Our Neighbors Won't Be Able To Make It Without You! Your Donations Can Save Local Families From Hunger, Eviction, Drugs, Gangs & Violence Dear Family, It's Friday. There are important things that I want to share with you today. I wish they were all good news, but they are not. I need your help. I am stressed, but hopeful. I have faith in God and in this Village of ours. Yesterday was a long day. Bashir, Sharmarke, Mukumbira and I spent all day at the Ohio State House and testified in front of the House Finance Committee requesting $350,000 in two consecutive years to continue our youth programs including the Hilltop Tigers. In the meantime, my team at the office prepared two hundred Ramadan campaign envelopes for many of you, our donors. Last week our board members and I visited our larger donors and updated them with our progress and needs. Today, I am reaching out to you through this newsletter to make sure that you are aware of our situation. In past years, seventy five percent of our expenses have been covered by various grants. That is looking unlikely to be the case for 2025. Two weeks ago, we received a notice from the Department of Justice to return the grant money that we received in December. It was mostly a reimbursement and we had already spent it, so we are okay for now - but it sets off a serious alarm for us that we cannot rely on any grant at this point. With the new White House administration, along with many other things, the future of many nonprofits like ours is also up in the air. We have no other option other than to lean on you. Our new grant cycle will begin in June. Due to the reduction of other grants and public donations, we currently have no money to run our programs now through June and are facing a gap of about $450,000 ($150K/month). If we don’t get the community's support now, we will be leaning toward pausing all of our programs for 4 months and restarting when we have money. The problem with that idea is that we will lose all of our team members and it will be disaster to build new teams for so many different departments. We don’t even want to think what will happen to the kids and the other 10,000 clients (duplicated) from 1000 families whom we serve monthly. To be honest, many of them will not be able to make through this inflation. We will lose many kids back to gangs and guns, God forbid. This is an important matter that needs the urgent attention of community members. MY Project USA is a community organization entrusted to us by charity and tax-payers dollars. We don't take its management lightly. We have looked at the situation and we believe we can do it together. We need support in the following or similar order: - Five donations of $20,000 X 5 = $100,000
- Ten donations of $10,000 X 10 = $100,000
- Twenty donations of $5000 X 20 = $100,000
- Forty donation of $2500 X 40 = $100,000
- Fifty donations of $1000 X 50 = $50,000
You can donate this amount in installments by setting recurring donations. That will also help a lot. I don't know what level you are at, but I know for sure that whatever you will pitch in will be helping us to sustain an organization that is a lifeline to 10,000 people a month. The annual impact of your dollar will be about $7 million. I hope you will take this opportunity of making a tangible impact on children and families in your own backyard. I wish you a blessed Friday. May each and every good deed of your be accepted on this day. In solidarity with youth and families, Zerqa Abid, Founder, President & Executive Director MY Project USA | 
