Mock intern email

Welcome to the Babies for Us team!  Congratulations on reaching this most exciting stage in your life.  In the next several months you will be working on the most fascinating projects. We are very excited to get the semester started and on its way.  We have many fun ideas and things panned throughout the semester and year.  First, please watch a welcome video from me our founder and CEO.

https://youtu.be/SHcpATknbwQ

I hope you enjoyed the video.  Bellow you will find a link to my blog which will give you options and ideas on how you can participate in and help Babies for Us.  Please read through and take notes because you'll be asked to choose some options tomorrow.  Please feel free to poke around the blog and get a feel for how Babies for Us was created and what our thoughts and process are.

http://taicordeiro.blogspot.com/2016/12/intern-projects.html

I would like to work very closely with you and believe that open communication is very important.  Please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions or ideas.  All of my personal info is bellow.  I am looking forward to meeting you and a wonderful and productive semester.

Spread the love and have some fun,

Tai Cordero

Babies for Us

Tai.cordeiro@yahoo.com

401.391.1355

Intern Projects

Overview of intern projects

Babies couples program
Outreach to couples to inform them of the program
Outreach to service providers and supporters to inform them of the program
Individual meetings with couples to connect them to services and resources
Fielding calls for couples, supporters and donors
Creating digital files for couples and supporters
Follow up with couples that need support

Fundraising & Awareness Events
Assist with calendar of events
Assist with raffle prizes
Reach out to potential venues
Analysis of past fundraisers
Assist with other fundraising ideas

Finances
Grant research
Writing and submitting grants
Outreach to potential private sponsors

Design
Design and create brochure
Develop flyers as needed
Develop collateral for various projects

Publications
Assist with monthly email
Assist with blog
Assist with Facebook and Twitter

Miscellaneous
Coordinate and attend various workshops
Assist with ideas about website
Research what other alternative conception groups are doing

Need sperm? A list of approved sperm banks

Raffle Donation Packages

to have a successful raffle it is important to have really good prizes.  The first time contacting anyone can be some what of a challenge.  They call it a cold call and you never know what the answer is going to be.  But the 1st time is the hardest and it only gets easier.  Always start with the people you know, it makes good practice and you will most likely get a yes.

i started with friends who worked for or owned various big and little businesses.  Early i learned that i needed some kind of a request letter on letter head.  I went to my favorite source of all that is creative, Pinterest, and searched.  There i found a letter that i liked, tweaked it, then let it evolve depending on who i was asking for a request from.

here's what my first letter looked like:

i later added a paragraph about how we will affect the community.

Here are some learnings:

Require Email:

Dave's Market- only really like to help food related organizations: food banks 

Foxwood's Casino- kasia Radicioni- Kradicioni@foxwoods.com

LaSalle Bakery- lasalledonations@gmail.org

URI- 

PC-

Requires letter in person:

Shaw's- super helpful

99 restaurant- super nice

Mulligan's Island- prefer sports related

Macy's- 

Dave & Busters- follow-up, follow-up, follow-up

Petsmart- 

Snail Mail:

Pawsox- very friendly

Mail to: Grace Eng

Po box 2365

Pawtucket, RI 02861

Fax: 

Benny's

Attn: Donation requests

Require: when need by, letter on letterhead, tax exempt ID #, Flyer

Not helpful:

Liquor warehouse- better to hit up early in the year

Petco- Must be pet related

Job lot- not very nice

So just FYI this is a couple weeks worth of work.  I hope it saves you a lot of time.  I know it will be easier for me next time.

Oh, yea!  Little tip:  i made a generic letter and a million copies of my tax exempt letter to randomly stop by places.

Thanks for listening!

