“Help members stay up to date on events in Lesotho” was the most common area where you asked us to improve, followed closely by funding tuition assistance and promoting friendship and awareness of Lesotho. We received several specific comments on improvement, most of them related to funds. One person asked us to “Explain how funds are used. Create funding packages so we know how funds might be used at different amounts. e.g. $50 would provide a year's tuition; $100 would feed so many orphans etc.” Another member “would be interested in knowing more about specific funding needs - I sent money to the AIDS orphanage mentioned on the website; would like to know more about projects like that.” Another person wanted us to use “e-mail more to get people involved and provide them opportunities to stay connected.”
People seem to like the way we spread out donations and don’t want us to focus on just one thing. One member asked us to fund more HIV/AIDS projects. Another member wants us to keep the focus of donations on tuition assistance and grassroots funding.
Members felt that Memorial Gifts would be the most effective way to raise funds, followed by alternative gift giving and packages for schoolteachers. People had a number of other great ideas for us such as:
- Highlight a particular financial need or goal in the newsletter or through a direct mailing, with photos to encourage giving and give people a sense of exactly where their donated money would go.
- Sell a limited variety of Lesotho-related items: calendars, t-shirts, caps, ties, and perhaps some gift-item crafts
- Matching corporate gifts
- Create funding packages so we know how funds might be used at different amounts. E.g. $50 would provide a year's tuition; $100 would feed so many orphans etc.
- An annual event, a papa and moroho dinner, and charge a hefty per-plate fee. (It would have to be in an area where there are lots of FOL members concentrated, perhaps DC.)
- Encourage members to leave money to FOL in wills
