Noche de Amor: Why No Paddle-Raise?

Dear Friends,

The Healthcare Foundation has joined with colleagues in Sonoma County and around the country to reimagine fundraising with a “community-centric” approach that is more aligned with our values of community, equity and compassion. We are writing today to announce an exciting change we are implementing at Noche de Amor this year inspired by community-centric principles. 

The focus of Noche de Amor has always been community. On June 8, over half of the 300+ attendees will be our grantees and community partners. We believe that our health justice work benefits everyone, including individual donors, institutional partners, grantee organizations, scholarship recipients, volunteers and the community at large, and that everyone benefits from celebrating our accomplishments together.

If you have attended Noche de Amor either of the last two years, you may remember that we did not hold a live or silent auction. Instead, we aim to raise two-thirds of our fundraising goal in advance of the event through sponsorships and tickets so that the focus of the evening is truly a celebration. 

On the evening itself, in order to raise the final third of our goal, we feature short testimonials to share our collective vision and achievements. In the past, we followed this with a “fund-a-need” using an auction-style “paddle raise” that would start with $25,000 and end with $100 requests. We are so grateful to our supporters for participating in those efforts, which last year yielded $116,000. 

This year, however, we have chosen to take our commitment to community-centric fundraising a step further: there will be no paddle-raise. Instead, after our short, inspiring testimonials, we will invite all of our guests to pause for a “personal moment of giving.” We will ask folks to consider how they can participate in supporting our health justice work by making an anonymous gift of ANY amount — whether it be a $10 monthly gift, or a $25,000+ gift, depending on their means. 

We hope you are as excited by this new approach as we are, and will join us in this effort to recognize that ALL gifts, at every level, truly make a difference. We still have high goals and aspirations, but we envision a world in which everyone can participate in achieving them.

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing many of you on June 8!

With deep gratitude,

Amy Ramirez

Kim Bender

P.S. For more information on this national movement to reimagine fundraising, please see Community-Centric Fundraising.