I won’t lie, I was pretty optimistic about this fundraising challenge. (And no matter what, we’ll get the $500!)
But, I’m running into a weird conundrum. I guess I thought after the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, people liked doing dares. And for $3-5, I’m a pretty cheap dare! So I thought of my 600+ friends, I’d have about 100 people willing to chip in a few bucks for the cause. I was even hoping that more people would chip in and we’d get more than $500.
It’s weird, though- it’s definitely not had the kind of reaction that I thought it would. Don’t get me wrong, some people have been above and beyond generous. Patricia gave $35. Athena bought $85 worth of stuff. Ernesto gave $5 just ’cause, and Jessica gave an extra $15!
But in other ways, I feel almost bad or guilty for asking my friends individually. I mention that I’m doing this to some people and feel like they’re already squirming in their seats. I don’t want to be pressuring people to give large sums of money, I just figured, hey, $3 is not so much, right? A cup of coffee here, a candy bar there. But maybe I am thinking about this the wrong way. This was my idea after all, not their’s…what can I do that will make this special for them? How can I make this worth someone’s $3, and not offend them by virtue of asking? I want people to feel good about donating. I want them to feel engaged and connected with something that’s really far away from their every day.
I don’t have a great answer for it, but I’m going to try to figure this out. The good news is, we’re a third of the way there!
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