Sun Prairie volunteer helps nonprofit raise funds, communicate

The 2018 explosion in Sun Prairie changed many lives, including Jennifer Cresson’s. That’s when she began volunteering at the Sunshine Place.

The nonprofit’s previous executive director tapped Cresson, a Sun Prairie market researcher, for help then.

“She was trying to reach out to all the people displaced because of the explosion and to get resources to them,” Cresson said. That included people needing new housing.

It wasn’t Cresson’s first volunteer position. She had led Box of Balloons, a nonprofit that provides parents with birthday party supplies, and organizations such as Shelter from the Storm, would contact her when those supplies were needed.

When Cresson stopped down from Box of Balloons, the Sunshine Place executive director at the time asked if she would serve on the fundraising committee for their expanding facility. Cresson joined the Act of Kindness campaign in 2019.

“As a part of that, I strongly recommended that they consider doing social media fundraising,” she said, “They didn’t really have a strong social media presence.”

They began to build a social media platform, which then proved to be an invaluable communication tool in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic caused more isolation and disconnect.

“It was very fortunate that we had literally spent the last 6 months building up a presence and getting people to start following us,” she said.

All of the programs like the Sunshine Supper, C.A.R.D.S Closet and just avenues for donating no longer had their normal outreach.

“Suddenly everything pivoted in March 2020,” Cresson said.

She helped Sunshine Place to transition the programs to social media. Previously, all of the different programs had a different social media presence, but Cresson crafted one-stop shop with information about all the programs.

Also, the group had never used social media prior to the Act of Kindness campaign to raise funds.

“With Act of Kindness and with COVID, we raised over six figures that wouldn’t have been reached if it weren’t for the social media fundraising,” Cresson said. “It was a huge way to fill the gap of the traditional fundraising that they would have had.”

Now, the messaging is used to show the food pantry’s ever-growing need. As it has merged with the Sunshine Place, the organization’s social media platform includes information for the clients and volunteers, along with the pantry’s needs.

“I would say, the social media outpouring of fundraising was a huge blessing in disguise, and will still be used in some way in the future, probably not to the extent it was during COVID, but it’s still hopefully a resource for people wanting to contribute in other ways, too,” Cresson said.

Cresson said she has always liked to create order out of chaos and believed Sunshine Place was a good cause.

Her family was not affluent, and so she benefited from social services as a child and was able to earn her business degree in college. She believes in giving back. Plus she enjoys helping people.

“I enjoy the people working at the Sunshine Place and having direct interaction. I take something off their plate that helps them in many other ways. They are so busy doing what they do that they do not always have the time to communicate actively with the community about what they need,” Cresson said.