Dandelion Campaign

The Dandelion Campaign was a one-year fundraising campaign in 2009-2010 to strengthen and propel our unique model of culturally competent programs to a new level of visibility and leadership. We embraced the dandelion image as one that expressed our goal for the growth and widespread reach of a united, rooted anti-violence movement.

By January 2010, the Dandelion Campaign met its goal of raising $400,000 to:

§       Grow our Community Building program by having, for the first time, a public space for training language advocates and volunteers, and for our collaborations with peer agencies.

§       Strengthen our staff leadership model with the transition of a new executive director.

The successful Dandelion Campaign allowed us to acquire a two-year pilot project for a community space.  We have secured an outside space for training and community building, and continue to look for ways to sustain an outside space.  Our dream is to one day have a center to hold our services, programs and collaborations in a more public and engaging way.

The Campaign was also developed to honor the end of an era of incredible leadership at AWS.  Upon meeting our campaign goal on January 28, 2010, we held an event at The Green Room at the San Francisco War Memorial, celebrating our founding director of twenty-one years, Beckie Masaki.  There, our supporters also had a chance to meet and welcome Aiko Pandorf as the agency's second executive director.

We are deeply grateful to all of our Dandelion Campaign donors.  Thank you for supporting our dream of a future free from violence!