Whole Woman's Health Fundraiser

Northern Indiana Atheists (NIA) concluded our Whole Woman's Health (WWH) South Bend Clinic Fundraiser with a whole lot more than the $150 in donations we were hoping for.

Most of the board of directors for NIA have gone through clinic defense training. At training, we learned that the South Bend WWH needs a few things to run smoother and to care for patients better. The NIA board voted to donate $150 to that end. To make the donation even more useful, we decided to run a two-week Fundraiser where we would match any donation made to WWH up to $150, giving us $300 to buy supplies like umbrellas to block protester signs and white noise machines for the offices to block protester hate speech.

NIA created the fundraiser on the evening of Saturday, June 29. In about an hour, we had already surpassed the $150 goal. So we raised the goal. That goal was hit early the next morning, so we raised the goal again.

At a little over 12 hours, we had hit three fundraising goals, with donations coming from all across Indiana. By this time, a few people had requested the ability to donate to the fundraiser without going through Facebook. A request was sent to NIA's treasurer, and they approved the request to open up the donation functionality on our website. And with that, the fourth fundraising goal was met.

The fifth goal was met soon thereafter. Then, at the end of the day on June 30, someone with a wicked sense of humor surpassed our sixth goal, which brought the total Facebook donations up to $666.

On July 2, our Facebook Fundraiser hit the 10th goal, with a total of $1,001 donated. When we added our initial $150 matching funds with the $50 that had come in through our website, we had a total of $1,202.

On July 4, as more donations continued rolling in on our website, we got a nice surprise. NIA is an affiliate of American Atheists, and Nick Fish, the president of American Atheists, made a $99 donation and hit our 11th fundraising goal, which brought our total donations to $1,375. Nick said, “Nothing says ‘Independence Day’ like doing everything we can to protect the ability to control your own goddamn body.”

On July 8, with a full week left for the fundraiser, we had already begun working with Whole Woman's Health and Clinic Defense to purchase items they needed: white noise machines, sunscreen, bug spray, umbrellas, water, a first aid kit, a cooler, ice packs, chairs, and a recycling container. Not only had we raised funds for WWH and Clinic Defense, we also raised awareness about their needs and garnered new clinic defenders and volunteers.

On top of the generous donations that just kept rolling in, all of the shares made a huge impact. We received donations all the way from California to New Jersey that surpassed our 12th goal, bringing our total donations up to over $1,500.

July 15 was the last day of our Fundraiser. It was an amazingly successful fundraiser, and it directly reflects the amount of community support WWH has in South Bend. Supporter donations and their shares pushed the fundraiser well over our initial goal of $150. With each goal, we thought that would surely be the last, but supporters met and exceeded them. Sixteen times! Our total donations were $1,906, with $1,626 coming from Facebook, $150 from NIA matching funds, and $130 from our website.

Thank you to everyone who participated. NIA’s hope that we could turn our $150 donation into $300 by matching donations turned into something truly amazing.

Northern Indiana Atheists is a 501c3 organization established to fight state/church violations on a local level and defend the rights of atheists across Northern Indiana. Membership is open to atheists and our allies who share our vision for a government that represents all citizens equally, our passion for serving our community, and our enjoyment of educating people on what it means to be an atheist in Northern Indiana. Your membership and donations amplify our voice and makes our impact even stronger. Become a member today at NorthernIndianaAtheists.com.