I work for an amazing organization and I also needed to get in shape just to walk 2.5 miles because of years of inactivity due to a back injury. It's been quite a ride. I've raised over $10,000 which as I look over some of the campaigns on Go Fund Me is quite a bit. However, not a single "stranger" donated. All of these are people I have met in person or who have read my blog or books or heard me speak. It may be that some of my Facebook friends have never even seen the posts due to Facebook's algorithm... but that seems crazy since I've posted at least 3 times a day for months.
I have one simple goal in the next two weeks. I would love, before it is over, to have just one stranger give me a donation....
The link is here if you would like to be that stranger. If you have donated maybe you'd like to share this and see if your friends, who are strangers to me, might be willing to donate.
I have a couple of friends who had way more creative posts than I and they have not raised nearly as much. My friend Jim had a super creative idea but only has 107 Facebook friends, so that makes it tricky. My friend Mary Beth is actually running a full marathon and has spent a lot of time training, not as much time posting. My boss, Mr. Day, has an amazing life story and has written several books, so I don't know why he hasn't had more donations. He refers to himself as a recovering orphan.
However, there are some campaigns that go viral and money is raised in the hundreds of thousands. Only when people are willing to give money to strangers does this happen.
You may have clicked on this because you wanted to understand crowdfunding... and I wish I could explain it. Some things take off, some things don't. Think Ice Bucket Challenge which had 2.4 million tagged videos on Facebook and raised over 100 MILLION dollars. We all want an idea like that.
If something catches on or it is picked up by a news service or if there is something clever that gets attention, the power of all kinds of people giving a little bit takes over the world. But taking that to that kind of level is very unusual.
I have been surprised at some of the people who have given to the cause -- people who are acquaintances but believe in the mission. I have been surprised that many of the people I consider close friends chose for one reason or another chose not to give anything.
I have closely watched my friend Jeff Green and his wife who have worked many angles in trying to get his story to go viral. His cancer story is compelling and he has lots of friends coming up with clever ideas and sharing his post repeatedly, but he is only half way to his goal.
The organization that I am a part of is serving children and families very well, with a great amount of passion, and with a huge vision. I wish I could find that creative idea that would go viral.
But in the meantime I thought I'd just ask you -- possibly a stranger -- to consider a small donation. We are a couple weeks away from the end of the campaign and have a lot of folks who have tried and raised very little. I would hate to see them get discouraged.
What do you think? A few people working for a great organization that haven't come up with THAT idea would be very encouraged by a few strangers saying -- Hey, what you're doing looks cool.
No gimmicks. No brilliant ideas. Just a small place with a few people who are doing big things for kids and families.
Check out our website. Then click here to give.
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