Welcome to The Ready Room Project
After talking about starting a non-profit for years, we finally took the steps to make it happen. Here’s how it went, how it’s going, and what comes next.
What is The Ready Room Project?
The Ready Room Project is a charitable organization founded by military spouses, veterans, and service members to provide out-of-reach resources and opportunities to active duty military kids and spouses.
Our mission is intentionally broad.
We wanted to start big, get our feet wet, and let our philanthropic projects guide us as we develop a more specific path to execute the mission. More on that later.
How we started
First of all, “we” is our tiny team:
Courtney and Jeff Fellows and Catherine and Nick Saunders. We’re best friends, having been stationed in Fallon, Nevada and Lemoore, California together for many years.
Catherine and Jeff are taking the lead on operations; Courtney and Nick are serving as members of the Board of Directors.
This has been eight years in the making.
We came up with the name “The Ready Room Project” in 2014, but back then we were neck-deep in deployments, new babies, moving across the country, etc. We didn’t find the margin to make this happen until this spring, eight years later.
Read more about the team here.
How it’s going
Recently, we made a list of everything we did over the last couple of months to get The Ready Room Project off the ground (you can read it here).
It’s wild, and it’s been a lot of work.
From banking to branding, website design, our federal tax exemption application, and so on, the logistics of starting a non-profit are no joke.
Still, doing this with friends has been a blast.
When we sent the website to Catherine’s sisters last week asking for a “test donation” of $5 to make sure everything worked, we waited on pins and needles for their response.
Was everything connected on the back end?
Would people like the website?
Were we nuts to think we could do this?
Honestly, the answers to all of those questions were (and are) “yes.”
Launching The Ready Room Project
It worked.
The website, the back-end accounting, the user interface. It all worked. Rejoice!
The effort, editing, and time it took to produce a site that we are proud to show has been monumental, and this is just the beginning. Seeing it all come together was a very happy moment for us. We were so happy to share it with you.
Our Founding Donors
We’ve been slowly sending out emails and texts sharing Project Zero, our inaugural fundraising campaign, with friends and family. The amount of support from our inner circle has been beyond our expectations.
During this first week of “softly” launching we’ve heard encouragement such as:
“This is so great, congratulations on taking the initiative to make a difference.”
“I love it - I’m in, how can I help?”
“We need this, I have some ideas that may help you guys!”
“I want to support this mission because of my upbringing (Army). I love it!”
“Can’t wait to see more photos and watch your outreach grow.”
We’ve had friends and family offer to volunteer on the ground, lend us their photography skills, and offer to host fundraisers on our behalf.
We’ve had small donations and larger donations and we text or call each other when every single one of them hits our inbox.
We can’t possibly tell you how much your words and support mean to us. It’s that kind of affirmation we’ve needed when doubt creeps in and we feel small and unequipped to make this happen.
As we write this, we’re nearly 20% of the way toward our goal of $25,000.
That feels incredible, given that we’ve only scratched the surface on our lists of friend and family.
The encouragement, enthusiasm, and financial support of our Founding Donors remind us that we won’t have to do this alone.
Specificity matters
The amount of lessons we’ve learned over the last few weeks could fill a series of posts, but one of the biggies is that the specifics matter.
Our donors love seeing the dollar-by-dollar breakdown of our projected expenses. We weren’t sure that would be helpful, but many folks have commented on how they appreciate the transparency.
As we shared above, although we’ve narrowed down who we benefit (active duty military kids and spouses), the “how” is intentionally vague to start.
We’re aware that more specificity when it comes to the particular “out-of-reach opportunities” we’ll provide will go a long way toward building our brand and cultivating trust with donors.
But that kind of specificity will come with time and execution.
We’ve learned that no amount of “thinking” about a non-profit can will it into existence or shape its efficacy.
You have to start somewhere, and we’re giving ourselves a little wiggle room to get to work, start meeting needs, work with local partners on bases and in military communities, and find clarity on the “how” of our mission over time.
What’s next for The Ready Room Project?
We’re focusing on longevity, fundraising, and execution.
It’s a marathon not a sprint
As exciting as the first 48 hours were, we realize it’s going to take some time to reach our goals.
The initial rush of seeing donations hit the website was thrilling, but we’re trying to maintain a long-term view.
This has been a dream of ours for nearly a decade, and we envision building something that will have impact for many years to come. That requires stamina and patience, two qualities that launching has definitely tested in us! We’re learning quickly, and looking forward to the future.
We take the responsibility of donations (large and small) very seriously. We’ll continue to be as transparent as possible, even when we don’t have every answer an our fingertips.
One of the surprises of launching is that you can spend countless hours thinking and writing and editing, but nothing beats the feedback of someone who is learning about your cause for the first time.
It’s invaluable (and character-building!).
Project Zero is underway
We’re calling our first fundraising campaign “Project Zero,” and all of its contributors (no matter the size of their donation) will forever be our Founding Donors.
The goal is to start building a strong financial foundation and execute our first projects targeting the kids whose parents are stationed in Lemoore, California.
That’s where our two families spent nearly 25 years, and we want to give something back to the kids going through long deployments, living far from extended family, and going without access to many resources as a result of living in such a remote location.
We can’t do it without you! Please consider becoming a Founding Donor - every dollar counts.
Get involved
We’re getting more comfortable saying it, but the simplest and most effective way to get involved today is to donate - any amount helps. Click here to give.
But that’s not the only way get involved. We’d love if you would:
Share The Ready Room Project with your like-minded friends and folks who want to see active duty families thrive.
Follow us on Instagram, if that’s where you like to hang out.
Send us an email and introduce yourself! Why not?
This is awesome, a little scary, and then awesome again.
When you put your work out in a public forum it is… interesting.
The lead up to the big moment was exciting, even thrilling. We edited, proofread, critiqued, and tweaked our message to make sure everything made sense and represented our message. Yet the moments before publishing were terrifying.
We felt exposed and vulnerable.
Our frailty and insecurity kicked in: What if this is a bad idea? What if people hate it? What if nobody cares?
Supportive and encouraging texts and calls mean a lot. They’re the shelter we need to weather our doubts and doubters.
And remembering our mission and our long-term vision helped quiet down the noise of launching.
It’s incredibly humbling to go through this process, but we are committed to seeing military kids and spouses thrive.
We’re so proud to introduce you to The Ready Room Project, and we hope you’ll join us.
Sharing is caring.
We’d love it if you’d spread the word and share this post to social media or with a friend. Thanks!
