New Fundraising Goals for 2020

Dear Trojan Shelter family,

We hope you all are staying safe and healthy during these times. As we start our fourth week of social distancing, we understand that maintaining mental health and sanity is getting increasingly difficult. Our Trojan Shelter family is strong, and though we all know the strains and tensions the circumstances have on our personal and professional lives, we know that we can stay resilient and persist together with the same strength we have towards our mission to end college homelessness.

Because our normal operations have taken drastic turns, we also need to rethink our fundraising strategy. Originally, we planned to have a video-game fundraiser to engage our USC community with some friendly competition in a Super Smash Bros tournament and an end of the year gala where we were looking forward to celebrating the end of Trojan Shelter’s first season. Our team was deeply excited to share these experiences with you, and though we cannot celebrate the same way we intended to, we are still looking to you so we can have a second season to celebrate as well.

As you may remember from our last newsletter, Trojan Shelter and Students 4 Students hired a full-time residential assistant (RA) to ensure that our residents have a safe space to social distance and continue school 24/7. We are paying for that through an emergency fund provided by Students 4 Students. Though we are equipped to provide continuous care to our residents, we also are looking to be proactive with our fundraising to address the needs we may have in the future.

Trojan Shelter is looking to raise $5,000 to help replenish our emergency fund. As COVID-19 further develops, it is important for us to be confident in our ability to continue to serve our residents, no matter the obstacles sent our way.

If you are in a position to give towards this goal, you may do at trojanshelter.org/donate. Regardless of your ability in this season, we are deeply thankful to you - our community - for contributing in encouragement, prayer, donations from our Amazon list, and by continuing to stay informed and engaged with the issue of college homelessness. COVID-19 has continued to remind us how vulnerable college students experiencing homelessness are, and we are grateful to partner with you in this mission to alleviate the issue, one student at a time.

With gratitude,

Matthew Lee, Director of Media

For more information about Trojan Shelter, go to trojanshelter.org

To help support us financially, go to trojanshelter.org/donate. Make sure to specify that your tax-deductible donation will be going to Trojan Shelter!