Hello, everyone.
So sorry for the long delay in getting information to you. We appreciate your ongoing support and patience. Here’s what’s happening with us at Ninos Del Sol right now.
We’ve been transitioning from the outgoing president of our U.S. nonprofit (in Florida) to our incoming president (in Texas), which has meant jumping through legal and banking hoops. Meanwhile, we’ve been working as a team to get a complete sense of where we stand financially.
What we’ve discovered is rather chilling, to be honest.
As you can imagine, taking care of two dozen teenagers and kids doesn’t leave our Peruvian directors, Viviana and Avishai, much time to keep up with the books, despite their best efforts. But they’ve been working with a local bookkeeper and brought back some projections based on the current spending trends. And those expenses are more than 50% more than the $10,000 a month we previously thought.
Meanwhile, we’ve had only limited success in getting ongoing commitments from donors. We have received some generous one-time donations through the website and from other sources, but our ongoing donations have been stuck at about $2500 (including a generous commitment from our ougoing President) for several months now.
We have received our last contribution from the outgoing President (who has been single-handedly supporting the kids for several years, bless his soul). We have enough cash reserves to feed and house the kids for about one more month. Then we have only a fraction of the income we will need to continue our work. There is some income from the Bed & Breakfast operation, but I have not been able to collect those figures yet, so even I don’t know exactly where we stand.
Our incoming President, Darrin Davis, is in the midst of some fundraising projects and has high hopes, so we are not giving up the fight.
Meanwhile, every donation will help us keep the kids together as a family a little longer. Commitments to monthly donations give us hope and could enable us to continue our work. Your donations are tax-deductible and you are in complete control of them at all times, you can cancel scheduled future donations at any time through our website or through Paypal.
Thank you. I will do my best to keep you updated during this time of transition, and I’m committed to always giving you honest information in as timely a manner as possible. Thank you again for your continued patience and support as we get through this together, with the kids’ best interests in all our hearts.
Sincerely,
Lauren
