On behalf on the Focusing community, we would like to express our most sincere condolences to those who lost their lives in the earthquake and tsunami in Kantoh, Japan. We would like to extend our heartfelt support to survivors who are still in deep suffering, people who lost their loved ones, their homes, their jobs, their fishing vessels, their farmland which they inherited for generations and are now contaminated with radiation. As a worldwide community, we are willing to consider and support whatever may be necessary for the victims of the Kantoh disaster.
28 April 2011
Dear Focusing Community,
We are writing to thank you for your past support, update you regarding the status of our changes, and introduce a program to stabilize the funding at The Focusing Institute, (TFI). Thanks to your response to our request for support last spring we have been able to bring on part-time administrative staff and upgrade our computers and software. This will help us run the office more efficiently so we can be more timely and responsive to your requests.
We are excited to share two initiatives at TFI:
First, a group known as the “Tech-Web Functional Committee” has been working on renovating TFI’s website. This major project has attracted talented and dedicated members of the global focusing community, and promises to deliver an improved and engaging website bringing Focusing and the Philosophy of the Implicit to the world in a much more accessible way.
Second, the Institute’s Board of Directors has initiated a planning effort to set out its strategy for sustaining The Institute and enriching the use of Focusing around the globe in the next decade and beyond. This effort will help TFI enact its vision and work more effectively across a broad spectrum of responsibilities, including spreading understanding of TFI’s work and mission internationally, attracting members, bolstering the sense of shared mission in the global focusing community, fund-raising, marketing, and more.
In reviewing TFI’s financial performance in 2010, we realized two things. First, compared to other non-profits, TFI has done extremely well in generating income from on-going operations. The bulk of our income is generated through workshops, conferences, and product sales (about 60%) and membership dues and fees (about 25%). However, while monetary donations make up less than one-fifth of our operating income, they are critically important. These donations are the difference at the margin.
As we have been communicating to you, The Focusing Institute is in transition: not just in organization but in approach as well - we now have the opportunity to support the growth of Focusing in its many diverse forms. For example, one current initiative has been encouraging the growth of Community Wellness Focusing in developing countries, which provides focusing skills to entire communities. Yet we currently have many more requests for this type of help than we can fund.
We have an on-going commitment to key programs like community-based Focusing, Focusing-Oriented Therapy (FOT), expanding the number of workshops and conferences that TFI offers, developing connections with foundations interested in our work, and growing Focusing in ways that support you, the Focusing community. To these ends, we need to develop a reliable funding base, raise more funds to support TFI, and to provide small seed grants to help Focusing projects get started or continue with their next step.
An example of one area that has tremendous impact and needs support is Community Wellness. It has increasingly been found that economic resources need to be coupled with the processes for self care and community care - to heal the trauma of poverty and war. Material help is not enough. The living conditions of the most vulnerable sectors were improved in the areas of economics, environment, health and education. But ‘something’ was missing. Focusing is what was missing. Teaching people Focusing empowers them to think and speak from a place of self respect and respect for others. After a workshop in Ecuador, a villager said, “Now I know that we are just people, like everyone else. We have dignity. We just don’t have many material things.” Focusing adds a missing element in both rural and urban community development programs.
Our policy has been to confine our requests for donations to a one-time year-end mailing of Mary Hendricks' annual fund-raising letter; we return to the Focusing Community only when we have a clear need that cannot be met from regular financial operations. We are deeply appreciative to all who have so generously answered this call. The Focusing Institute is at a crossroads and the “clear need” requires the funding stability that an annual or even two annual letters cannot meet, and that is why we are appealing directly to you.
Please take a moment to consider this request. We hope that you will feel moved to help TFI take our next steps forward.
After careful consideration of the challenges and opportunities TFI faces in the near and midterm, we are introducing our new Sustainer Program to help provide reliable funding throughout the year. We are asking you to consider making a monthly pledge. The Sustainer Program is one element of a multi-source financial strategy we are actively pursuing to stabilize our funding stream and thus be better able to make commitments to support the important pioneering work being conducted by many in our community.
Your small change of just 50 cents a day (or $15 a month) helps us empower people in Latin America, Haiti, and other developing countries with life-changing skills. Won’t you please consider helping us extend Focusing programs by providing Trainers and Focusing resources to these developing countries with a monthly pledge of $15, $25, $50, or even $100 per month?
To join our Sustainer Program, please click on this link: http://www.focusing.org/sustainer to sign up for one year of monthly donations. If you would prefer to make a one-time gift, please go to: http://www.focusing.org/donations If you would like to make a different arrangement, please contact Melinda Darer: 845-362-5222.
Thank you for consideration of our request. We are available to respond to any questions you may have about our plans for helping TFI move forward, and we greatly appreciate whatever you are able to contribute to this effort. Every donation, no matter how large or small, helps us sustain and expand our work.
Sincerely,
Mary Hendricks and Melinda Darer
P.S. We also welcome any suggestions about possible funding sources.
The Focusing Institute
PO Box 539, Spring Valley NY 10977
Tel: 845-362-5222 Fax: 845-704-0461
www.focusing.org