requesting

I find it kind of amusing that posting has been incredibly light around here when I've been logging a billion hours in front of the computer screen. What am I doing with all that screen time? Begging for donations to the Jersey Girls silent auction. It takes a lot of work to organize these kinds of events and some are easier than others. The JG one is tough because it's third party fundraising, which means I'm Joe Nobody off the street who's asking for a donation and in turn pinky swearing to you that I'm going to donate the cash to a registered charity. I could be an asshole.... how are you to know? I could take all that stuff and live it up with hookers and blow and who would know? It's a genuine concern, I get it. There are a lot of people out there with questionable motives. I'm not one of those people, but again.... how are you to know?

Fundraising under the umbrella of an actual organization like the fundraising I do for the school (donation requests for that are to go out this week) has a much friendlier return on investment because there are protocols in place to give donators peace of mind that their donated items will be used as promised. That being said it's still no walk in the park. There are many many worthy organizations out there and the need for support is great. The organizations and causes that are important to me do not necessarily overlap with all the places I contact for support. I won't lie, it's always disappointing to get a rejection letter (rejection letters are still  better than no response at all, btw), but I understand. Nobody's pockets are bottomless, so businesses must pick and choose where and what they will support. Some are happy to share with you the causes their support goes to in telling you why you're request is being denied, as a person who does more than her fair share of fundraising I appreciate knowing that their support is being directed elsewhere if it's not coming in my direction because, again, the need in our community... any community.... is so great. What isn't in my wheel house is certainly in someone else's and mine are no more important and/or valuable than there's.

Right now I'm sitting at about 20 items for our silent auction and that equals out to about 200 donation requests sent out and both of those numbers will continue to increase over the next few weeks. It's a true labour of love and it's a good thing I love what I do. Most of the time :) So if you have anything to donate need me I'll be sitting right here, typing and requesting and convincing.