Hundreds of emails, calls, texts, and letters flooded friends and family of the Alephs and BBG’s of D.C. Council on this years Giving Tuesday. D.C. had set a remarkable goal of $40,000 to raise on #givingBBYOday. How did they meet their goal you may ask. Teen leaders from D.C. Council give us their tactics when fundraising for this day.

Council Mazkirah, Rebecca Navarro (Beshert BBG #2455), was one of the four council board members to spearhead this campaign in D.C. Council. She worked tirelessly for weeks to prepare for the big day where D.C. would hopefully raise $40,000 in order to receive a match from an anonymous donor to double their funds.

“We decided that the best way to utilize the size of D.C. council was to have chapter pages and create a competitive nature for this campaign,” Navarro said.  “We had chapter presidents create a page for their chapter and compete with one another to win different incentives.”

Chapter President, Jordyn Green (Ahavah BBG #2289) felt that this type of fundraising was especially effective due to the competitive and spirited nature of D.C. Council. She noted that working together as a council to accomplish a goal was also very rewarding.

“We all joked about how the end goal was a $40,000 haircut, because Josh [Associate Regional Director] was going to shave his beard,” Green said. “But, in the end, I thought it was more than that, it was coming together as a chapter to fundraise for an organization that we care so deeply about and it was about meeting a goal as a council.”

The end of the day was nearing and Navarro was starting to feel hopeless. D.C. Council was exceptionally close to reaching their goal, only $3,000 off. Navarro had been checking her phone all day and she was feeling let down when it struck 11:45 PM and D.C. had not met their goal.

The next morning, Navarro reached out to staff to find out if donations were still being accepted. She was ecstatic to find out that they were. “It was the best feeling knowing that we still had a chance to accomplish this feat,” Navarro said. “When we finally reached $40,000, I jumped up in my physics class and announced it to the entire room, everyone was so excited for me, especially because they knew how hard I worked on this campaign.”

Reaching our goal of $40,000 n was a big moment for our region, and we are extremely thankful and grateful for our DC family and everyone who supported us in this feat.