11 thoughts on “Suggestions”

1. Jeff,
   http://www.lydiascancerhope.com/

   I grew up with Marlena Ventura and I remember Jessie and Maggie from her. I have been following Anna’s page thanks to Marlena. I have a 5 year old who was adopted from China and through those circles heard about Lydia Miyashita who was battling AML and earned angel wings almost a year ago. A year ago this December, a dear 17 year old student of mine also passed away from AML. Lydia’s mom has set up two foundations in her daughter’s memory. Here is the website for one of them. I thought it may be helpful for you to see when I saw your post. I am praying for peace and strength for all of you.
   Susie

2. Thank you Susie. This has been such a difficult time. I still wake up every morning thinking, for a split second, that this last 17 months has been a horrible dream. Thanks for passing along the website, I am going to check it out now. Take Care.

   Jeff

3. Hi Jeff –

   What a great way to honor Anna and her wish for children battling cancer to have some sort of bright spot in their holidays. I can’t think of a better way to have her live on.

   I’ve been a banker for 15 years and I just have a couple of suggestions for how to set up your non-profit. Make sure you obtain an EIN number in the organization’s name. They are easy to apply for and take no time at all. Then open an account at your bank in the name of the non-profit. All donation checks are made payable to Anna’s Wish, the organization. This keeps things clear and seperate from any personal accounts you may have. I anticipate you will receive tons of donations and keeping things separate will make it so much cleaner. Now, I am not an accountant, so if you utilize an accountant for your taxes, I would consult with them about any other details you need to think of.

   Once again, I am crushed to hear about Anna’s passing and all our love to you, Jessie, Molly and the rest of your family.

4. Hi Jeff – looks like things are really coming along. The number of FB fans already is such a testament!! Just a suggestion to think of that doesn’t need to be addressed right away but is something you may want to consider is having an option where you can give the donations as gifts. For example, we always give donations to worthwhile charities at Christmas in all various family members’ names as gifts. It may increase the likelihood of other people doing this if you have a way to give some type of notification to the gift recipient (email notification, letter, gift card, etc.) that a donation was made in his/her name. Just some food for thought.

5. Jeff

   Any thought of setting up a paypal account and of course a link?

6. What a great idea Erin. Done!

7. Hi Jordan…yes, the ‘widget’ is already installed and just needs to be switched on. Just waiting to officially link the business account to paypal. Great idea!

8. anna is an inspiration to everyone who has lost a loved one. she has shone that even at a young age she is not afraid of what might come tomorrow but focused on what fights she has to make right then. she has proved to me and many others that losing the fight isnt nearly as bad as giving up. i hope your family makes it through this time of sorrow. even though i have never met anna i still have a place in my heart for her strenght and i hope that anna will never be gone but mearly not where the eye can see

9. Hi Jeff, our family has been so touched by your openess and appreciate you sharing Anna with us. Our children asked about her every single day and of course, she was in our prayers every single night (and continues to be).
   Perhaps you should consider a “cause” page for Anna on Facebook. The benefit to the cause page is that you will be able to collect donations from there. Of course, if there is a paypal link on the fan page, that won’t be necessary.
   Also, have you thought about an official logo for Anna’s Wish? I have a good friend who is a graphic artist that I know would donate her time to give you some ideas if you wish.
   You are an amazing person and have an amazing family!!

10. I have heard about a couple of fund raising events in Anna’s honor. Unfortunately I was unaware they were going on unitl after the event. Is there a way to email supporters prior to the events so that more people could participate?
    It would be wonderful to know about the good works beng done in Anna’s honor.
    Perhaps a posting through the CaringBridge website would help facilitate this for you the easiest if you decide it is a good idea.
    Just a thought.
    All our love and continued supprt, The Slanvy & Decker families

11. Hi Laurie. Thanks for your comment. We are new to all the marketing stuff and trying to figure out the best way to go about things. We can’t decide if we want Anna’s CB site just to be about her fight, or use it as a way to get the message out about Anna’s Wish. So hard to make a decision about anything at this point. I will look into the possibility of having an email sent out on this site when we update, like the CB site. Love hearing from you!

    Jeff