Subud Portland members have been working hard all year long to generate funds to be used to create the seed money for its 2020 annual matching fund for Susila Dharma USA. This is our tenth consecutive year of “matchmaking” for SD USA, bringing SD’s diverse and inspiring projects to the attention of our remarkably generous Subud USA membership to attract their greatly appreciated support each year. It is something of a match made in Heaven!
Starting in 2011 with a matching seed money total of $1,027, we have been able to grow our annual pool of seed money up to $5,000 for each of the last six years, resulting in a doubling of that amount of money for Susila Dharma. $5,000 becomes $10,000. We have been able to put up these annual matches by mounting many different kinds of local fundraisers over these ten years – potluck dinners, musical events, plays, interesting educational and artistic classes, a tea party, direct appeals to members, and several fun clothing exchanges and silent auctions, both at the Center and at Menuca. We also have a member who puts out coffee, tea, and snacks every week after Sunday latihan and each of our fundraising events, as well as several members who give extra personal donations to Susila Dharma throughout the year. In short, we are a busy Subud group!
In addition to our own fundraising, we have been lucky enough to have had the partnership of two other Subud Centers, Sacramento and New York, and Subud Enterprise Services for six of our ten matching funds. That has been extremely helpful, and we are always looking for partnerships to build up our pool of matching seed money to create a large match each year. Our most recent fundraiser, a book sale, had to be cancelled due to the covid virus pandemic. But we are holding on to those books until we can safely get back on the fundraising trail for Susila Dharma….
Speaking of the covid virus, our Susila Dharma projects have been hit very hard by the pandemic, with most of them having to redirect their efforts to local life-saving emergency relief efforts. Projects like Anisha and I Protect Me have joined with other local agencies to provide food and on-the-spot care for impoverished families caught in the crisis. It is a tribute to our projects that they have been able to respond so quickly and flexibly. This reality, combined with hard-pressed Centers not being able to partner with Portland this year, we are putting up one of the smallest matches in our ten year history of “matchmaking”. We hope that everyone will be able to respond extra generously this year. The need is extra great, and your donation can make all the difference in funding Subud’s own humanitarian effort, Susila Dharma.
Deepest thanks to everyone from Subud Portland.