By Michael J Quinn | Co-founder
Good morning from Guatemala,
All of us here at the Integral Heart Family School hope that this New Year has started out on a great footing for you. It certainly has for us.
As you see from the subject, we are very happy about how our 13th year ended and we are now looking forward to a 14th year serving our 65 students and our 30 sponsored families.
Education is the heart of our work. Our school is home to 65 children receiving classes in Spanish, English, Human Rights, Homework Help, Art and serves 1,500 meals monthly. Since 2011, our programs have delivered classes and support to over 3,200 students and their families here in Guatemala. We have also provided over 5,000 food baskets to our 30 sponsored families.
Integral Heart is unique in that we are 100% crowdfunded. We do not receive any corporate or government grants. Our work is made possible by you.
So, the first gift of deep gratitude I would like to extend is to our monthly donors. A little under half of our annual budget comes to us through the kind hearts of 189 individuals. Your constant Sustaining Sponsorships range between $10 per month to $300 per month for which we are eternally grateful. Our monthly donors are the first pillar of our strength.
The second pillar of our strength are those of you who support the Match and Funding Drives that we have scheduled throughout the year – you can see those dates and numbers for 2025 below. And many of you reading this are both monthly donors and you also support our extra funding drives with enthusiasm. Thank you!
The combination of your monthly support and extra support during the Funding Drives allows me to project our income versus expenses for the year. I used to run tech start-ups in NYC many years ago and I still use a version of those spreadsheets to ‘see into the future’ in regard to our financial sustainability.
As happens, with all of us who are familiar with projections, sometimes they don’t work out. For instance, just this December the Government announced a 10% increase in salaries. This will have to be taken into account over the year and we will adjust our fundraising accordingly.
I also have to take into account in our projections the fact that we lost four monthly donors since December 1st. When a donor drops I always reach out, because sometime it is simply a matter of the card they used to set up their Sustaining Sponsorship has expired.
One told me that he lost his job and just had to cut back on expenses, but promised to be back when things get better. One had her credit card stolen and has yet to restart her support. Another told me she decided to move her monthly support to a local animal shelter where she has started to work. Another did not reply when I asked why she ended her support. This is the very normal ebb and flow of support for our work, a situation I am sure all non-profits over the world must face.
When we lose monthly donors it impacts our funding projections, which then has to be made up by finding new monthly donors to replace the lost ones, or by reaching out to one of our bigger donors who can help up make up the shortfall. It can be quite the dance, but we always figure out a way to succeed. That is our mandate!
The day-to-day operations of our school are completely in the hands of our all-female, all-Guatemalan team!! They have been with us for many years and complete a part of our mission of Guatemalans helping Guatemalans.
My role is organization, fundraising, board and IRS reporting. Together with our online team, The Integral Heart Action Team (IHAT) we come together to send out the news of our regularly scheduled funding drives through word-of-mouth, social media and newsletters. A big word of thanks to IHAT, for your persistence and dedication to the success of our work.
My lovely wife, Debora, who is also a fellow co-founder, handles all of the local administration, banking and working with the local accountant on the required reporting to the Guatemalan authorities.
As you may have noticed over the past years, sometimes our projections do not meet the reality of the total funding that comes in from the combination of our monthly supporters and our scheduled funding drives. Because of this, we will then run a Deficit Drive, usually right at the end of the year to make sure we have the funding in place to continue the work with our students and their families.
This is a list of our regularly scheduled funding drives for 2025. As you see from the total, it will make up the amount we need to cover our expenses for year that is not currently provided by our monthly donors. If you would like to join us as a monthly or one-time go here to our new Fee Free donation portal: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/integral-heart-foundation
Feb / Valentines
16,500
April Match
17,700
May/Mother's Day
6,000
July Bonus Day
15,500
Sept/Oct
15,000
GivingTuesday
42,000
Projected Total
$112,700
Overall, as in all years past, we are in a great position financially and plan to continue our work as we have been doing since 2011. Thanks again to you and please reach out to me by reply if you have any specific questions at all. I am happy to help.
With best wishes,
Mick Quinn
Debora Prieto
IHAT
And, all the students and staff of the Integral Heart Family here in Antigua Guatemala.
If you would like to join us as a monthly or one-time go here to our new Fee Free donation portal: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/integral-heart-foundation
By Mick Quinn | Co-founder
By Michael J Quinn | Co-founder
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