Page 42 - Newsletter_Winter_2020

While COVID-19 Raged, the 16th Annual

Campaign Ended in Success and the 17th

Annual Campaign Begins

By Jon A. McLaughlin ’73 • Fundraising Co-Chair

In the Spring/Summer ’20 issue I explained that the fundraising committee made a decision that could have been tough for
annual fundraising opportunities and therefore affect the scholarship levels for the Class of 2020.
The Association had hired an alumna to personally call all alumni that had not given to the campaign starting in February of
2020. This was to replace the phonathon that had been used for the past several years to raise additional funds over and above
what the annual mailer brought in. This was successfully underway when the Corona pandemic hit in March. The fundraising
committee made the decision to stop the personal calling as too much was happening in American’s lives at that time.

With no phonathon campaign and no personal calling we wondered how we were going to bring in sufficient funds for a
successful 16th Annual Campaign.
Later in the year we did another personalized mailing campaign and a series of follow-up email reminders and it worked. We
met our goal of $50,000 for the 16th campaign by raising almost $54,000. As a result, some of the funds from the Annual
Campaign were paired with the year’s earnings from the Association’s endowed fund to present the $53,000 of scholarships for
the Class of ’20. See President’s Ketch’s article for more on the grads and the scholarships that they received.
It is unbelievable but we are entering into our 17th Annual Campaign that will run from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. Once
again, our goal is to raise at least $50,000.

The campaign officially kicked off with our Annual Mailer being sent out in November. Response has been great. Already we
are at almost 50% of our goal and phase 2 is about to start – our personal caller campaign.

We will do another mailing campaign most likely in early spring and the email reminders. We are confident that we will once
again meet our goals because we are SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE OF YOU!

Steamship Mabel Plying the
Waters of Nickerson Lake – 1894

Houlton Baseball Club 1888 –
Future Red Sox Players??
PAGE 42 www.houltonalumni.com