Being on Team Swift (then Programming board) for three years is some of my fondest memories of Swift. I met some of my best friends, I connected with people who love Swift just as much as me, and I walked away with some skills to help me in college, the work force, and my adult life.  

Starting two years ago, the main project of Team Swift became Arizona Gives Day (AZ Gives Day), a huge statewide fundraising event that enables nonprofits of all sizes to fundraise in a competitive manner with the chance to win bonus prizes. ​As a member of Team Swift, we competed against each other, against the Swift Board of Directors, and against all the nonprofits in dollar amounts and in number of donors. 

​​Now, as college students sprinkled across the country, our involvement with Swift and AZ Gives Day shouldn’t end. ​

​We can continue to set up  AZ Gives Day  pages and fundraise with a new outlook of what Swift does for the Arizona community, our home community. 

We can continue to compete with each other and with other Team Swift cohorts by joining together and setting team goals. 

We can teach our new communities what Swift is and get our new friends involved by sharing posts or becoming a donor.
Stay involved. Stay connected. 
Continue to support Swift’s Arizona Gives Day campaign! ​

Swift programs continue to be fun and enriching for all who are involved. At Club Swift, the current focus in identifying our leadership styles and learning how to use our leadership skills effectively. Club Swift participants have started to take the lead during Swift after School programs leading the activities with help and support from the staff. Speaking of Swift after School, lately we have been focusing on team building and decision making skills. Students continue to have fun while they learn how to work better together and to make positive decisions. ​

Asking people to donate to something can be hard. If you aren’t a politician or a professional fundraiser, asking people to part with their hard-earned money is something that feels icky, somehow. Few, if any of us, are comfortable asking for money. And you know what? That’s fine!
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I am going to let you in on a little secret: when you ask people to support an organization financially that you are passionate about, you are really asking them to support your passion.

​We are all passionate about Swift in our own way. Whether it’s experiencing the unbridled joy the campers feel when their peers catch them in a trust fall, the uninhibited laughter that echoes around the walls of the dining hall during golden broom, or another moment during camp or after school or with friends, we all have a moment that we can point to as the reason why we love this organization so much. It’s the reason we continue to give our time and, in some cases, our money to Swift.

​But ultimately, what I am actually asking you to do is share your Swift story with the world. Your story is the most powerful tool in your fundraising arsenal because your friends and family want to support you. Your family and friends can feel the infectious joy you bring home with you after a week at Camp Swift or helping out at an after school event. By inviting them to contribute financially, you’re really inviting them to begin their own Swift story, and to help change the lives of youth from all over Phoenix.