As a nonprofit professional, I spend a fair amount of my time at the office asking people and organizations for support. One of the great things about this is that a big part of my job is explaining why Barrel of Monkeys is such a worthwhile organization. I get to talk about our mission, the kids we work with, and the art we create. Increasingly, I do a lot of this over the internet as fundraising tools and mechanisms become more readily available online and people choose online interactions above more traditional communications. 

One of the most interesting, in my opinion, developments (hee) in online fundraising is the many ways to raise money passively. Tools like igive and goodshop give a percentage of online shopping or search revenue to the charity you designate. Obviously we encourage you all to sign up with BOM as your charity of choice, but my larger point is that the internet has made it easier for people to support their favorite organizations even when they can not make a direct contribution. Instead a portion of the ad revenue or corporate profit goes to charity instead of to (for example) the search engines. Some of the ways you can support BOM passively are listed on the support page.

Today, for example, I ran across a new site called Everywun. You can choose from one of 46 charities (mostly national in scope) and display a badge on your facebook page or blog demonstrating your support of a specific charity or type of organization. My badge, not surprisingly in support of arts education, is after the jump. The principle of the site is that it can cost nothing to make the world a better place, and the site has a forum that anyone can participate in to discuss causes and ways to support them. The site just launched a few days ago, so it’s hard to tell yet if it will be successful, but I’m optimistic.

Of course, none of this can supplant or replace cash contributions entirely, but every little bit helps. Barrel of Monkeys, for example, has raised a couple hundred dollars from people using goodsearch.com instead of other popular search engines. While this doesn’t change our annual fundraising goals particularly dramatically, all the contributions add up over time. Ultimately I look forward to seeing how online initiatives like these grow and develop in the next few years.

In the meantime, if you are in a position to make a year-end donation to Barrel of Monkeys you may do so online. Every little bit helps, and we are continually grateful for the support of our community and fans.

Read more…

On behalf of Barrel of Monkeys, the core group of sports fans IN Barrel of Monkeys, and pretty much anyone who enjoys encouraging anyone anywhere, I want to send out a huge shoutout to 16-year-old Eri Yoshida.  That girl just became the first female professional baseball player ever. And I think that is totally rad.

Speaking of rad and baseball, there’s a pretty rad baseball story in That’s Weird, Grandma right now (see how I tied those together? That’s a college degree at work there, friends) about a kid going to see a White Sox game and meeting the players.  We’re always in a sticky situation when we have to present actual well-known celebrities on stage, but I think we did a pretty good job with this one. 


For instance, the kid met Jermaine Dye (played by Donnell):







He met Bobby Jenks (played by Curtis):







and he also met Frank Thomas (naturally, played by Tai):







Hey, Monkeys?  Next year, when all the kids are writing about her, I’m calling all the Eri Yoshida parts RIGHT NOW.

Preparations for Fancy are going well. The auction is well-rounded, the hats have been decorated,  the centerpieces are nearing completion.  It’s going to be a smashing evening. There’s just one thing we’re missing: you!

I know, I know, you are planning to come. You’ve put it in your calendar, talked to your friends, thought about your outfit. You just haven’t bought your ticket yet. But that’s ok! You still have time! If you don’t want to pay the convenience fee, just mail a check with your pertinent contact information written out to our office (the address is just over there to the right). You can also call 773-281-0638 between 10am and 6pm weekdays and buy a ticket right over the phone.

If we don’t raise enough money at Fancy, there will be a lot more blog posts about fund raising in the year to come…so do your part to keep the blog light. Buy a ticket to fancy!

Shopping for Hats
By Bria T., South Loop School

This picture reminds me of my granny going shopping for hats Trying on all kinds of hat and talking all day will she ever go clothes shopping she was waste all her time and do not get a hat or her best friend. Why dose she like the hat. I think they all are crazy. She will learn to stop getting hat. This is an old people thing you do not know what I have to do.

This is one of my all time favorites!  This story was in my first year of TWG and I will never forget Ryan and Tai piling hat after hat after hat on top of their heads.  Yelling “Hats!” with tremendous glee.

But where did all these hats come from, you may ask…

Well the Annual Fancy Schmancy Hat Trimming Party.  The most refined BOM event of the season. 

Yesterday afternoon Dixie, Elizabeth and I gathered at Heidi’s home (the only house in Chicago with shutters, a very refined place for ladies making hats) with totes in hand full of extraordinary crafting materials including fake fruit, birds and a miniature tea set.

Armed with hot glue guns and thread we began…

They started off quite tasteful

So many flowers…. So we started nesting

Isn’t she just lovely?  Wouldn’t you like to come to fancy and fashion one of these lovely hats?

Remember to buy your tickets soon!
FANCY SCHMANCY 2008

so you can wear one of these….

See you at Fancy!

maggie

BOM is happy to be participating in the nationwide Free Night of Theater this October.

This is the official blurb:
“Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the not-for-profit American theatre, developed this exciting and innovative national audience development initiative to attract new audiences and raise public awareness about live theatre. As TCG continues to roll out the Free Night program across an expanding national stage, the program provides a unique opportunity for theatres nationwide to collaborate on a project that provides access for new audiences to experience the joy of theatre for the first time. “

In a nutshell, if you like theater, you can see a lot of it for free in October. Lots of styles and varieties on offer. Some shows are sold out already (and tickets only went on sale a couple hours ago!), but more tickets may be added later and I know for a fact that some have been held back for later release. The only place you can get these tickets is online. Love it!

Thanks to the League of Chicago Theaters for working to bring this program to Chicago.