The Non-Profit And The Big Donor

When I head to 'Step One' on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for aerobics class, I walk past the 'Birthing Project'. I marvel at all the activity there, which seems to consist of people sitting in a circle listening to informal talks about babies and families, and the like. The place looks quite lively.

The 'Birthing Project' is a non-profit organization, and like all non-profits, is often engaged in fundraising efforts. Missions aside, there is a bond with community theaters in that our fundraising experiences are often quite similar.

In today's Sacramento Bee City Section, the Birthing Project's founder, Kathryn Hall-Trujillo, discusses her mission, but also her experience with approaching the Holy Grail of non-profits, namely, the Big Donor:

Q: Will your job ever be done?

A: I hope.

The Birthing Project is trying to make sure that the girls born into the project are healthier than their moms were when their moms were 18, and that's really the way we reduce infant mortality rate in the long run.

Q: Do you ever just think that this problem could be solved if someone like Oprah Winfrey just put their power behind it?

A: (Laughs.) When I received the Essence Award in 1995, with Colin Powell and Janet Jackson, Oprah was the talent for that award (ceremony).

That was one of the worst experiences of my life. ... I cried through the whole thing because I was just thinking, 'When this is over, we're going to go back, and I'm going to close the clinic.'

I met people there, and I asked them if they would make a donation.

Colin Powell sent some money, other people sent some money, but everybody said you should really ask Oprah.

So I really asked Oprah.

Oprah sent me a letter back that basically said if I gave you money, it would be like pouring money down a hole because you are going to close.

At first I was so mad with Oprah. I put the letter on my refrigerator, and I kept it there, and I looked at it every day.

Then I realized, No. 1, that was Oprah's money.

And No. 2, if I wanted, and the women in this community wanted, this clinic, it was ours: It wasn't Oprah's. And we had to figure out how to get $10 here and $50 there.

But one day I looked up, and I wasn't mad with Oprah anymore. I took that letter down, and I don't even know where it is.

So in a way it would be nice if somebody came and saved us but, actually, the gift of this clinic is that we have saved ourselves.

Part of it is not just pouring money into it, but really helping people in the community understand what a life really means in our community.

Somehow or another, we have to bring whatever we have.

It's not easy. It's never become easy, but it's always on my heart.

I wish that Oprah did a little bit, but if she doesn't do a little bit, it will be all right because this belongs to us. That's the message that we pretty much have demonstrated to the whole country.