The Dive Pirates Foundation just completed its 18th year of celebrating life after injury for injured veterans and others with mobile disabilities through adaptive scuba diving. That being said, we are out of everything!

We use a lot of brochures for ability expos and the diving industry trade show, it is our key collateral for recruiting recipients and new chapters so we will be redesigning it and need to print in the next few months. We are also needing more as we are sending a promotional packet to our past recipients asking them to share our brochures and their story to others in the disabled community to encourage more recipients.

We also just completed our annual report, which continues to be a very needed printed collateral, as well as invitations and programs for our upcoming fundraisers. We currently have our invitations in production, and hot on its heels we will need to print our event programs. We also are considering donation envelopes to leave on the tables at our events if our guests choose to purchase a center piece or leave a general donation. We also have some very active new board members who want more collaterals as they seek out speaking and program opportunities. The ability to work with Conquest Graphics and have their assistance planning and executing large mailouts and other collaterals has kept our labor costs down and provided a quality product while reducing our freelancers labor and time producing materials themselves.

We greatly appreciate being able to chat quickly with the print team at Conquest Graphics as well as work with a great rep who knows our needs, works with our graphic artist and is dedicated to helping us control costs while creating the look and feel that we love.

What's next? We need generic push cards or business cards for our volunteers to use while assisting us at trade shows, events, and just to have a few on hand as many of them belong to support groups. (Amputee groups, paraplegics, etc.) Also, our chapters are asking us for more items to have on hand, we may do a separate brochure for recipient recruitment and one for membership and donations. I am interested in working with Conquest Graphics on what is popular, trendy, new ways of looking at brochures and business cards to clearly get our message across.

We have been blessed to receive grant assistance in the past and I can't tell you how much it helps us, as the time of year we are needing collaterals is the time of year our bank account is at its lowest. We respect our donors’ dollars and we want every dime possible to go to our recipients, however there is a cost to doing business. By securing these grants we have proven to our board of directors and our donors that we are frugal with their money while also providing professional materials for them to use to solicit their contacts to purchase tables at our fundraisers, join our membership, and ultimately change the lives of those who are learning to live differently due to a great change in their mobility. Having others give them back a sense of accomplishment and adventure goes a long way in learning to live again.