Our [Shorter] Big Day of Giving Appeal to You. Straightforward and Honest.

(Below is a shorter version of our appeal. We encourage you to read the full version here.)

> Video - "John and His Dad" (2 mins.)

Dear Community Member,

Hello. My name is Dave Gaines. I'm the chief executive officer of the Sacramento Autistic Spectrum and Special Needs Alliance (SASSNA). The Alliance is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Relatively speaking, we are a young organization - almost six years old. But we've really only been fully operational for a couple of years.

The Sacramento Autistic Spectrum and Special Needs Alliance is a top-quality, comprehensive support and professional social services provider in the Greater Sacramento region serving young people ages zero to twenty-two, and their families, that have a wide range of brain-based diagnoses, from autism to Down syndrome to schizophrenia. What we do is: whatever is necessary to ensure that all the needs of a mentally-diverse young person are met, so that he/she can attain the best possible outcome going in to early adulthood. No other organization is as comprehensive in expertise as we are. And the quality of our work is excellent. Our services carry no required fees for our clients. A breakdown of our services can be found here.

Almost six years after being founded, SASSNA is now overwhelmed with requests for our services. We believe it is the comprehensiveness and efficacy of our work that has led to this growth. SASSNA is establishing itself as an innovative, new leader in the service of youth with mental diagnoses. We are beginning to change our region toward a vision that was at the core of SASSNA's creation: the vision that youth with disabilities could be served better than what was already being offered and that a permanent, meaningful improvement in the outcomes of all youth with mental disabilities in the Greater Sacramento region could be produced.

This is SASSNA's third year participating in Big Day of Giving, which is a large, annual event in the Sacramento region where the entire community comes together on a single day to learn about and donate to participating, local nonprofits. This year, Big Day of Giving is Thursday, May 4th, 2017. For twenty-four hours, from midnight to midnight, this Thursday, the entire region is encouraged to go online to the official Big Day of Giving website and donate to a participating organization. Here is SASSNA's [shorter] straightforward and honest appeal to you for this Big Day of Giving:

Originally, my organization had planned a big, fancy Big Day of Giving campaign consisting of multiple events, but we have simply been too busy serving the large amount of families and individuals seeking our assistance to put the staff and time in to an illustrious campaign. But we realized that itself is a great campaign - a lot of people are coming to our small, relatively new organization because we are providing a fresh and effective service to mentally-diverse young people, and their families, that is genuinely making a real improvement in their lives, and we really do need you to join us in continuing this pioneering effort because we really can't do it without you! Your dollars will be spent on increasing staff service hours and on hiring at least one more staff member to provide services.

Please go to SASSNA's page on the official Big Day of Giving website at http://www.bigdayofgiving.org/sassna at any time of the day or night on Thursday, May 4th to learn more about our organization and to make a tax-deductible donation to SASSNA. Or, you can also go there now and any time before Thursday to pre-schedule a donation to automatically run on May 4th.

Big Day of Giving is an especially great time to donate to SASSNA because there are several special opportunities available to donors and nonprofits:

+ Donate at http://www.bigdayofgiving.org/sassna on May 4th and your gift can help us win additional prize dollars put up by the community.

+ SASSNA has its own matching pool, sponsored by great local businesses, of $1,600. This means that the first $1,600 of donations made to us at http://www.bigdayofgiving.org/sassna will be matched dollar for dollar. In addition, if we hit $2,500 in total donations then Boyd & Associates, P.C. will pitch in another $250, and if we hit $5,000 then they will add an even further $500.

+ The first 13 donations to SASSNA at http://www.bigdayofgiving.org/sassna of $250 or more will receive two passes to join us in shooting hoops on the actual Sacramento Kings court at the Golden 1 Center (this will likely occur in June). If all 13 opportunities are taken then we will post a notification here (this page's address is www.sassna.org/big-day-of-giving-short).

If you have any questions about SASSNA or our participation in the Big Day of Giving, then please contact us through any of the methods indicated here. We have extended hours from now through the late night of Thursday.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration of our cause, truly.

Dave Gaines, CEO, Sacramento Autistic Spectrum and Special Needs Alliance