40 Reasons Why: Day #3, Reason #3 - Getting better at 'Thanks!'
Confession time! And what better place to confess a deep, dark secret than in this private, intimate setting with just you and my 8.2e12 closest internet friends, right? Here 'tis: I am absolutely rotten at saying, 'thank you.' How rotten? This rotten: Back in '89 my folks threw a joint graduation party for my older brother (college) and me (high school). It was attended by tons of school and family friends, some who knew me since pretty much the time I was conceived, and I finished the day with a metric buttload of loot and $$$. Guess how many thank you notes got sent out from me to all of these generous people. That's right: ZERO! To give you some perspective on how significant that is: If you lined up all those thank you notes end to end, they would circle the earth exactly zero times. No, I'm not really proud of that.
Since then, expressing thanks hasn't ever come very easy to me. In my [weak-ass] defense, there were a lot of significant circumstances that led to zero thank you notes getting written after that party. But now that I'm at the starting blocks of my 5th decade, it seems like it's time to understand and get over whatever it is that makes it hard to express simple gratitude and thanks. I mean, come on, already! What takes less effort, yet leaves such good feelings, as a heartfelt "thank you?" It's right up there with, "I love you;" "You been working out?' and; "You wanna share these french fries?"
Which is where raising $40G for HIV comes in. In my past fundraising endeavors, the average individual donation size has consistently been about $40. So in $40G there's 1000 potential opportunities for me to say, write, email, and blog a little slice of gratitude. And don't forget all of the fundraising event venues, prize donors, riding partners, encouraging emails and phone calls, and friend-of-a-friend connections that will be/are part of raising all that cash. All told, that's a gajillion opportunities to be grateful and share those feelings of gratitude and understand what's made it so challenging in the first place and, ideally, make it easier to say thanks in the future.
And on that note, this past Monday's fundraiser at Sophia's Thai Kitchen raised $1000! So when it hits my account we'll be at about $17,500. Thank you ALL so much for that!
Showing posts with label thanks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thanks. Show all posts
Friday, November 5, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
With friends like these...
…raising $40G ought to be a breeze!
[NOTE: My most sincere apologies for that horrible rhyme. It’s not me, it’s my upbringing. It has to do with growing up as an East Coast Filipino-American. Whenever my parents got together with their friends they would share the WORST jokes based on bad rhymes, puns, and word play. And it was considered especially hilarious if you took advantage of the Filipino tendency to switch the ‘p’ and ‘f’ and ‘b’ and ‘v’ sounds when speaking English. For instance, here’s a classic knee-slapper. Stop me if you’ve heard it already:
Q: How many bears were in the taxicab with Goldilocks?
A: Four. The Mama bear, the Papa bear, the Baby bear, and the Driver.
See what I mean? Yeah, just shake your head and pity me.]
So where was I? Oh, yeah, this morning I wanted to blog about another neat and unexpected aspect of this whole raising $40G thing. Twice now I’ve sent out not-quite-spam fundraising messages to everyone I can think of, letting them know what I’m up to, asking for help, and sending out updates on my progress. That’s a lot of messages. Exactly how many? Let’s just say that if everyone I emailed donated $26.67 I’d be at my goal. For those of you who prefer the Roman numeral system, I think it’s ‘MDM.’ But I could be wrong. In binary it would be…oh nevermind. It’s 1500 people.
I’ve sent out emails to a lot of people before, but never to this many all at once on a regular basis, so I didn’t quite know what to expect in the way of replies. I hit the ‘Send’ button and did the electronic version of a duck-and-cover, waiting for people, especially the ones who probably didn’t remember me, like the AT&T mobile service rep who helped us consolidate our phone, wireless, and DSL bills back in 2007, to e-flay me for spamming them at 5:30am in the morning. Imagine my surprise, then, when I started to get responses like the following:
“Joaquin this is awesome!!! I am so proud of you and confident you will reach your goal.”
“Love what you are doing!”
“JOAQUIN, YOU.... ARE... AMAZING :)”
“Love you, my power tool of a friend!”
I mean, really, how cool is that? Talk about your daily affirmation. And some of these even included donations. It motivates me to spam my entire email list every day if people are going to respond like that. Even the people who weren’t into it were extremely polite. Here is literally the only non-super positive response I’ve received so far:
“Joaquin, love what you’re doing and wish you success. But can you take me off your distribution list for future messages?”
Wow. I heart this guy even though he said no. Makes me wonder what a ‘yes’ message is like from him. The next time I get a chance to launder some big money for the former Chief of Staff of the deposed Nigerian Prime Minister I’m gonna use that response:
“Dear BELOVED. THANK you for this OPPORTUNITY to ASSIST with your RIGHTEOUS CAUSE and the GIFT of $4 MILLION US. But can you please take me off your DISTRIBUTION LIST?”
