January 15th, 2009 by Dave Perks

The Power of the $20 Donation

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I suppose this post will be the human-interest portion of our blog for the week. You probably won't learn much that you don't already know (word spreads fast on the Internet) in this one, but you might just remember something that you forgot (human kind is in much better shape than we give ourselves credit for).

Twelve days before Christmas, I was sitting at my kitchen table doing a little work, but I was distracted. I had this thought in the back of my head that wouldn't leave me alone, and it had been there for quite some time: wouldn't it be great to help a family out this Christmas.

I kept putting it off thinking I didn't have enough time to do anything meaningful. But finally, that night at the table, I figured I'd never know if I didn't try.

So I set up an account at fundable.com – a site that enables online fundraising. I wrote a story about my dad and his desire to help people during the holidays, then uploaded some pictures and started things off with my own donation.

Then I put it out on Twitter and facebook and started asking for donations. I kept at it and changed up the themes of my Twitter posts so that they weren't all just outright pleas for money. Some were facts about my dad. Others had to do with little things he used to do for us when we were kids, but there was always a link to the fundable site.

By Monday, the fund was over $600. By Tuesday, it was over $1,000 and donations had come in from 9 different states. They were starting to roll in from people I didn't know. At that point, I began to think I was about to witness something big. I was right.

When it was all said and done, the total was over $2,500. Every dime was raised between December 13th and December 20th. One week was all it took to reach people I've never met and probably never will, tell the story of what I wanted to do in my dad's memory, and convince them that their $20 donation could make a difference.

On Christmas Eve, my wife and I had the pleasure of delivering gifts to an entire family here in our community. There were a bunch of gifts for the three daughters, and presents for the mom and dad as well as for two uncles who lived with them. All seven family members lived together in the same trailer. We gave them a $500 gift card for groceries and put a $600 credit on their electric account.

All of that was made possible by the people I reached and by those who passed the message around once they gave. I learned two very important lessons throughout this whole experience: 1) never, NEVER underestimate the power of word of mouth and social media and 2) next year can be even bigger if I start earlier.

I'd love to hear your stories about how you've used social media and networking to help others, so send them along.

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