Nurture 15 At-Risk Atlanta Preschoolers for a Year

Dear Friend of Sheltering Arms,

Every December, we are overwhelmed with the generosity of friends who share with our children during this season of giving.  Thousands of toys and books are collected by school groups, businesses, and at special holiday parties.  Financial contributions made in honor of loved ones will help provide child care tuition scholarships for our children in the new year.  Volunteers share their time to play the part of Santa's elves in our classrooms, or donate household items to families who are struggling after tragedies like housefires and illness.  These gifts from the community give our children holiday memories to cherish.  We are so grateful.

There are so many deserving requests for help at this time of year.  We recently ran across a Money Magazine article that gave five questions to help donors decide where their gifts can make the biggest difference.  As a friend and supporter of Sheltering Arms through Global Giving, we thought you'd like to know how we measure up on these questions.

1. Does the IRS recognize Sheltering Arms as a charity?  Yes.  Donations to Sheltering Arms are tax-deductible. 
2. How long have you been around?  Sheltering Arms was founded in 1888 and has been in operation continuously for the past 123 years.
3. What percent of my donation will go to charitable works?   92 cents of every dollar donated to Sheltering Arms goes directly to serve children and families.
4. Do you have a year's worth of working capital?  Even during the recession, Sheltering Arms has ended every fiscal year with a balanced budget and a slight surplus which is reinvested into our program.  With an annual budget of more than $25 million, we have approximately five months of working capital on hand.  Our diverse funding base includes a healthy mix of private contributions (individuals, foundations, special events), government grants, and earned income from more than 67 different sources.  This gives us the flexibility and resiliency to continue providing quality services even in a tough economy.  At present, we have raised more than 40% of the goal of $10 million in our Teach Today>Reach Tomorrow campaign, which will provide additional capital and reserve funding to strengthen our financial position.  Sheltering Arms owns or has rent-free long-term lease agreements for 15 of our 16 centers.
5. Are you slashing services this year?  No; we're actually serving more children than ever.  While the recession has affected some of our funding sources and required some creative problem solving and belt tightening measures, we actually are serving more children in 2011 than in the previous year.  Changing demographics and demand and decreases in funding necessitated the closing of our Rockdale county center.  That was offset, however, by the relocation and expansion of one of our Gwinnett county centers and small increases in Pre-K class sizes.  Many of the children and staff affected by the Rockdale closure relocated to other Sheltering Arms centers.

Because of supporters like you, Sheltering Arms is stable and growing during this tough economy when more families than ever need our services.  Thank you so much for what you have done in 2011 to make this possible.  We hope your new year is full of the same joy and hope you have shared with the thousands of children and families served by Sheltering Arms.

Peace on Earth,

Paige

Links:

• Sheltering Arms' Website
• Money Magazine 5 Questions to Evaluate Charities

• New Sheltering Arms Brochure (PDF)
  

Dear Friend of Sheltering Arms,

Census data this month showed that Georgia ranks third in child poverty in the United States, up two slots from last year.  Research has proven that early education and literacy can help children in poverty break that cycle as adults.  Economists have tied early education to a better educated workforce, increased economic development, lower crime rates, and higher property values for our communities.  Programs like Sheltering Arms have been shown to provide a return of as much as $17 for every $1 invested, due in part to reduced costs of incarceration, remediation, and public assistance. 

Each year, Sheltering Arms' Operation StoryBook gets the community involved in setting our youngest citizens on the path to a promising future.  Operation StoryBook builds strong readers and a strong future workforce from the cradle by providing over 2500 children—most from low-income working families--with 12 new books for their home libraries over the next year. Early learning and parent education programs bring these books alive for Sheltering Arms’ children and their families.

On September 15 & 16, more than 800 community and corporate volunteers and VIPs helped Sheltering Arms kick off our sixth year of Operation StoryBook with a two-day Read-A-Thon in our 16 centers.  Georgia's First Lady Sandra Deal, Grammy winning artists J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and Cassius D. Kalb, Billboard Top 40 performer Tyra B, elected and corporate leaders, philanthropists, and many others shared their favorite books and stories with our young children.  Our Corporate Reading Challenge winner, AT&T, provided more than 200 volunteers and joined Target and other local businesses as a sponsor of the event, raising $100,000 to provide early learning and child care tuition scholarships to children from low-income working families.  The children spent the week exploring music and other cultures through the Indian folktale, "The Drum," and received their own personal copy of the book to take home on Friday, after hearing and seeing it performed by August House storytellers, the great gig DANCE Ensemble, and drummers from The Children's School and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket Marching Band.   

Events like Operation StoryBook's Read-A-Thon create excitement about reading in our children, and use books as a window to a rich understanding of our world and their place in it.  If you were not able to be with us this month for Operation StoryBook, there are still opportunities for you to participate.  On October 6, Sheltering Arms centers will participate in JumpStart's Read for the Record, a national attempt to break a world's record for the most people reading "Llama, Llama Red Pajama" in one day.  And in November and December, we host our annual community-wide Books & Bears Drive, providing a new stuffed animal and children's book to each of our 2500 children for the holidays.  If you'd like to participate in either of these, just send an email to Jason at jlowery@shelteringarmsforkids.com.

The work we do each day, preparing 2500 young children for their best future, is only possible because you are part of the Sheltering Arms family of supporters.  Thank you so much.

Yours Truly,

Paige

Links:

• Operation StoryBook 2011: Thank You!
• Preschool: The Best Job Training Program (NPR)
• Economist Links Early Education & Property Values

Greetings!

There are so many great causes you could support, so we are grateful that you have chosen to invest your charitable dollars in Sheltering Arms.  We often talk about the "heart" reasons for supporting our work:  Adorable children who will succeed in life because you helped make a great beginning available to them.  Hard-working parents who keep their jobs secure and their children safe because they can now afford child care.  Neighborhoods that are turning around decades of hopelessness to become safe communities that offer residents opportunity and a promising future.

But there are "head" reasons to give, too.  Over and over, research has proven that quality early education programs like Sheltering Arms bring economic benefits to communities.  For every $1 a community spends on these programs, as much as $17 has been shown to be saved in reduced public spending on incarceration, public assistance, and remediation.  At-risk children who had access to early education have been shown to earn more as adults than their counterparts who did not have that advantage. 

Sheltering Arms works hard to be a good steward of your investment in us.  For every dollar you've donated to Sheltering Arms, 92 cents has gone directly to serve children and families.  Each year, our children meet and exceed research-based developmental milestones and school readiness standards.  We are reviewed many times each year by outside funding and accrediting agencies and consistently receive the highest marks for outstanding management of our finances and our programs.

One of those annual reviews is done by investment volunteers of the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta.  We just finished that review last week, and we shared the attached "virtual tour" with the review team.  We thought you might like to see it, too.  You'll see Sheltering Arms through a child's eyes, but in the fine print you'll see our educational and family support motives behind the "fun and games."

Thank you again for your loyal support of Sheltering Arms!

Sincerely,

Paige

P.S.  A virtual tour is nice, but we'd love to have you come in person!  Mark your calendar to join us for Operation StoryBook as one of our volunteer VIP Readers on September 15 & 16.  There's more info at the link below.

Links:

• Operation StoryBook Volunteer Sign-Up
• Virtual Tour of Sheltering Arms