Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Sending letters


I'm sending thank you letters today to the hand full of people who donate on a monthly basis.  In sharing a short version of all we have done this year with our donors, it occurred to me how much we have done.  I wanted to share the start of the list of our accomplishments:

Hello!

Thank you so much for your monthly donations! It really does mean a lot to me that you do this and feels like a cheer each month.  

With a very small budget (less than $5,000 this year), we have managed to provide tools and resources, including the Gross National Happiness Index and toolkits like the Personal Happiness Roadmaps to over 42,000 people this year.  This year also saw the publication of Happiness In Public Policy by the Journal of Social Change and we were invited as the only grassroots organization to participate in the OECD 5th World Forum: Transforming Policy- Changing Lives. From that, we were invited to contribute to the WikiProgress site giving examples of work being done in communities. Here it is! 
 We also launched a whole new set of tools addressing really hard issues in happiness, that included the tool "Feeling Sad, Feeling Happy."

Attached you will find a receipt you can use for tax purposes. Please let me know of your ideas or suggestions for this very grassroots but impactful project!
Thank you!
Laura 

There is so much more, but the short letter is a start. And in writing this I feel a bit overwhelmed by all that has been done this year, and all on the string in shoestring budget. I love this work, and am willing to do it without pay and at the expense of being able to afford many things money buys, but at the same time,  there is a cost to doing volunteer work when you are not wealthy (i.e. "can't afford it."). One of them is the dark times I go through emotionally feeling like the work I do is not valued by society. The notifications each month that come from those who give a little each month really do cheer me on.  

So, again, THANK YOU to all who donated this year <3.
Laura Musikanski
Happiness Alliance ED.

PS You can donate here.