Preserve the Pensions: Try a Matching-Funds Campaign

Preserve the War of 1812 Pensions

An excellent way for a genealogical society to raise funds for the Preserve the Pensions Campaign is to create a matching-donor program within your own society. Instead of just raising funds to donate to PTP, take those funds and use them as a “starter or seed fund.” This is the money that you can use to match funds which are donated. The following are suggestions that can help you and your society:

• Create a seed-fund by holding a money-raising event, such as a bake sale or a garage sale.

• Add a box on your society membership renewal card. An additional $1.00 sent in at the time of a renewal is something most people can afford. You’d be surprised to see how the dollars add up.

• Sponsor a walk. Perhaps designate a destination which has historic value, particularly if it’s an 1812 site, in your locality. You could have T-shirts or other mementos made just for the event. This activity will be done at our FGS 2014 Conference in San Antonio!

• Does your society already sponsor a fund-raising event each year? Tap into that event and designate some of those funds to be used as a starter fund. 

Remember that starter-funds can match individual donations, which can be matched again by the Stern-NARA fund for a limited time. From there, Ancestry.com matches those funds, which quadruples the donation. Funds need to be raised for the pension records that desperately need to be preserved. 

Please share your matching funds ideas with us at office@fgs.org and on the 1812 Preserve the Pensions Facebook Page.

Visit PreservethePensions.org for more information about the War of 1812 Pension Digitization Project, which is a Community Digitization Project sponsored by the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the National Archives Records Administration, fold3.com, Ancestry.com, and Family Search, and supported by generous genealogical organization donors as well as individual donors.

Hotel Reservations Open for the 2015 FGS and RootsTech Conferences

Book your room today!

Four Salt Lake City hotels are now taking reservations for the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and RootsTech conferences, which will be held February 11–14, 2015 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City.

The Radisson Hotel Salt Lake City Downtown, the Salt Lake Marriott Downtown at City Creek, the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, and the Hilton Salt Lake City Center will offer reduced rates to attendees of both conferences. Each hotel is conveniently located near the Salt Palace Convention Center where both conferences will be held.

Conference rates will be honored for reservation dates February 7 – 19, 2015. Reservations must be made by January 13, 2015 to receive the conference rates.

Rooms will be in high demand. Reserve yours now through the FGS conference website at http://www.fgsconference.org/2015/lodging.

Registration for both conferences will open in late August 2014. For additional information about the FGS conference visit www.FGSconference.org/2015. 

Note to media: For the full press release in downloadable PDF format please visit the FGS Media Center.

Engaging the Next Generation in Your Genealogical Society

Today at the Southern California Genealogical Society's annual conference, or, Jamboree as it is better known as, FGS President D. Joshua Taylor and Genealogy Blogger 21st-er Elyse Doerflinger presented, "Engaging the Next Generation," which was sponsored by the NextGen Genealogy Network, a virtual genealogy community that "offers to foster the next generation's interest in family history." (Click on Load More after scrolling down all the way to see all the tweets from the session.)

Engaging the younger generations is a common issue with genealogical societies. However during their presentation today, Taylor and Doerflinger offered some solutions. The following is a select Twitter collection of the tweets from their presentation at Jamboree. Scroll through and take a look at their suggestions as tweeted by the NextGen Genealogy Network Twitter account and curated by @FamilyStories (Caroline Pointer).


  Engaging the Next Gen.

The main takeaways seem to be to think outside the box for society programming; embrace all interpretations of genealogy and family history; don't just add technology to what you do, but integrate technology into your society; and virtually venture out onto online platforms where the "21st-ers" are already gathering.

What types of solutions has your genealogical society come up with to help engage the next generation? Share your ideas and solutions in comments below!

On Twitter? Follow us at @FGSgenealogy