Wow! How Far We've Come!

By: Unknown on 3:11 PM

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It is has been amazing to watch how the Coins 4 Kids program and the Spring 4 Kids event activities have grown over the past few years.  I am so lucky to be a part of a very special group of people who believe deeply in this program and are willing to work hard to raise as much money as we can to feed more children in Nairobi.

Lately, I found myself thinking a lot about the evolution of Spring 4 Kids.  What began as a live and silent auction event (with a raffle of wonderful employee-created baskets), has become an online auction with hundreds of auction items from around the globe.  Not only does Spring 4 Kids raise funds through the online auction, it involves fundraising through a basket raffle, jeans day ticket sales and a delicious bake sale held during our annual Lunch on the Lawn event, held at the IP global headquarters in Memphis, TN. The formerly one day event has become a weeklong fundraising effort that includes IP spouses from around the world, working together to feed as many children as possible.

When the auction first went online, I had the pleasure of working with a good friend, Jana Cleves, as co-auction chairs.  Moving from a live event to an online event was a big step for us. However, we believed that we had a great opportunity to reach more people from around IP and outside of IP if we used the online platform.  We had seen many other organizations like ours using online auctions and having success with them.  We realized that more people viewing our items meant more people bidding on our items.

Our solicitation team worked hard from September to February to secure fun and interesting items for the auction.  We were excited to include unique experience items (like 'Shadow Chairman John Faraci for a day') that are still popular auction items today.  We wanted to include a variety of items at many different price levels, so we could appeal to a broad group.

Working together with Sara Whitaker, our IP Communications liaison, we researched and secured an excellent online auction company, Bidding For Good.  Data entry of our auction items went smoothly and our fantastic photographer, Stacey Royalty, made our items look great online.  Our auction ran smoothly and raised over $30,000 to feed hungry children.  It was a great success due to the team effort and participation by IP families!

What is particularly striking about our efforts is that they are almost entirely IP spouse led. With continued support from the IP Foundation and Communications Dept., this event has been allowed to evolve, grow and improve every year.  In 2013, the Spring 4 Kids online auction raised over $150,000! That is simply amazing.

I know Jana and I are so proud of how far Spring 4 Kids has come and we wish this year's team continued success!

Chris