Spread the love ❤️ 

-tai

Meet the Neighbors

Im so excited to say that i found the research i have been looking for.  For the past year i have been looking for information on LGBTQ in RI.  I just stumbled across it.  Meet the Neighbors is such an easy read and enjoyable.

http://www.rifoundation.org/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/Working-Together/For-Nonprofits/Meet_the_Neighbors_01-22-04.pdf

Some great take aways:

-LGBTQ in RI are more likely to have a bachelors or better

81.1% of LGBTQ vs. 25.6% non-LGBTQ

-40% of RI LGBTQ living with a parter and only 5% with children vs. 48% US non-LGBTQ living with a partner and 31% with children

-1 in 4 wish to have children

44% not sure how

26% want to adopt

17% alternative insemination 

This leads me to believe more people want children but either don't know how or cant afford to.  

                             this article affirms the need for Babies for Us.  In that there 

                                is a need for the community impacts which we address. 

Impact on LGBTQ couples:

- expanding access to welcoming health care

- Supporting families

- building support systems

Impact on Community:

- Supporting families

- Building Community cohesiveness

- addressing diversity with in the community

- Increasing awareness and visibility of the LGBTQ community

- Creating a community/ Resource center

- Creating more community-wide events and celebrations including social, cultural. And recreational activities

- Combatting homophobia and transphobia in the non-LGBTQ community

I find that i am a person who has trouble putting things into words.  This article has done so for Babies for Us and has been a little boost to push us.

Spread the love ❤️ 

-tai

Ted.ed.com

This was so easy.. and the directions are already out there.. here are the ones i used:

How to make your own ted.ed

And here's my ted.ed.. please enjoy, interact and let me know what you think....

Babies for Us ted ed

Spread the love

-tai

Effectiveness & Budget

Wednesday night I went to a RI foundation meeting discussion budgets.  Which I learned a lot from.  

Some of the big take aways were...

- a budget (Income statement) should be set annually so that you have a goal for the year.  You shouldn't change it as the year goes by or you'll never know how you did.  But you should look at it (balance sheet) at least quarterly to make sure you are staying close enough to the bottom line....that the budget is working....

- Be realistic... this isn't the time to be a superstar and under goal yourself.  If anything you should exaggerate your expected costs then if you come in under, good for you.  Its always better to come in under than to go way over...

- look at your incomes separately from your expenses, then merge the two statements  

- Make sure you are getting credit for your inkind/ private support/ donations in your budget... 

Things to google later...

* Receipt bank- an app for your phone
* non-profit activities
* Lady Project
* Fiddle and Folk Festival
* RISCA

Inkind...

Inkind is all of the stuff that is donated to you including, space, volunteer hours, goods and cash money.  This made me realize that i should keep track of everything as I go rather than try to remember everything.... because I have an awful memory.

So.... i took 2 lessons learned from RI foundation and blended them into a easy to use packet.  The last workshop at RI foundation was about assessing impact.  In that, we created a logic model.  Basically, a business model for a nonprofit.  This is the verbiage behind the numbers. And the budget holds some of the metrics behind the logic model. 

This is what the original grid from the logic model looked like...

Then this is what it looks like after we filled it in, in the workshop....

Your main objective for your nonprofit is your Impact.  This is your big picture/ 5 year goal.  This is build around an awareness event.  The activities are what you are going to do during your event.  Resources and inputs are what you are using and who is helping your to have a successful event.  The outputs are what physical/ nominal things you achieved from your event.  The outcomes are what you do with your outputs.  Which all brings you back to the impact.  Boom!

It kinda hurts my brain to think about things that way.  So i made it a worksheet to use for every event that looks like this....

You can see ive been filling it out as I've been working along.  But it also helps me make sure i have everything covered.

The next thing i learned from the assessing effectiveness workshop was data collection.  Very similar with what i did... so im just going to show you bang bang through pics...

First..

Then...

My worksheet...

Boom!!!!... Sheet 2 of my packet

Finally... budgets, budgets, budgets.....and the whole reason i started this particular blog entry.... inkind

Because these are my first couple of events im kinda working backwards.  Im supposed to know exactly how much its going to cost to throw an event and exactly the best methods for everything.  But... i only know basically what the deal is.  So i found this basic budget sheet on excel when i searched "event budget"....

