It's happening

Since I last talked to my rep I've been pestering everyone I know about fundraising. What does it take to make people donate? That's been one of the questions. Well I found an answer. Not much. The people I've expected to donate take their time. Meanwhile in a surprising fashion many others have jumped on board. I was nervous about it. But it's been a good experience. There was just one person who reacted adversely. I'm going to tell you what happened just so you realize that this can and does happen and shouldn't effect how you continue fundraising.

I went into my bank of clients to find email addresses and came up with a short list of those people who I've talked to about ALC. I sent the fundraising emails and waited. Within 20 mins I had a my first donation! 50 bucks! Woo hoo! Then I got a nasty email. One of my clients lashed out at me. Asking things like, did I think he was made of money? and just because he teaches at Stanford and his kid goes to a fancy college doesn't mean he has extra income.

It would have been better if I just ignored my email. If you can't donate you can't donate. I didn't think about whether he was made of money. I knew he was someone who came to see me regularily and knew my proclivities about asking for cash.
The weird thing is, he donated 50 bucks. Yeah. So why? He felt guilty. I didn't know what to say. I wanted to thank him in person and was supposed to see him in a few days anyway so I waited. I got another email. Did I get his money or not? Wow.
He came in and I treated him like I always do, with kindness, said thank you and we haven't spoken about it since.

So what can I take away from this? Some people have issues around money.
My friend Lianne says "what did you expect? People can say anything under the sun." She was right.