Fundraising week is winding down.
I’m finally done sharing the plummets on my emotional roller-coaster (aka whining on the internet).
The one thing that has been really great about fundraising is that being in the money-raiser position, I am now far more likely to give money, without having to be too terribly prodded about it.
Even I used to buy into some of the fundraising misconceptions (mainly – “if I can only afford to give $5 or $10, I might as well not give anything ’cause the person’s gonna look at that, sigh, and sarcastically say, ‘Oh yeah. Thanks soooooo much for “helping”.'”).
But now, I’ve realized how precious every dollar is. I do a little dance, and throw myself a tiny party, every time I get an email saying I got anything.
As always (whenever I take on any project), I became a little on the obsessive side – and definitely the yearning to “win” side of all this. I unhealthily start to wrap a big part of my self-worth in whether I can escape failure – in this case whether I could somehow get more people to give money to Broadway Impact.
I now understand the overwhelming joy when the thermometer on the fundraising page ticks up at all – even if it’s just a bit.
I also realize how many hours it takes to write people in your address book and on places on social media, to make videos, to send thanks yous, and on and on. I never really thought about that before.
I gave to a stranger who needs a hip surgery. I gave to HRC and The Four this year after seeing some tweets about various pushes/campaigns the organizations were doing.
I even gave a donation to a charity I don’t really believe in – not one that actively supports something I don’t believe in, but just one that from everything I’ve read has a somewhat high overhead. (And I’ve read on multiple (seemingly legitimate) online sources that about 25% of what people raise goes toward the cost of the fundraiser’s race/trip).
But I just thought, “I like my friend. She’s super nice, and she deserves a trip. So, I’m just gonna donate this $26.20 with the intention that I’m helping a good friend do something nice for herself.”
And knowing full well what I was actually giving to (her trip), and still feeling great about it made me feel awesome.
Aaaanyway, the point of this post isn’t to list all of my giving. (“Oh, look at me. I’m soooo generous.” (Not.)) Most of my donations to those places were small. And the majority of my charity money went to my fundraising page. (Feel free to put money in it as well. That’s why I linked it! :)) The majority of my money in general went to funding my fun project (the 52 half marathons).
Was that worth it? Was that kind of selfish? It was definitely at least kind of selfish. Whether it was worth it can be debated in a later post when wrapping up the 52 half marathons.
I guess the point of all this is to say that fundraising started to make me a better person, I think (or, at least a person more willing to give). Well, two things started to make me a better person this year – that and following Cory Booker’s twitter feed.
I’m serious. I know it’s only a twitter feed… But it was almost like he knew when I was feeling down about myself. Boom. Inspiring quote in the timeline.
Plus, I kept seeing him not even take a second to think before helping a complete stranger.
It seems to be the absolute reflex with him. “See someone in need? See something trying to help a cause bigger than herself? I’m in. I’m in immediately.” That seems to be the Cory Booker attitude, and I love it.
He doesn’t seem suspicious, distrustful, too guarded, or cynical. He just seems to have an open, caring heart. He’s a great role model – and certainly one of mine.
Aaaaand, tying this together – I’m not sure that I would’ve gotten twitter had it not been for fundraising. So, overall, I think fundraising has affected my life in a positive way.
I don’t have the resources of Cory Booker, and I am definitely still going to make some selfish decisions in life. (Sorry. Fact.) But I’m at least going to try to make fewer selfish decisions, and more selfless ones…