Wow. Just wow. Sarah here, stopping in to say thank you to everyone who has been part of the wild ride that is Craft Hope for Haiti.
As I’m sure you’ve seen on the Etsy shop, we’ve been listing and selling items nonstop since Friday morning. The response from the craft community has been amazing and overwhelming. You are a remarkable bunch of people. Jade and I and the other volunteers are humbled by your willingness to give when often you don’t have much yourselves. This experience has been a testament to the power of a connected community.
Jade and I started this effort as a quick offshoot of Craft Hope because we wanted to help and knew that sending things was not a viable option. We hatched a little idea about the shop on Etsy and figured we’d raise a few hundred dollars. We had this pie in the sky idea that we’d maybe get to $5,000 eventually. You all got us there by yesterday at noon. As of now, we’re rapidly approaching the $10,000 mark. Amazing. Overwhelming.
From a housekeeping perspective, you should know that listings are taking up to 72 hours to place on Etsy. Currently we are notifying sellers of the shipping information the day after the sale, and we will try to maintain that pace, but it may go to 2 days. We ask for your patience as we process a tremendous number of transactions. We may make an occasional listing mistake, and we’ll hope you forgive us. We have streamlined and slowed down our pace a bit so we don’t make hurried errors. There are only a few of us, and so many generous gifts.
This operation is being run by a mom with 3 kids under 5, including a 3 month old baby and by a mom who is 7 months pregnant and has 2 homeschooling kids. We are relying on the kindness of our wonderful friends (who are also all moms with babies or homeschooled kids or jobs) and our husbands who have given up their weekends to help out. The task at hand has become far larger than we can maintain for any length of time. We don’t want the program to become a victim of its own success because we were so excited to help that we didn’t take the time to set up sustainable systems.
We have decided to stop accepting donations on Wednesday evening, January 20. We will list everything we have received by the following weekend, and we will keep the store open until everything has sold. The plan is to be closed to new donations for 2 weeks while we regroup. This has taken us in a direction that we never anticipated Craft Hope going. In order to serve the community better, we are going to take a break and organize our thoughts, our systems, and our mission. While we would LOVE to just keep on going, we have to do so in a sustainable way so that we do it well and still have time to feed our children, take showers, and interact with our families on occasion.
Over the next few days, we will be forwarding funds to Doctors Without Borders and will post the transactions to this site, so you have verification of the donations. We understand that donating and buying is an act of trust by all of you, and we are committed to living up to that trust. Thank you, all of you, for giving us the opportunity to help the Haitian people in a meaningful way. Because this isn’t about us at all. It’s about the generosity of each and every one of you.
We are all so grateful to be a part of this effort, which is a small part of the larger effort to help the Haitian people. We hope you understand our reasons for regrouping in order to serve the effort even better. Thank you again for everything you have done and continue to do.
In hope,
Sarah
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You guys are doing an amazing job! thank you for providing such a wonderful way for everyone to be a part of hope for Haiti.
thank you, amazing ladies, for all your hard work on this!!!!
I think it is SO amazing what you and the crafting community has done here, I am so happy to have been a part of it. Thank you for all your hard work and long hours – it’s HUGE. xoxo Pam
You are all amazing and I agree completely with your need to slow down – it has grown arms and legs, wonderful arms and legs though – arms and legs that can send hugs and carry people on their way to help….
I was amazed at the action on the site today! Things were selling as fast as you could post them. I was wondering how you were able to keep up the fast pace. Thanks for your effort.
AMAZING.
AMAZING women doing an AMAZING thing for Haiti. Thank you, ladies for all your efforts.
Truly AMAZING!
Thank you to each of you for allowing us to help. I know how long each etsy listing takes…then trying to keep up with the volume of listing and sales, you are remarkable for doing what you are. Prayers sent your way that you’ll have the strength you need to see this through. Thanks again for allowing me the chance to be a part of this.
Thank you Sarah for all of your efforts. Let me know if you need any help. I’m here if you need it.
Thank you to all of you for your ideas and hard work. Wonderful job!
Best to you,
Sondra
contemporarycloth
you guys rock! thank you so much for all the hard work.
Wow, on the road to $10000, that is FANTASTIC!
Thank you for everything you are all doing, we are in awe.
xo
thanks for everything you’re doing, and for introducing us to who you are! knowing you’re just like us makes what you’re doing even more amazing!
Brill! 2 weeks?? more time for crafting!! thank you for you time and dedication!
Yes, You are all Amazing! Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do. Each of you are an inspiration, and I applaud you.
This whole effort has been just incredible. Can we help? Would it be useful to have more people listing items? Let me know if you want another busy mom’s listing services…
Thanks so much for doing this! I completely understand the need to reign things in a bit. I would be glad to help if there is anything I can do to help.
You gals are amazing and I just wanted to stop by and personally thank you for your efforts for Haiti! It is so wonderful to find a site that combines service and creatitivity.
I’d be honored to put your button on my site and share Craft Hope with others.
Thank you,
Kari
Ucreate
Yes, thank you for all you have done..you are incredible!
so totally awesome!!
It has been *awesome* to see how the shop took off. As I check it right now, ya’ll have processed 630 listings since Friday morning! I can’t even imagine the hours put into that.
