‘I’m not a professional fundraiser’

FS: How many donors do you have?
RLS: We had a walk in the summer that brought in over 2,000 donors, so, in total, we have probably about 3,000 donors.

FS: What was the goal of the walk?
RLS: We don’t have a fundraiser on staff. We have no one whose job is fundraising. Together with my wife, we both founded the organization and we don’t see ourselves as fundraisers. We try to find money when we need it, but I’m not a professional fundraiser. One of the great strengths of the Friendship Circle is that we have close to 900 people who we impact directly. Some are families who have children with special needs, others are volunteers whose lives are affected by their interaction with these special children. We were looking for an opportunity to allow these people to help raise money for the organization. We raised about $217,000.