Dear Real Change community,
On behalf of everyone at Real Change, I’m wishing you a happy and healthy 2021!
Thank you for your support that has kept us strong - and helped us beat the Winter Fund Drive goal! I am humbled by the outpouring of support for Real Change.
This past year has been full of uncertainty and unexpected challenges. Over the past 26 years at Real Change, we have never weathered a storm quite like this one. And yet, our community of supporters kept us strong and anchored in the work that matters.
In March, as the scope of the pandemic was just coming to light, we rallied together and shifted focus to meet changing community needs. We implemented new safety precautions to keep each other safe, launched a Food and Hygiene Center, began weekly check-in calls to support isolated vendors and so much more.
Our volunteers truly turned out, finding new and creative ways to show up for our community from a safe distance.
You prepared hundreds of homemade meals, organized drives within your communities, stocked our Food and Hygiene Center many times over and sewed thousands of face masks.
The holidays can be a hard time for many in our community. People experiencing homelessness often share feelings of isolation. When we had to cancel our in-person holiday party this year, many were disappointed. Each year, it’s an event that so many look forward to — a chance to gather together, dance, eat, play games and connect. But this year, that in-person celebration wasn’t possible. So, our volunteers showed up yet again: You brought gift bags, messages of love and prizes for a vendor raffle to bring the celebration back to the Vendor Center in small but meaningful ways.
Thank you.
As newspaper sales decreased with more people staying home, readers and customers signed into Venmo, sometimes for the first time, to stay connected to their regular vendors and keep up to date with our journalism.
And your donations kept us strong and resilient.
We set an ambitious but critical goal to raise $200,000 to power the programs here at Real Change and help us work to fulfill our mission. And we are humbled by the support and generosity you have continued to show to keep our doors open and community served.
Together we raised $203,972.52, beating our goal! Thank you.
If you haven’t had a chance to make your gift yet, there is still time before we close out the drive.
Grassroots, individual donors like you make Real Change possible and lay a strong foundation for the work to come. Visit tinyurl.com/RCWinterDrive to contribute.
Your care and generosity have put Real Change in a strong position to keep vendors connected to services, publish award-winning journalism and drive advocacy for meaningful change. Thank you.
From the amazing volunteers putting together care packages and food drives for the community to the readers who continue connecting with vendors and supporting the paper, you have helped keep Real Change resilient.
The work continues, and we’re committed to showing up for our community.
This next year presents new challenges, and new opportunities. Your support of the Winter Fund Drive, and numerous contributions to our community, have put us in a strong position to dig into this work.
Real Change is rooted in the fundamentals. We’ll continue to focus on vendor success, building programs that respond to the real needs of community members, like low-barrier work opportunity, case management and technology access. We’ll work to build circulation of the newspaper back up as Seattle slowly returns to a new normal, highlighting the coverage of local issues you care about. And the Advocacy team will work to build a future we all believe in — where housing is a human right, and the city we love is truly accessible and welcoming to all neighbors.
Thank you for being a part of this movement.
Stay safe out there, and be well. We can’t wait until it’s safe to gather and celebrate together in person again.
Warmly,
Camilla Walter, Development Director
Read more of the Jan. 13-19, 2021 issue.