And then there are the folks who took the extra step and did some soliciting for me:
“I heart you! I'm racking my brain on how I can contribute to this fantastic cause. I may be able to convince a winemaker we work with to donate a barrel of wine made with Thomson Vineyards grapes for the silent auction you speak of.” NB: Not a case, but an F-ing barrel of wine!
“I checked with the band members about your fundraiser. Our bass player will be out of town, but myself and guitar player will play pro bono for ya'll. So, if you still want us, consider us booked.”
“Went out with a friend this morning, and mentioned your fundraising. She'd like to donate a clock for your auction! :)”
“I spoke with an artist friend of ours today and asked if he would have interest in donating something to your fundraiser in October. He thought he had something he could donate and said I could give you his number.”
Which just goes to show, my friends - you all - kick major butt. Thank you thank you thanks for all of this encouragement and support! You help make it feel like that $40G is just around the corner!
Fundraising Update, as of Tue, Aug 10th:
Funds Raised: $4415.00 or 11% of goal.
Remaining to Raise: $35585 or $912.44 per week.
[NOTE: My most sincere apologies for that horrible rhyme. It’s not me, it’s my upbringing. It has to do with growing up as an East Coast Filipino-American. Whenever my parents got together with their friends they would share the WORST jokes based on bad rhymes, puns, and word play. And it was considered especially hilarious if you took advantage of the Filipino tendency to switch the ‘p’ and ‘f’ and ‘b’ and ‘v’ sounds when speaking English. For instance, here’s a classic knee-slapper. Stop me if you’ve heard it already:
Q: How many bears were in the taxicab with Goldilocks?
A: Four. The Mama bear, the Papa bear, the Baby bear, and the Driver.
See what I mean? Yeah, just shake your head and pity me.]
So where was I? Oh, yeah, this morning I wanted to blog about another neat and unexpected aspect of this whole raising $40G thing. Twice now I’ve sent out not-quite-spam fundraising messages to everyone I can think of, letting them know what I’m up to, asking for help, and sending out updates on my progress. That’s a lot of messages. Exactly how many? Let’s just say that if everyone I emailed donated $26.67 I’d be at my goal. For those of you who prefer the Roman numeral system, I think it’s ‘MDM.’ But I could be wrong. In binary it would be…oh nevermind. It’s 1500 people.
I’ve sent out emails to a lot of people before, but never to this many all at once on a regular basis, so I didn’t quite know what to expect in the way of replies. I hit the ‘Send’ button and did the electronic version of a duck-and-cover, waiting for people, especially the ones who probably didn’t remember me, like the AT&T mobile service rep who helped us consolidate our phone, wireless, and DSL bills back in 2007, to e-flay me for spamming them at 5:30am in the morning. Imagine my surprise, then, when I started to get responses like the following:
“Joaquin this is awesome!!! I am so proud of you and confident you will reach your goal.”
“Love what you are doing!”
“JOAQUIN, YOU.... ARE... AMAZING :)”
“Love you, my power tool of a friend!”
I mean, really, how cool is that? Talk about your daily affirmation. And some of these even included donations. It motivates me to spam my entire email list every day if people are going to respond like that. Even the people who weren’t into it were extremely polite. Here is literally the only non-super positive response I’ve received so far:
“Joaquin, love what you’re doing and wish you success. But can you take me off your distribution list for future messages?”
Wow. I heart this guy even though he said no. Makes me wonder what a ‘yes’ message is like from him. The next time I get a chance to launder some big money for the former Chief of Staff of the deposed Nigerian Prime Minister I’m gonna use that response:
“Dear BELOVED. THANK you for this OPPORTUNITY to ASSIST with your RIGHTEOUS CAUSE and the GIFT of $4 MILLION US. But can you please take me off your DISTRIBUTION LIST?”
And then there are the folks who took the extra step and did some soliciting for me:
“I heart you! I'm racking my brain on how I can contribute to this fantastic cause. I may be able to convince a winemaker we work with to donate a barrel of wine made with Thomson Vineyards grapes for the silent auction you speak of.” NB: Not a case, but an F-ing barrel of wine!
“I checked with the band members about your fundraiser. Our bass player will be out of town, but myself and guitar player will play pro bono for ya'll. So, if you still want us, consider us booked.”
“Went out with a friend this morning, and mentioned your fundraising. She'd like to donate a clock for your auction! :)”
“I spoke with an artist friend of ours today and asked if he would have interest in donating something to your fundraiser in October. He thought he had something he could donate and said I could give you his number.”
Which just goes to show, my friends - you all - kick major butt. Thank you thank you thanks for all of this encouragement and support! You help make it feel like that $40G is just around the corner!
Fundraising Update, as of Tue, Aug 10th:
Funds Raised: $4415.00 or 11% of goal.
Remaining to Raise: $35585 or $912.44 per week.
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