You've Got That Giving Feeling: How Causes Can Help You Raise Donations for EARN
If you’re reading this blog post, I want to say, “thank you." You’ve made your way to our website, have probably dug around a bit, and maybe you’re even following us on Facebook and Twitter. You’re awesome!
I hope that something about our work at EARN has resonated with you, so much so that you’re excited to get others involved, too! That’s the same exact feeling I had when I joined EARN, and I want to tell you a story about how I acted on that feeling this past holiday season.
Like many folks, I don’t have endless money to donate to my favorite causes. What I do have, though, is a lot of friends with the same urge to support the work of awesome organizations like EARN in small but significant ways. With those friends in mind, I took on a special fundraising project last December. Allow me to explain…
Instead of asking for Christmas gifts last year, I asked my friends and family to donate to EARN through Causes, an application on Facebook that helps you support the organizations you love most (like EARN!). One of the best features that Causes offers is the ability to create a “wish,” which is a fundraising goal centered around a significant event like a birthday or holiday. In my case, it was a holiday wish for EARN.
In the past, my experience with asking for money has been, well, awkward. It felt sort of strange trying to bring it up in conversation, and I never seemed to find the right time or approach. By comparison, setting up my Causes wish felt effortless. A few clicks into it, I not only was excited but was actually learning a thing or two about how to ask for support from friends. Causes gives you tips and encouragement along the way to make sure your wish has the best chance of success. I set a somewhat ambitious goal of $250 and hoped for the best.
So, how did this experiment pan out? In the end, I made my goal of $250! I was so incredibly surprised at how many people donated and which of my friends chose to chime in with their support. It was great sending thank you notes, and now my friends are actually asking me about EARN, instead of me having to find a way to talk about it with them. Overall, the experience was fantastic.
I share this story because I think there are probably quite a few great people out there like you who’d like to support us but feel like their donation may be too small or insignificant. It’s not! Better still, if you involve your friends with a Causes wish, your support can grow exponentially at the same time that you’re sharing EARN’s work with your closest compadres!
So, I want to encourage you to try a Causes wish for EARN some time this year. In fact, I’ll go one step further and say that whoever gets the most people involved in their wish by the end of this year will be treated to lunch by yours truly so we can trade stories about our wishes, EARN and whatever else may come up. Get started at http://wishes.causes.com.
Best wishes,
Matt
Communications Fellow
