A special invitation from FOSCP and President Terry:

Hi All,

Please pencil us in your calendar.

On June 25th at 4:30 pm The Friends of Sarasota County Parks will hold an “All-Chapters” meeting to discuss what we are doing and how to improve. An agenda will be sent out later. Currently about 40 Friends Chapters are active throughout Sarasota County.

The meeting will take place in the Keith Mansion at Phillippi Estate Park, and will include a tour of the old Keith Farmhouse whose restoration has been helped by funding from the Friends through the years.

A quick summary of recent Friends’ initiatives would include:

Over the past months we have signed a contract with Mindi who is the Coordinator of Special Projects. She is working on grants and scheduling for the construction of shade structures for the athletic bleachers in the County.

We have signed a contract with Carol who is the Fundraising Consultant and working on establishing a donor base, fund raising event, Giving Partner and other fundraising projects, including a new bike share program for the County park system.They are working with Richard who is our new volunteer consultant.

Richard has many years in fundraising and has raised millions of dollars for other non-profits. He and Carol are establishing a new Friends and Benefactors of Sarasota County Parks committee of FOSCP.

We have signed a contract with Jodi who is the Coordinator of FOSCP – doing administrative work with the 37 Chapters and working with the Foundations. Speaking of Foundations, the Patterson Foundation has invited us to their Lab 3 of the No Margin No Mission Earned Income workshop. Shelia (County Parks staff), Carol and I have been attending their Labs and learning a lot on how to raise funds for a non-profit organization.

Hiring the three part-time independent contractors was the result of a program funded by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation which gave us the expertise of John Ramsey. John helped us adjust our mission and set goals for the future – affecting future generations.

We helped raise funds for the feasibility study for the Legacy Trail (connecting to downtown Sarasota), we are selling pavers for the new Siesta Beach Park, we are helping the Park program by participating in the Parks Master Plan and the Comp Plan, we are sponsoring the prizes for the Siesta Sand Sculpture contest, helping with 2 Farmer Markets, 6 community gardens, the Master Gardener program, improvements at Alligator Creek and other parks, and helping numerous park Chapters. We (FOSCP and the Chapters) have been spending around $340,000 annually and this year our goal is $500,000 (which we are on schedule to meet). We have spent over $2 million dollars in the last 7 years and are averaging 75+ bank transactions a month in checks and deposits.

We have to redo our brochures and step up our branding to compete with the other 1,500 non-profits in this county. We are establishing the Benefactors committee and designing a sign to be approved to be placed on all park facilities. Your opinion is very important to  us. Please send me a list of projects you are working on and ideas for the agenda for the 25th, and call or send us an R.S.V.P. 

Hope everything is OK…Thanks for all you are doing for our parks….

Terry 468-2222