In the beginning...

In the past couple weeks, many people have asked how things are going. It seemed necessary to come up with some way to keep people informed about the progress Reach, Inc. is making. I plan to use this space to do that. Welcome! We hope you check back often.

Reach, Inc. officially began launch efforts in The District of Columbia on June 15, 2009, though we have been incorporated here for a couple months. Since coming to The District, we have worked hard towards our three main goals for the year: developing curricula, cultivating relationships, and raising funds. Below, I will outline some of the exciting steps taken during our first three weeks of full-time work.

1) We have constructed and launched an informational website.
2) We have a brand new logo.
3) We have launched a Facebook fan page.
4) We celebrated our 100th donor!
5) We had a great conversation about the start-up process with Matt Mitro, Founder and President of Indego Africa.
6) We have started work on our tutor training manual with the help of several literacy educators who provided us with invaluable information.

The progress made could not have occurred without the help of many Reach, Inc. supporters. A special thank you to Brian Hecker who designed our logo and the informational website and donated all the associated time and effort.

During the next week, we will continue fundraising efforts while also having some important informational meetings, including one tomorrow with a representative from The CityBridge Foundation.

I will end each post with some ideas of ways you could help:

• Have you donated? We have just moved beyond $8,000 in donations. A great start, but a long way to go to get to our goal of $100,000.
  
• Do you know others who might be interested? Please direct them to our website!
• Do you have ideas about creative fundraising strategies? I'm all ears!

Thanks for your interest. I will do my best to update this a couple times per week, so you can all know what's going on at Reach, Inc. I look forward to sharing all of our future successes with you!

Mark
Founder and President - Reach, Inc.