But i figure its a good start.  You can see Ive been scribbling all over it and tweaking it to fit our needs.  The thing i forgot to add, which is a big deal is the inkind.  Grantees want to see how much things really cost and you want to know what it will cost you next time.  And also, what if someone is having a bad day and not feeling so nice as to help you out next time.  Thats the big thing i need to add into my  budget.... foe example how much would the space cost if they weren't donating it, whats the full cost of the bad and how much would it cost me to buy the raffle prizes...

With this packet all of my data is collected and i can use it to submit budgets for grants....

Spread the love ❤️ 

-tai

Awareness Events!!!!

Im so excited to say we are having 2 events awareness events right off the bat.  We have scheduled an event November 26th @ The Village in Providence, RI and on December 16th @ Indigo in Coventry.

It has taken 8 months for our 501(c)3 (nonprofit status) to go through.  Now we can rock and roll.  Literally

Awareness Event?

 So, in the nonprofit world, fundraisers are somewhat looked down on.  They are considered a lot of work and effort for not a lot of money raised.  However, if you call the same event an awareness event and say you are doing it to find supporters and spread the word on your cause, then you look like a super star.  But its true.... For all of the work done and use of resources the return is not huge.  Im a little strange though because i love putting on an event and getting a bunch of people together to have fun and supporting a good cause :)

I feel like im doing double work in 1/2 the time because im getting 2 events taken care of at once... really i wish i was working on a third at the same time.  I would really like to find a 300ish venue somewhere in the Warwick/ West Warwick area that I could have both bands play plus a little bit... still working on it....

Keeping it local for my homies

Everything i have read and all the advice i have been given is to start close and work out when looking for supporters.  Start with your board and have them all find 20 or so people and their people find people, ect ect ect... working your way from inside out.  

The other thing we keep in mind is our demographic.  RI and local lesbians.  Now RI is so small there are only 4 degrees of separation and everyone knows everyone.  Its all in who you know.

Anywho... ive always wanted our first awareness event to be at the Village.  We went there a couple of years ago after pride and it was so much fun.  I was so nervous to call but the owner Stacy was so nice.  The Village is usually closed on Mondays and Tuesdays but she said she would open just for us.  And speaking of everyone knowing everyone... best friend Anita plays softball for the owner of Indigo.  I called her right up and she was cool.  Just because i work backwards, we actually booked our 2nd event before our first.  

The idea is to also support local and spread the love.  We are using local business for venues and have local performers.  Go RI!!!

Rock & Trivia

You've probably figured out at this point that my family is really into music.  So what better event to throw than a concert.  I know a few people in local bands that i knew would throw me a bone and do a gig for free.  So i sent out a few messages and thought about how the two spaces are little different and found two different bands for the two different events.  Plus... i didnt want to burn out my favors.

Anywho.... my friend Sarah's band, Invincible We, is going to play @ the Village

And... my dad's band, Pearl, is going to play at Indigo

  

Emcee.... Host... Not Me!?!?!?

  So... i have no desire to be an emcee of an event.  Ill get up there and say my thank yous... but I truly believe this is not about me.  I have a couple of friends that do drag and emcee a lot of events but i just didnt feel like a drag queen for a lesbian event was a good fit.  I really thought hard about this and solicited a lot of ideas and thoughts.  Then for whatever reason (probably because i was watching Ellen), i had an aha moment.  We needed a local lesbian comedian.  Boom!  

So, life lesson here... i kept googling on my ipad and not really finding anything.  I mean for at least a solid week i would google random search terms and nothing.  Then for whatever reason, i picked up my phone and googled.  All of these comedians names started raining form the heavens.  Poppy Champlin kept popping up.  Shes kinda a big to do.  But i thought why not try.  So, i emailed her and she got right back to me.  She is so nice.  I am so super excited that we found her.  She is such a huge score and such a relief to have.

Posters, Fb Events, Eventbrite

I started putting together my poster but didn't want to start advertising it until i meet with the owner of the Village, Stacy, thursday to finalize the details.