I think it’s a great idea to close down shop for a while to regroup. In the meantime, we crafters will have more time to work on larger-ticket items in preparation for your reopening. I think a lot of us (at least I) felt like the pressure was on to pull together a few little things right away.
Thanks so much for keeping us informed!
Absolutely amazing!!!!! I noticed the whirlwind of activity at the Etsy shop today. I don’t see how y’all kept up with the pace!!! So glad to be a part of this in a tiny way. Keep up the good work….understand about having to regroup….let others know if you need some help! I would help if needed.
Oh Sarah – you guys are just incredible! And I can’t imagine the hard work and sacrifice that is going on behind the scenes to put something like this together! I’m excited to see where this new direction takes you all but totally understand how overwhelming it must be too. Just know we are all here to support you in any way we can and no matter what you all decide!
Reading your post has made me all teary eyed. Proud to be both a buyer of wondrous things and a giver of my art.
Take time to feed your children and give them hugs and love and don’t forget to take care of yourselves. You have done an amazing thing. Thank you! <3
You guys are truly inspiring! Thank you so much for giving us crafty people a means to help raise money for Haiti! I really appreciate it. Keep up the great work and don’t forget to take a break and get some rest. If there is anything I can do to help let me know!
You all are amazing and I am so proud to be a part of this. .Try to get some rest and take a minute for yourself. If you need help reach out, I would be willing as I know others would as well. I have more to donate if you need it after your break. . My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Thank you for doing this.
Congratulations on a job incredibly well done! Thank you so much for putting this together and sacrificing so much time to do so. Definitely take a much needed break and spend time with your family!
You guys are just so freaking fantastic. Go mamas go!!!
Wow!! You ladies are awesome…as well as those who have donated. Praise God!
Thanks so much for all of your hard work!
Dave and Jo
Grizzly Mountain Arts
Wonderful, wonderful job! I would love to donate a couple things if that is alright. I would like to donate two adjustable band watches. Let me know if you would like me to do that. I can make them up and send you pictures.
Thanks!
XOXO
Jen
jenjen, see two posts down for donation information. thanks! and thanks for all of the kind words. we are listing again tonight! happy shopping!
[...] sight, the crafters who have donated and the buyers who have given, have helped to raise almost 10,000 for Doctors without Borders. [...]
Thanks you all for your incredible work getting this going and then through the roof! And for allowing all of us the opportunity to be a part of such a worthwhile effort and to feel a little less helpless in the face of this tragedy.
Wow, this is amazing to hear! Thank you so much for your time and effort to put this amazing craft fund raiser together for Haiti, for all of the time and sacrifice involved! The relief effort in Haiti will go on for months, so I’m sure we will do a lot more after the two week rest. Thank you again and again for this opportunity to help out!!
You all are amazing!!! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all your selfless work. A mama myself I sympathize – bless you & your families!!! YOU ROCK!
Blessings to you all that concepted and coordinated this great selfless act to help others in need. This was a great, great undertaking that was done with grace and altruism – know that the people of Haiti are thanking you for this and all the assistance you will provide.
Millions of thanks to you-
Just adding my voice to the choir here, but Thank You gals for this great work!
What more can be said, you ladies and your families have given so much so Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have given so many of us who didn’t know how to help a way to do it! Bless you all!
girls, you are amazing!!!You inspire a lot of people!
Thanks for your hard work! You are fantastic
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hi – you are doing something wonderful.
I’ve been doing something similar but in a much more limited way – but would love to help and collaborate if its possible. I’m in London, England. I’ve emailed Jade…
if there is anything i can do to help, please don’t hesitate to ask. (if i lived closer i’d do arm and neck massages…i know if i were you i’d need one!) seriously though, if there is anything i can do from far away..just ask. this is an amazing effort. thank you all!
HI!
I would love to donate an owl to help Haiti!
You can see the owl on my site http://www.mynooly.com
I will also donate free world-wide shipping to whoever buys it…
Hats off to what you are doing…
Yael
yael, please send an email to sarah@crafthope.com with title, description, and photos. thanks!
Amazing!
Thank you for work!!!
It was a pleasure to participate on it!
Thank you for letting me do my part in giving!!!
Blessings…
Lee Ann
You all have done a fantastic job!! Thank you for letting me donate, thus allowing me to feel I’ve done a little something to help! I know how long it takes me to do a listing on etsy, so I can just imagine the tedium and time it has taken you to accomplish such a feat! Bravo! Cheers! and thank you!
You ladies have been amazing! Thanks again for organizing such a meaningful effort. Good work!
Sarah–thanks again for all of your work. This has been such an inspirational project and such a testament how the small contributions of many little people can end up being something very powerful.
Also, I would suggets you contact Bianca from The Toy Society to talk about how she has made running her site and little “philanthropic” business more sustainable to run–I know she has many volunteers who help out with postings and managing communication to those who do toy drops. While what you are doing is different, I do think she has also faced challenges of something that became much bigger than anticipated and she needed help to sustain it. She might have some useful suggestions for you.
Keep up the utterly fantastic work. I was so happy to contribute.
You are truly the heroes here! Thank you for pulling this all together. I was honored to donate & to post your button on my blog.