Meet-A-FLiP: Jessyca Dudley

As a continuation to our "young founder" series, I asked the Founder of The Building Fund, Jessyca Dudley, if she would talk to us about fundraising at her organization.  Not surprisingly, fundraising comprises the vast majority of her time. So, attention all FLiPs out there thinking of founding a non-profit:  You will spend the bulk of your time raising money, and not really enough time fulfilling your mission. It's a tough reality, but if you ever want to start a non-profit, you need to spend time learning the ins and outs of fundraising. We'll see you at our next event!

Future Leaders in Philanthropy (FLiP): Tell me about yourself. I know you grew up in Chicago…but where did you go to school? How did you wind up running a nonprofit in New York?

Jessyca Dudley (JD): I grew up in Chicago and went the Francis W. Parker School. It’s a pre-K through 12 school where I spent 14 years and have returned often in connection to The Building Fund.

In 2004, I spent two months as a volunteer teacher in Ghana, West Africa at the Tuskegee International School. On my first day at the school I was struck by the condition of the classrooms. The walls were bare, the floors were made of dirt, there were barely enough seats for the students, barely enough classrooms, no running water and the only books were the government-issued workbooks that all students in Ghana receive. There were no toys in the preschoolers’ rooms, no reading books or posters or any of the things that I had grown so used to seeing in every classroom that I have ever been in. My students were facing great adversity and, in spite of this, they are still some of the most interesting and brightest children I have ever met.

Upon returning home, I knew that there was more I could do than just volunteer at the school. After months of research and phone calls, I began work on founding what became, in 2004, The Building Fund. As a charitable foundation, The Building Fund works to create and sustain opportunities in education by ensuring that resources in the form of classes, schools, scholarships, volunteer opportunities and educational funding are available to as many children as the foundation is capable of reaching. 

Currently the Fund is working to complete construction of the Tuskegee International School and provide scholarships for its orphaned and needy students, fund additional teacher training and provide opportunities for volunteers to work with the students and teachers at the school. In a few weeks we will also be adopting a second school and working with them to build a library.

Although I founded the nonprofit in Chicago, I have a strong base of support here in New York and so we hold fundraisers and have a number of board members from the area.

FLiP: How much of your time do you spend working on Fundraising?

JD: The majority of the work that we do is fundraising as we are not currently supported by grants. I would estimate that as a board 70% of our work is fundraising and that personally 80 to 85% of my work is fundraising.

FLiP: Have you had fundraising success so far? What has worked well for you?

JD: We have had great success in fundraising in two areas. The first is individual giving where we have been able to cultivate personal relationships on behalf of the organization that have turned into annual giving and long-term fundraising opportunities. The second successful area has been our event based fundraisers. We have had great success with our events because we have been able to have very low overhead by having space, food, silent auction items, etc. donated to all of our events. We have also had events hosted by some of the partners that we made through individual giving that have allowed us to donate 100% of the proceeds from the event directly to the school that we work with.

FLiP: In the next 12 months, what are your plans for fundraising?

JD: It’s a five-part plan:

1. Raise funds for our new website through online solicitation letters;
2. Raise approximately $8,000 for the construction of a new library through partnership and individual giving;
3. Through our partnership with the 6 Friends organization, co-hosting a private fundraiser in Chicago that will help to build a computer lab;
4. Hosting our 2nd annual NYC fundraiser, and our 2nd annual Tuskegee Trot (a sponsored walk/run) in Chicago at the Parker School; and
5. Hosting a 10 day trip to Ghana to visit the two schools that we work with as well as bringing supplies to our schools.