we face, we are still getting so much support from all of you – and believe me, we need it! With the rising costs due to inflation in every sector, we are no exception in having our costs to do business increase. We have received some very generous donations during this first (almost) 8 months of 2023, and please let others know of our wonderful work. Spreading the word is our only real source of advertising.
There are so many people who choose Sugar’s Gift™ as a charity for fundraisers on Facebook. I want to let you know that sometimes when we receive the donations from you for Facebook fundraisers for us, we don’t always know whose fundraisers they were….(maybe we should, and we just don’t know where to look).
Thank you, again, to the Community Foundation of Sarasota County for their generous grant for $3,500 for our Sarasota/Manatee location. And, as always, thank you to the Knopf Family Foundation and Sandy C for their continued support for our East Coast of Florida location. They generously gave us $7,000 for 2023 and we wouldn’t be successful in helping pets in the Jupiter/Palm Beach area without them! In fact, they have told us they will help us in an expansion south of the Palm Beach/Martin counties, so we're on our way for that next expansion on the East Coast!
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Nikki is available and willing to speak to any group – over-55 communities, fraternal and social organizations, networking groups, etc. She can speak about Sugar’s Gift™ and also about Pet Trusts in a workshop fashion, or as an informational session. Let us know and we can get you on the calendar for your group – and please spread the word because she wants to talk about the benefits of our organization and educate others about us.
WE NEED AMBASSADORS
So many of you ask us how you can help…we need Sugar's Gift™ Ambassadors to help us spread the word and help others know what we do, as well as hear your stories. We will be having a Town Hall meeting soon and we will send out a notice for those of you who have expressed interest in helping us. We need funding, and the more people who know of us and can hear the stories you have to tell them, the more likely we can increase our funding. We will arm you with what you need to help us – don’t worry!
MONTHLY GIVING MATCHES
MONTHLY GIVING MATCHES: - WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR SUGAR’S GIFT?
Our normal Monthly Giving Match is still in place! If you donate for 4 straight months up to $200 per month, Sugar’s Gift™ receives a 100% match on your first month’s donation after those 4 consecutive donations!
OUR MISSION – WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO
Our mission is always worth repeating: Our mission is to provide euthanasia and end-of-life veterinary services for terminally ill pets in their own homes. We at Sugar's Gift™ do not charge for any of our services to help your terminally ill baby. Why? Our mission from the beginning has been all about the Little Ones, not about how much money someone has. We don't charge you on a sliding scale. We don't charge you based on your income. We believe this: Every one of you who has a terminally ill pet has something in common with all of us - the love for our pets, our companions, our Little Angels and the need to have them pass in the most comfortable surroundings. That is something sacred to us. We share that love and respect you for that love, as well. That is why we do not charge you for our services. It is the last Gift you can give your baby, and it is Sugar's Gift to both of you.
OUR PET OWNERS AND THEIR MESSAGES TO US….
Pet owners across this great country of ours describe Sugar’s Gift™ as “Bringing lasting peace to pets and their owners after a life full of love.” We offer a life-changing experience...our services extend far beyond the time and scope of the services we provide for you and your pet. We are here as a resource, an ear or a shoulder to cry on, an organization that will always be here for you and your furbabies. Some of our pet owners have described our client care service as unsurpassed. Read some of our testimonials here.
LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE AND FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, THREADS – AND PLEASE RECOMMEND US ON NEXT DOOR, TOO!
We are trying to stay up to date on all the social media channels – but it is difficult! Thank you to all of you who have encouraged others to like us on Facebook….we have increased our followers to almost 1,600 as of today. We want to build even more Facebook Likes, so go here to Like Our Page and share this newsletter with your friends! We especially appreciate all the recommendations we receive on Next Door! If you can tell 5 people about us, and they can tell 5 more people about us...well, you get the picture....exponentially, it can make a huge difference to us!
WHAT WE NEED NOW FROM YOU
WE ARE COMPILING A BOOK OF STORIES!
The pet owners whose pets Sugar's Gift™ has helped are giving us stories - either written stories, poetry, songs, about their pets' lives. We want to publish those stories and let others know what wonderful people and pets we have helped, and how we have helped them through their experience with Sugar's Gift™. If you are one of our terrific pet owners and we don't have your story yet.....get those pencils (or iPads) working overtime! We want to publish the first volume this year!
So, when we say every dollar counts…..EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS. CLICK HERE TO DONATE
REMEMBER….
Sugar’s Gift™ is the only non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization in the country whose mission is to help terminally ill pets cross over the Rainbow Bridge from home with comfort, dignity and peace.
Please give generously.....monthly, annually, whatever suits your budget. We REALLY need your help right now! All the other Little Angels need us....and we need you. Thank you.
We apologize, in advance, if you receive a duplicate of this report. We are sending this through our email server, too, so you may get 2 of the same reports. Just simply forward one to someone you feel would like to read it! Thank you.
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