Runnin’ to Remember

Posted on May 4, 2008 9 Comments

Wind rushing in my face, the bright sun beaming down, the fresh smell of Lake Michigan on a beautiful spring morning and a run for a good cause … those were the perfect conditions in place when my mom snapped this rather intense pic of me. I like how it looks like I’m in the lead.

For the second year, I completed the “Run to Remember” to benefit the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, which supports the families of officers lost or catastrophically injured in the line of duty. My dad is a police officer, and he’s been injured (though not catastrophically!) a few times on the job throughout the years, so the cause feels close to home. This was my first ever solo fundraising drive (outside of a group or organization), and I managed to raise $285. My goal was $300, and even though I didn’t make it, I’m glad I tried.

I imagine there are better ways to fundraise than simply e-mailing your donation URL to family and friends and posting a sign at a party, but that’s all I did. I was really worried about seeming too pushy, so I only asked for $10 donations. In the process, I learned a few important lessons about fundraising:

1) People are fundraising for a lot of things. I have a really big family, so my cause was “competing” with an Easter Seals drive and with donations to support a relative’s efforts to adopt (it’s a long, happy story for another day). At work, a colleague was raising funds for a health research foundation. All worthy causes, and for the average person, it’s probably difficult to choose where to put the extra $10 or $20 on top of annual donations. For the fundraiser, breaking through the clutter is a challenge.

2) People don’t feel compelled to donate to your cause just because they like you. Truth be told, I was sort of surprised by the lack of response. I usually try to make a small donation whenever somebody I know is running, walking or rolling for a cause. But I guess folks have a lot of other things going on in their lives that prevents them from donating, and I can’t take that personally.

3. People who do donate are spectacular superstars. I tremendously appreciate donations from friends and family who supported my efforts. After this experience, I have a new found respect for those who do manage to scrape together a few dollars here and there to help the fundraisers out there.

4. Just e-mailing people isn’t enough. I’m not sure what cause I’ll raise money for next year, but I’m pretty sure I’ll do more than just e-mail. Certainly lots of people don’t check their inboxes and it’s much easier to ignore donation requests completely over e-mail.

Overall, I think this experience really opened my eyes to how difficult fundraisers have it. I realize the police department isn’t at the top of the list of causes for most people, who probably believe their taxes are already supporting the officers’ families, and that this cause doesn’t affect everyone in the same way that it affects those of us with loved ones in the police department. But the fact that support is hard to come by kind of makes me want to push harder for the same cause next year.

Originally, I was thinking about fundraising for colon cancer research in 09, since both of my grandmothers were afflicted with it, but the ACS has a huge fundraising machine behind it. I’m thinking it might be more impactful for me to stay with the Memorial Fund and try to raise more next year.

Either way, the first one is under my belt, I’m glad I did it, and I have a long time before I decide plans for next year’s fundraising drive.

If you’re interested in donating to the Chicago Police Memorial Fund, you can visit my fundraising page here. (Note that not all of my donations are reflected on the page.)

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