I think it came out pretty good if you ask me.

Posters are a little old school but I'm a little old and i like being artsy.  The posters will give me a chance to do a little old school promoting and hang some posters in local bars, colleges and im sure I'll think of somewhere else and run out.

The best way to advertise anything around here is through fb events.  I think mainly because RI is such a small world.  I figure ill tag 10 of my favorite friends from different social groups and should reach quite a few people.  Plus i can put the event up on a few social groups pages, like our softball league, and reach even more people.  

Eventbrite is a super good ticket selling tool.  Its kinda like ticketmaster for the poor man.  The nice thing about this is that i can easily get data about how many tickets are sold and demographics.  Eventbrite will do a lot of the work i need for soliciting grants later on.

Raffles

THe next thing i am working on is raffle items... i think i can get quite a bit donated and that will all be gravy... more on that later

Have a good day and spread the love ❤️ 

-tai

 

Sent from my iPad

youtube video

In today's high tech world, it only makes sense to create a YouTube video to spread the word about babies for us.

I found some inspiration on how to start when doing my homework for my very awesome teaching adults using Technology class at URI.

This video is an interview with Kurosawa, a famous director, talking about making movies.  He says, to be a great movie maker one has to first write a script.  Everything starts with words.  First you start with a few words.  He says to just get down whatever is in your head and then a few more words.  Then the best thing is to go back and edit over and over again until you have something presentable.  

Script

My script started  with 5 essential questions to ask yourself from Dean James Ryan at Harvard.

1. Wait, what?!?!

2. I wonder why/if?

3. Couldn't we at least?

4. How can I help?

5.  What really matters?

Of course all of these questions didn't quite fit into my video.  So, this is what my script ended up looking like....

So as you can see, nothing crazy.  Just a basic outline of what I wanted to say

I also remembered seeing this video:

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10858110248607

I really like the format of it.  How it's on a simple white background.  Nothing fancy.  It's all about the words and message.  But each though is broken up by an edit.  

Location, Location, Location

Next was the location.  My moms living room was an easy choice.  She has a large white wall and I could employ her to help me shoot it.  Bonus is that my mom's house is very quiet.  I didn't have to worry about background noise.

Shooting

So, a couple life lessons here.  

1.  No matter how short your script, life is so much easier with cue cards.  When I first started, I would start talking then my mind would just go blank.  No thoughts what so ever.  Cue cards don't have to be anything extraordinary.  This is what mine looked like and I just taped it to a lamp:

It's just some bullet points about what I want to say to keep me on track.

2.  Just keep going.  The few couple of takes are going to be awkward and you might babble a couple of times.  But that's normal.  Just keep going.  Even if you stop talking, take a breath and keep rolling, don't stop filming and definitely don't stop and watch yourself.  The more times you do it, the more natural it will feel.

3.  Take full cuts and short cuts.  We did the full runs until we felt like we had quality material. Then because of the style of video, we took short cuts of each point.

Here is our favorite of the full cuts:

Uncut babies video

Sound

I really mostly just used my own voice talking and clipped together clear ideas.

However, I wanted sounds of baby laughing at the end of the video.  So tickled my kid and recorded him laughing on the "recorder" app on my iPhone.  Which I was able to edit using iMovie.  Super easy.

Pictures

I knew I would be able to insert still pictures at the end of the video and wanted a way to ask people to like us on fb and check out our website.  So using PowerPoint I created the screen I wanted, screen shot it and inserted it into the video.  Directions for that to follow.

Editing

I learned that you can download iMovie to your iPad for free and watched a few YouTube videos to learn how to use it.  This is my favorite:

https://youtu.be/QdbK7KTgqP0

This video seemed to be the most up to date but also moved at a good pace.  There were some that I found that were a little old and the app wasn't quite the same and still others that dragged on about simple things.   

So, simply I uploaded the video I liked the most.  Cut out the pieces I didn't like, then inserted better cuts.  I then, added my picture to the end, with the baby laughter and added some theme music.

