Happy Halloween! 🎃🦇 We have a spooky, true ghost story for you. So grab your blankets, huddle around the campfire with your flashlights, and let us tell you the scariest grant story you’ve ever heard.
It’s written into our bylaws: board members visit the organizations we’re considering. Those visits are a key part of how we make sure we truly understand every organization we give grants to and that we’re best serving them and their community’s needs. We walk the rooms, meet the people doing the work, and ask what the work will really take. By the time we decide, we know these organizations on a personal level.
This year, one of those visits led to a story that was memorable in a way we never could have expected.
At first, they seemed like most of the high-quality organizations that apply to us. A beautiful website. A moving story. A clear plan. A real problem, a real need. So we went to meet them.
When we arrived, there was nothing there… No office. No sign on the door. Even getting in contact with them became impossible.
As far as we can tell, it was as if a ghost had applied for a grant. 👻
We laugh about it now (mostly). But we wanted to share it, and not just because it’s such a spooky story. It says something important about the work we do. Helpers’ grant program isn’t something we can run out of an office. This year it took us all over the Bay Area and down to Los Angeles, traveling to different communities, meeting different people and seeing firsthand the impact these organizations have. Our shoes get muddy. Our feet get tired. But those trips always show us just how essential the need is.
The visits work the other way, too. This year, two of them showed us more than the applications did, and both grants went up as a result.
And they’re how we find the real thing: the small, new organization with an idea nobody has funded yet, one we can see is going to make a huge difference.
This year, that matters more. Costs keep rising, for us and for every organization we serve. The ones feeling it most are the youngest: groups with bold, practical ideas that can’t get off the ground without someone willing to be the first to say yes to them.
So while many funders are pulling back from first-time grants, we’re leaning in. This year, 26 organizations received a Helpers grant. For 21 of them, it was their first grant from Helpers.
Big things usually start small. A first grant is how they start.
This winter, we’re inviting you along for the ride. We’re raising $68,000 for Helpers’ 68th year by December 31st. Our journey has already started with $22,680 raised. You’ll watch every dollar add up along the way.
Over the next few weeks, you’ll meet some of the very real, very much alive places your support holds up.
Our next stop: Santa Cruz, and a field that swallowed boots.
Harry and Marilyn Harrison
Helpers Community
P.S. Know someone who’d want to come along? Share this post with them. We promise it’s not haunted. 👻