FUN-Raising Committee Report from AGM
Hello. I’m Chandra, and I have the pleasure of chairing Kindred’s FUN-Raising Committee—and yes, the FUN is intentional. Our little-but-mighty team is Keryn, Allison, Catherine, and myself, and I get to share what the past year has looked like and where we’re headed next.
The Headline
Let me start with the number we’re most proud of. In 2025, we raised $371,653. That’s up from $209,531 the year before—77% growth in a single year. That growth came from this community: from donors, sponsors, members, volunteers, and every one of you who shared our story with someone new.
What We Did This Past Year
So how did we get there? A few highlights.
We finished the barn. Last summer, the All Boots on the Ground campaign crossed the finish line. The new barn is built, the animals are home, and we celebrated with all of you at our September open house. All Boots on the Ground brought in over $141,000 in 2025 alone—from the first boot graphic to the final match drive, this campaign showed what this community can do when there’s a clear goal in front of us.
We launched the 12 Days of Kindness. Our December campaign told one animal’s story each day for twelve days—videos, daily emails, and matching gifts—and raised over $41,500 for the animals. Engagement was strong and steady right through the campaign, and our videos found audiences well beyond our usual circle.
Our Valentine sponsorship campaign delivered. February brought a wave of animal sponsorship renewals and new sponsors, complete with personalized digital Valentines from the animals themselves. Animal sponsorships brought in over $21,000 in 2025, and sponsors will start seeing recognition signage going up at the animal areas this year. Our sponsors get first right of refusal to renew every year—and most do, which tells us this program is something special. But here’s the thing: the farm family keeps growing. This year we’ve welcomed 11 new birds, Wilbur the pig, and Hazel the lamb, so we currently have 15 animals looking for sponsors. And I’ll share a little secret with this room: we haven’t advertised Hazel’s sponsorship publicly, because we wanted our close farm family—the people right here—to have the first opportunity. So if you’d like to sponsor sweet Hazel, or any of our animals, come find me tonight.
We made the Coffee Club a star. Our monthly giving program has been around for a while, but this year we decided to give it the spotlight it deserves—a refreshed brand, a new website page, and a big relaunch in April. The idea is simple: the cost of a cup of coffee, given monthly, adds up to real, dependable support for the animals. Today the Coffee Club has 96 members contributing about 375 cups of coffee every month—that’s $1,875 a month, or over $22,000 a year in steady, predictable support the animals can count on no matter the season. We’re working toward a goal of 500 cups by National Coffee Day in September, so if you haven’t joined yet, we’d love to pour you in.
Grants
Grants were a big part of the year too—$63,200 in grant revenue in 2025. Highlights include a $20,000 grant that funded new fencing, $10,000 from Envision for Kindred for Kids, and support from the Rotary Club for fencing as well. This year we’ve already received a $10,000 Diamond Foundation grant and a United Way grant supporting volunteer stipends, with applications in or underway with Open Road, Telus, Seedlings, and more.
What’s Coming Next
For 2026, our fundraising goal is $288,000—built directly from the real costs of caring for the animals. We’re at about $42,000 so far, with our biggest campaigns still ahead of us.
And we learned something important from our 2025 numbers: about two-thirds of last year’s revenue came from first-time donors. That’s a wonderful problem to have—our story clearly brings people in—but our big focus this year is turning first-time supporters into lifelong friends of the farm. That means better welcomes, more thank-yous, more behind-the-scenes stories, and fewer asks in between.
Here’s what’s on the calendar:
- July 12—Summer Open House. Mark your calendars and bring a friend. It’s free, it’s fun, and the animals are expecting you.
- July and August—our animal sponsorship push, timed with the Open House, to find homes-away-from-home for those 15 animals still waiting for sponsors.
- September—Coffee Club month, with a National Coffee Day celebration.
- September through December—our year-end campaign. This year we’re going back to our grassroots: more old-school, personal touches like handwritten mail and phone calls. We’re brainstorming right now, and we think you’re going to love it.
One Thing We Need From You
As the kids come to the farm for camps this summer, and as we welcome new animals like Hazel, we want to capture those stories as they happen. So here’s our ask: when you witness a moment of kindness at the farm—a photo, a video, a little story—send it our way, any time of year. Email us at funraising@sali.ca. Those moments are the heart of everything we share, and they come from you.
My Team
Before I wrap up, I need to brag about my team for a moment, because none of this happens without them.
Allison is our engine. She’s always working hard on grants, animal sponsorships, and social posting—often all three in the same week—and she keeps a very full pipeline moving without ever dropping a thread.
Catherine is our writing genius. She helps craft our newsletters and social posts, and she brings fun, creative ideas to everything she touches. If something we sent you this year made you smile, there’s a good chance Catherine had a hand in it.
And Keryn. On top of caring for every animal at this farm and running the entire organization, she somehow finds time to send monthly news updates to our 1,500 subscribers, post daily on our social channels, review and finalize every grant application, and so much more. I honestly don’t know when she sleeps.
It is a joy to work with these three. Please join me in thanking them.
Thank You
To everyone in this room: you donated, sponsored, renewed, volunteered, shared posts, and showed up. Every dollar raised this year traces back to someone who cared. On behalf of the whole FUN-Raising team—Keryn, Allison, Catherine, and me—thank you for fuelling another remarkable year at Kindred Farm.
We can’t wait to show you what’s next.