I hope you enjoy.

Babies for us video

Non-profit status

Good news, we have received our 501(c)3 determination. We are legally a non-profit!!!

Sent from my iPad

Leadership Development

In my search for Donors I was directed to the Rhode Island Foundation.  It is the only state foundation in Rhode Island and offers a multitude of services for non-profits and entrepreneurs in RI.

One of those services is Leadership Development.

I have signed up with a couple people from my board for the governance and fundraising workshop on 9/28....
What questions do you think I should answer during this workshop?

Letter to Ellen

we are wring a letter to Ellen.  Please tell me what you think....

Dear Ellen,

Thank you so much for taking the time to look inside my head to see my dream.  It is so appreciated.  My dream is to have a wall of baby pictures that my charity helped make.  To make the goal a reality, the last two years I have been developing a non profit called Babies for Us.  The goal is to help lesbian couples have their own biological children.
The most desired method of having a Baby is called co- mothering or reciprocal IVF.  This is when an egg is taken out of one mother, inseminated and then implanted into the other mother.  Unfortunately most insurances do not pay for alternative conception methods because there is nothing “physically wrong” with either mother.  Reciprocal IVF can cost upwards of $20,000 which is a lot for most people.  Sperm you say?  Sperm can cost a minimum of $500 a vial if you don't want to know anything about the donor and starts at $700 with some information disclosed.  Each round of IVF requires a minimum of 2 vials.
Two years ago I was in the MBA program at URI and took a class that overlapped the adult education program.  I became pregnant and took a year off of school to have my baby.  Having a baby was the best thing to ever happen to me.  There is no greater love than the love you have for your child and the unconditional love your child has for you.  This love is a love that everyone should be able to feel.  When I returned to school I switched my major to adult education.  My first 2 official classes in the focus were program development and program evaluation.  Two perfect platforms to develop my nonprofit.
I realized that I could not do this alone. To accomplish great things one must have a great team.  Throughout my life I have encounter many of people who have encouraged me to do the wrong thing or steered me in the wrong direction but Fatima is just the opposite.  She has always been my Jiminy Cricket.  Fatima keeps me focused on the task at hand and she keeps my feet on the ground when my head starts floating towards the clouds.  Sam is the steamroller of the group.  She's the girl to get the job done.  There are no barriers to any task when comes to Sam and she's a magnet for good hard workers.  Patty is the positive force and the cool wind during the storm.  All is well in the world with Patty. Jay is the worrier and idea man.  He thinks of every little thing that could possibly go wrong at any given time and over thinks it.  His brain is an open dam of ideas both good and bad.  This is important.  It's important to plan for the worst and hope for the best.  This is my dream team.
There are so many really great couples out there that would make amazing parents but because of the unfair expenses that lesbian couples have to overcome it may not be possible.  I want to change this.  What else makes the world a better place than the smile of a baby.  Love should not be stopped by money.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read about my dream.  I hope it brought a smile to your face and a warmth in your heart.

Thanks,
Tai Cordeiro

Website

One of the first things I found important to do was create a website.  Something that one doesn't think of when creating a website is that it constantly has to be updated.  I hired a web designer to do this.  Probably every couple of days or so I have her add to it or change something.

Please take a look and tell me what you think

Babies for Us

About Me

      Probably you should know a little bit about me.  I am a college graduate from RIC where I received my BA in both Psychology and Theatre.  After trying out a few other masters programs in psychology, theatre, special Ed and business administration (don't ask me how many classes I took in each program.  Way too many), I am now in the Adult Education Program at URI, which I love.   

        I am a mother of a 2 year old, Bean (Jason Oren Cordeiro Jr.) and a wife to a fireman, Jay Cordeiro.  They both keep me on my toes and challenge me every day.  Because of the two of them I have learned to love in ways I have never thought possible.

           Recently I quit my job from Macy's as a senior executive to spend time with our child and focus on the non-profit I am starting, Babies for Us.

Love this pic from when we went to Florida in April.