Salt and Light Fundraiser - Praise to Raise

In 2019 when I launched my company I knew immediately that I’d love to work with Salt and Light here in Champaign-Urbana. Salt and Light is a local non-profit that seeks to fight poverty by providing opportunities that empower people for lasting change.

I contacted Salt and Light and we started planning a fundraiser for Fall of 2020 however with the pandemic we ended up not having the event. We had started to brainstorm some ideas and had a couple meetings before things were cancelled.

Flash forward to January 2022 and we are ready to begin planning the fundraiser for Fall 2022. Yay! The fundraiser was called “Praise to Raise” and it took place at the Virginia Theater in downtown Champaign. It was first a fundraiser for Salt and Light and second a praise and worship night for the entire community. The band was made up of different musicians from different local churches. We loved the idea of an event that brings together people from all different churches to cultivate unity. We hosted the event at the Virginia Theater for several reasons:

• We didn’t want the fundraiser to be affiliated with any one church in order to create a stronger sense of unity

• We wanted those that don’t like going in to churches to feel welcome and unthreatened by the venue

Nathan, founder and Executive Director of Salt and Light, and I met to discuss the event along with Daniel Dabney. Daniel is the praise and worship leader at CU Church. We discussed first steps in planning, of which included putting together a committee.

Once the committee was formed we started meeting every 2 weeks to discuss the event and everything that needed to get done. We found a time that worked for everyone and hit the ground running. We quickly realized that meeting every other week was too much so we switched to monthly meetings.

I took the lead in planning and for the meetings. I would create an agenda to keep us on topic at the meetings in order to make the best use of everyone’s time. This also served as a great recap to send out after the meetings to summarize next steps and what we discussed. At the early meetings I covered committee expectations and divided up roles so that each area was covered with help. Sponsorships, marketing, volunteer management, the band…these were a few of the areas we needed to concentrate on.

I took over communication with the Virginia Theater and the videographer and of course handled communication with the committee.

We decided on the event date and time, what would be included at the event, how many volunteers needed, fundraising goal, and marketing strategies. We wanted the event to be 2 hours so that people didn’t get bored and we didn’t want the night to feel like it kept dragging on and on. We decided to keep this first year very simple with electronic programs, t shirts only (and no pre-orders), we didn’t want there to be an auction of any sort because we felt it didn’t align with the praise and worship night.

Daniel led the band and organizing all of those details. It was A LOT of work! I was very thankful to have Daniel because I do not know anything about putting together a band or musical details.

Salt and Light has their own marketing team so they worked with the designer to create an event logo and all the marketing posters, t shirts, etc.

We knew we wanted the event captured on video and photos. I work with Kayla Myers Videography (formerly her business was called Second Cup Studios) and she’s amazing so we hired her to shoot the event on video. Salt and Light also hired her to create several videos beforehand that would be shown at the fundraiser. One video was of several different local pastors answering the same question in regards to how Salt and Light’s mission represents the Gospel message. Two other videos were testimonials from partners that have participated in Salt and Light’s program.

Kayla did an amazing job with all the video needs!

Hosting the event at the Virginia Theater was really fun- I had never attended or planned an event there. It’s so beautiful and grand.

The week before the fundraiser we had a video chat with the Virginia Theater crew, Daniel, and our sound person Rick to discuss band and sound needs. This meeting was VERY beneficial so the Virginia Theater could be prepared on their end. We also found out the projector at the Virginia Theater doesn’t really work so we had to out source the projector. This would have been bad because we needed the screen and projector for song lyrics, sponsor logos, and the videos to be played that night.

Additionally, the week before the event the band had a rehearsal since none of them actually play together on a regular basis. This was a great idea as kinks needed to be worked out beforehand.

On the event day, Nathan, my assistant Addy, and myself loaded in all the supplies we brought (t shirts, food for the band and volunteers, donation boxes, postcards for attendees) and organized the shirts so they could easily be sold by size. The band members arrived later that afternoon to load in all the equipment and start a sound check. Again, I am so thankful Daniel led all these details as I don’t even know what goes into a sound check! We also had a choir involved.

Once everything was set up and ready to go we all pow-wowed downstairs to eat dinner and pray for the evening ahead. Most importantly we wanted God to be glorified through this event. It was a very cool moment with everyone.

The event could not have gone better. The band led everyone in true worship, Nathan spoke about Salt and Light’s mission so eloquently, the videos and tech didn’t glitch, and our live testimonial was amazing. Even though the theater wasn’t full like we had hoped, we know that our God was lifted high in praise that night. It was SUCH a special event!

I have never been backstage for a band before and the sound is completely different than what the audience hears. It was super interesting to experience on that end.

I was so thankful for all the volunteers that helped make this fundraiser possible. We had volunteers helping plan the event, selling t shirts, directing guests, running things back stage, the band, and the choir.

I am so excited for next year’s event! I love how they kept it simple so as to keep the focus on fundraising and worship.