Profitable Nonprofits With Bernadette Mack

As intriguing as true crime is to listen to, I hope you’ll find this show a little palate cleanser of goodness. 

This project has been really fun so far and I’m now realizing that I’m going to need to actually search for things to give away. Fun problem, I know, but up until now the ideas were coming to me easily. 

Finding a great gift is part of the fun, but I’m starting to feel a tiny bit of pressure to source new gifts. 

Have suggestions? Share them with me at 52 Gifts pod on Instagram or email me at [email protected]

Let’s jump into this week’s gift. 

This was a fun one. It’s for my cousin Joelle and her fiancé Bobby. 

The Uncommon Goods catalog strikes again! As soon as I saw this, I thought of Joelle and Bobby and when I received the save the date card for their upcoming wedding, I had the perfect opportunity to send it. 

Picture this: An outlet cover with one name under the top outlet, the other at the bottom. At the top it says “Just a Power Couple” finished off with a cute pink heart. I sent them the unframed version on the (tiny) chance that they don’t love it as much as I do. 

Speaking of weddings, doesn’t it feel good to have events like this to attend? I find myself looking forward to it more than ever. 

Donation when gift-giving, a nice bonus! 

Uncommon Goods has a donation program called Better to Give. When you buy from them you get a choice of where they will donate. 

I had 3 choices: 

I chose the nature option this time. 

Donation of the Week

This week’s donation went to Amazement Square. This is a hands-on children’s museum in Lynchburg, Virginia. I went to the museum with my son’s 5th grade class, and I had pretty fair expectations for the trip. 

But,wow. I was blown away. There were hands-on exhibits and activities that were truly engaging. There were too many to list them all but you can hear about my favorites, and I hope you do, because they were creative and fun. I even wanted to join the kids in the room where you could paint on the walls. 

I was also drawn to the bee exhibits since raising bees is on my bucket list. They had active hives in a couple places in the museum so we could observe the inner workings - cool! 

You also need to hear about the planetarium. It was inflatable! You’ll want to see it for yourself if you can - just fabulous. 

The trip was a big success and I was so impressed with the museum, I made a donation the same day. 

Note to non-profits. 

Make it easy to take my money! 

I made the donation to Amazement Square online - but I had to click through 4 pages to finally put my details in and complete the transaction. Not ideal. 

I have no doubt that the museum has a talented development team. There was evidence of that throughout the museum. But the online donor experience could use a little tweaking. I was determined to give, so I kept clicking around to find the right page but I suspect that others may give up and move on - leading to missed opportunities.

I share my recommendations because I care so much about the missions of the nonprofits I support and I want it to be easy for others to support them. 

If you are a non-profit and want help with this process, please reach out. That’s what I do! 

Resources: 

Power Couple Art 

Amazement Square

Value proposition references and other digital fundraising information by NextAfter

Title Notes:

The gift features a power outlet and the donation was the result of a field trip. See what I did there?

Group meal delivery plus The Junior League of Poughkeepsie and Sparrows Nest of the Hudson Valley.

https://takethemameal.com/

https://jlpoughkeepsie.org/support-us/

https://sparrowsnestcharity.org/

Title Notes:

The idiom, "man cannot live by bread alone," means that people need not just food, but also poetry, art, music, and in this, case community and connection, to live happily. 

Knitted squares for an heirloom wedding blanket and a gift to Sweet Adelines International https://sweetadelines.com/

Title Notes:

It's about knitting and a chorus group. Ditty is another word for a song. 

https://www.facebook.com/tubulartoyboxva/

Title Notes:

C/O stands for "in care of" and is often put on packages (like the one in this episode) sent in the mail. Seymour Butz is the punchline to a classic Bart Simpson phone prank https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nhFH25JNgc

The Wayne Theatre - https://www.waynetheatre.org/ Celtic Angels - https://www.celticangels.com/celtic-angels-ireland

Title Notes:

A jig is an Irish Dance.

jandwfarm.com

ymca.org

This message is for the birds. (Feb. 7,  2023 Bmail message to subscribers)

Title Notes:

This episode is about backyard birds and there's a pet company called Wild Birds Unlimited whose name always makes me laugh for some reason. Maybe it makes me think of "girls gone wild" or that there are some crazy birds out there with simply no limits on life...who knows!?

This episode features a special gift from Spoonful of Comfort https://www.spoonfulofcomfort.com/ and a donation to the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center https://www.roswellpark.org/ .

I THINK this is the recipe I used this time around. Basically I always double the banana and absolutely, under no circumstances, do I ever add nuts or chocolate chips.

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

This is the website for Mal's Palz - a 501(c)3 formed in memory of Mallory Beach:

https://www.mals-palz.com/

https://crownmaple.store/

https://svasc.net/

https://www.tenthousandvillages.com/

https://www.wfacrescue1.org/

https://cpr.heart.org/en/course-catalog-search