When Volunteer Leadership and Nonprofit Consulting Meet


SWAN founder Carla E. Anderton serves as the volunteer vice president of the Mon Valley Academy for the Arts, a nonprofit organization providing affordable, high-quality music education and performance opportunities throughout the Mon Valley.

In recent weeks, much of our work has focused on preparing for WCCF Gives 2026, the Washington County Community Foundation’s annual day of giving. SWAN helped develop and implement MVAA’s campaign, including its messaging, outreach, and donor communications.

We also helped MVAA create a short video to raise awareness of its work and encourage community support. A fundraising campaign needs more than repeated donation requests. It needs a clear story that helps people understand the organization, the people it serves, and what their contributions can make possible.

Watch MVAA’s WCCF Gives video on YouTube

WCCF Gives will take place online on Thursday, September 10, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Every contribution through the campaign supports MVAA’s work and helps the organization qualify for additional prize funding.

Donors who prefer to give by check may begin giving now. Checks should be made payable to “WCCF” and mailed directly to:

Washington County Community Foundation
1253 Route 519
Eighty Four, PA 15330

Each check must be accompanied by the completed 2026 WCCF Gives Check Contribution Form available through the WCCF Gives Ways to Give page. According to WCCF, check contributions postmarked on or before September 10 will be eligible for the campaign’s prize opportunities.

To support music education and access to the arts in the Mon Valley, visit the Mon Valley Academy for the Arts WCCF Gives campaign page.

This campaign is also a practical example of what SWAN can offer small and mid-sized nonprofits. We help organizations identify the story they need to tell, develop materials to tell it effectively, and create a coordinated plan to reach the people most likely to care.

Talent exists everywhere. Opportunity does not. With community support, organizations like MVAA can help close that gap.

Resources and Links

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monday Matters: Six Degrees of the Mon Valley

Image
Have you ever played the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon ? It’s a simple but fascinating concept: you try to connect any actor to Kevin Bacon through a chain of shared movie roles. Actor A worked with Actor B, who worked with Actor C, and so on—until you reach Kevin Bacon. The surprising part is that you can usually make that connection in six steps or fewer. In other words, the game reminds us that people are far more connected than we might initially think—even when those connections aren’t immediately obvious. The nonprofit and business world often works the same way. Last week, I attended the launch open house for the Mon Valley Business Alliance , and I'm happy to share that the Strategic Workforce & Arts Network (SWAN) is now an official member. It was a wonderful evening filled with conversations among business owners, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, municipal officials, and community partners who all share a common goal: building a stronger Mon Valley. As I headed ho...
Read more

Funding Friday: It Takes an Organization to Raise a Dollar

Image
  When we talk about fundraising, we tend to talk about the people whose names appear next to words like development, advancement, grants, or donor relations. They write proposals, prepare sponsorship packages, research prospects, send appeals, meet with donors, and eventually make the ask. But they aren't fundraising alone. In fact, some of the most important things that determine whether a nonprofit can successfully raise money happen long before anyone asks for a dollar. Fundraising isn't something an organization does. It's something an organization makes possible through everything it does. Everyone Doesn't Have to Ask You've probably heard some version of the phrase "everyone is a fundraiser." I understand the sentiment, but I don't agree. Not everyone is comfortable asking for money. Not everyone has the skills or experience to cultivate a donor relationship. And putting someone in that position simply because they're a board member, employe...
Read more

Funding Friday: Making Room at the Bowl

Image
Photos: Meet Yoshi (top/left) and Parker (bottom/right)! I've included a few pictures with today's post so you can see our beautiful girl and the newest addition to our family. Yesterday, our household got a little bigger. Our one-year-old tortoiseshell cat, Yoshimi (better known as Yoshi), became the not-so-thrilled big sister to a three-month-old tortoiseshell kitten named Dorothy Parker, or simply Parker. Parker joined our family thanks to  Cali Cats Rescue , a wonderful nonprofit organization dedicated to finding loving homes for cats in need. If you're a fellow cat lover like me, I encourage you to learn more about their work and consider supporting them or adopting your next furry family member through them. Every adoption changes two lives: the one that finds a home and the one that now has room to be rescued. Parker is named in memory of a dear friend of mine who loved cats. Her full name is also a tribute to the celebrated American writer  Dorothy Parker , whose wi...
Read more