If you build it - they will come

Please note: If this is your first time visiting our blog, please click here to hear the premise of Pass It On, Baby! and how it all began.... Pass It On, Baby!

Welcome everyone who may be new to our site and thank you to all of you who have been with us from the beginning of this journey helping and connecting as many families as we can.

Elizabeth and I sometimes struggle to decide what topics to feature in our blog posts. As this is a charity site, we want to be sure that we are sharing our stories, sharing your stories, and relaying the experiences that so many have in the joys of giving and receiving through our blog. We want to focus on topics that are important to you but don't want to stand on our soap boxes for too long either. :) That's why we are looking to you to let us know what  you are looking for from Pass It On, Baby! So many other blogs are sharing the daily stories of being a mom, the stories of struggles, joyous moments, funny moments and so on. But since PIOB is still in its infancy stages - we want to be sure we are building our blog around you. We want to write about topics and share stories that are important to you - that will keep you coming back - that get you involved, interacting in discussions with us. 

We have been considering in the near future also building a site similar to craigslist where families that have clothes to donate can post what they have to offer and then families in need can sort through and contact directly. Similarly, a family in need could post what they need as donators sort through and see if they can fill that void. It's not that we don't want to be personally touching each and every person but as we grow it becomes a little more difficult to determine proper matches. We have created a spreadsheet that we keep that has donors and recipients on separate pages with what they need and what they have to offer. Elizabeth and I then manually go through each time we have a new need to see if that need can already be filled by someone who has offered to donate. We love being able to find someone we already have but if we don't then we reach out to our networks via our blog's immediate needs section, facebook postings and twitter. We have yet to find ourselves in a situation where we haven't been able to meet a need but are fearful of how to handle if that does present itself. Especially when we have been have been receiving more requests for larger children sizes. We are determined to help each and every family so we would love any ideas on how to tap into these older kid demographics. What do you think about the automated posting like Craigslist? Is this a good idea? Any other suggestions on how we can better match families together?

Please guide us so we can build a site that will stand the test of time. We aren't looking to be a fad or a place where someone donates/receives once and then never comes back to visit. We want to be efficient in generating matches and most importantly we want to create a forum where we can help each other in anything! We want to donate our time, our resources, our stories, whatever it may be - to stay true to our online community of helping others. 

So please tell us - What is it that draws you to our blog? The simple fact that we are helping other moms, the opportunity for you to help? Do you check our immediate needs list to see if you have a fit?  Do you enjoy the stories of those in need, those helping? Do you wish we touched on other topics? Do we need more giveaways or other incentives to draw people to our site? Let us know how we can build it - and they/you will come (and stay). 

In love & kindness,

and

Email Elizabeth & Heather