Brown Bear Car Wash: how we funded everything

Every dollar Project Refill raised in its first year came from one place, a 4-day fundraiser at Brown Bear Car Wash in December. We stood outside for four days straight handing out brochures and talking to people as they pulled in to wash their cars. Most of them had never heard of us. Some stopped to ask questions, and a few donated right there on the spot. By the end we had raised $1,842, which is the number you see on the website as our total cash raised.

All of it came from people deciding to give a few dollars while they waited for their car, with no grant or big donor involved. Over those four days we talked to a lot of people about food insecurity on the Eastside, about what we were trying to do, and about why we thought it mattered. Some of those conversations were short and some went a lot longer than we expected.

We were there for all four days. Going in, we didn't know it would bring in the full amount we needed for the year. It turned out that it did.