Success Stories / Imagine Englewood If…

For years, the Jean Carter-Hill community garden provided a safe haven in the South Chicago community of Englewood, where drugs and violent crime run rampant and playgrounds are few. The garden’s beauty offered a safe place for children to play and adults to dream about a better future.

When vandals broke into the garden’s tool shed and stole shovels, a wheel barrel, and other gardening supplies, Imagine Englewood If, a community group that manages the garden, sought a solution. 

Without the resources to run their own fundraiser online, the organization, using The Point, launched a campaign to raise $2,000 for new tools and a secure shed.

The Point was easy, effective, and offered everything they needed to leverage the power of the Internet, including a web page they could e-mail to contacts, automated money collection, and ‘viral’ tools that let them promote their campaign online and reach outside their existing community.

In addition to providing tools the organization otherwise didn’t have access to, with the Point, people pledged money, assured they wouldn’t have to give a dime until the goal, or “tipping point,” was reached.

As Imagine Englewood If approached its goal, pledges poured in because everyone wanted the campaign to succeed. In the end, they raised $2,026 for new tools and a more secure shed. Now the community is enjoying the garden again.