Be The light! To Empower and Educate, A New Campus

HHWT is taking the time to share our organization’s case for support with our closest stakeholders is crucial to the success of our campaign. But as we know well, it can be difficult to convince our board or our marketing team that the quiet phase is necessary. They want to share the big news. It’s understandable. However, the quiet phase of a campaign is a vital stage prior to a public phase when the majority of fundraising will happen. Quiet phases, when deployed effectively, can create a sense of belonging, build confidence in your project, and promote deep understanding of why your project is worthy of support.

The truth is, when nonprofits launch capital campaigns, one of the first questions we hear is: “When can we announce this publicly?” The easy answer: The public phase should begin when you’ve raised 60% of your fundraising goal. But it is more than that. Just because HHWT is not putting out a press release doesn’t mean we should hold back from talking about your priorities (e.g. capital project, endowment need, etc.). In fact, it’s critical to share the message about the campaign within our community during your quiet phase.

Here is why you should think critically about your quiet phase:

Early gifts build confidence for the subsequent phases

Leading change is not easy. And most often, that’s what you’re doing in a major fundraising campaign. Strong leadership, strategic planning, and HHWT’s clear value proposition can help, but even in near-perfect circumstances, HHWT may still find opposition. Even in the best circumstances, you still need to convince your closest supporters that this is the right path forward. And that success begets further success – as those early supporters come on board, they create a network effect.

Early feedback helps to create a bulletproof case for capital campaign.

Thank you for supporting our capital campaign during the quiet Phrase.

HHWT JUNE 2021 Be The Light Capital campaign was approved by the Have Hammer Will Travel A.C. Board of Directors the campaign to purchase our current building we rent and improvements to it. Leon the architect is drawing up preliminary plans for review this weekend.

 HHWT would like to give you an update this Oct 2021 about our New Campus Building Project as things have been moving ahead quickly.  Hoping for some decline in real-estate prices, we have taken this opportunity to review additional properties besides our current building that was our favorite. We reviewed other properties online that were within our price range and location requirements. The result of our reviewing these properties showed that the building we are renting is still the one best suited to accomplish both our long- and short-term vision for Have Hammer Will Travel Woodworking School. Since the “ball is in our court” in the negotiation process with the owner, the Building Leadership team has recently spent hours in discussions about our next steps. We have decided to pursue this building and have asked the Board of our Foundation for permission to negotiate an appraised quote from the owner to see where we need to be the next three to five years. We negotiated a new lease, with no raise in rent for five years. We are working to complete a capital campaign budget for this project. Hopefully we will meet our fundraising goal within five years and have ownership of the building, we will continue our fundraising and start the renovations as the needed money is raised. All incoming funds will then be for renovations. When the project is completed the new campus will be used for vocational training and counseling needs for the women and children from local surrounding towns. HHWT will be able to meet the needs of our community with a more modern and welcoming facility. Thank you for your interest in our work here in Have Hammer will Travel A.C Woodworking school and we hope that you are as encouraged as we are about the vision of our new campus finally! Good news! thank you for partnering with us, on The GlobalGiving little by Little bonus campaign, we received $1250 dollars with Matching bonus from our partnership with GlobalGiving to help start our new campus campaign.

Giving Tuesday is Nov 30^th 2021

Thank you

 The HHWT board of Directors