Asking For Money

I don’t like asking for money.  Tomorrow I’m going to be asking for a lot of money and I’m anxious. Let me back up and explain why and why I’m okay with it even though I’m not comfortable with it.

Four years ago I got involved with my children’s school.   I was a chronic volunteer and stepped in doing anything there was a need for.   During that time we were getting ready to move forward with buying property and building a new home for the school that had been on rented property since its inception.  

During the initial year I was with the school I was asked to serve on the board and then got involved with the development committee and ultimately co-chaired the capital campaign committee in which we planned to raise some money to help fund the school.    At the initial point I joined I had no idea how much money we’d raise.   To this day I look at the small number of families at our school and can’t believe we raised over a million dollars.

One of the things I had to learn was how to ask people to give money.   People are motivated by different things but no one’s going to give money to a cause just because you asked.   You need to ask but you need to ask the right way.   In the case of a school it’s not that hard because your typically asking parents or grandparents and the thing they’re donating towards they see a direct connection to the benefit they’ll receive from their donated funds.

But whatever it is, it’s not good enough that the cause is your cause.   You have to make it their cause.   And that’s what the pitch is about.   Tomorrow I’m presenting to another family at our school.   There already on my “cool” list because they have a Tesla Model X (but I’m biased on that front).  They’re very friendly and understand philanthropy.   But that doesn’t mean it’s an easy thing to ask someone for money.

I know I’m not asking for them to give money to me.   I also know my husband and I have already made our own painful contribution to the campaign or I wouldn’t be presenting and asking for money (a tenant of fundraising).   Still, that doesn’t make it easy.

On the other side of this whole post is what happens when the family says yes and does make a significant contribution.    That makes your day, week, month, knowing you had a part in raising money for something you believe in.

The Big Boy Update:  It was thundering this afternoon and raining very hard.   My son and I like weather.   He had been outside laying on the sidewalk letting it rain on him.   He came in for a bit and was working on his school work before the music teacher came when it started raining really hard.   He and I looked out the window and I said if he wanted to finish the book he was reading he could go back outside in the rain.   He looked longingly out the window and said, “thank you rain.  When I go back out I’m going to thank you.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter’s night ended badly last night.   She didn’t want to work on her sight words.   I gave her three chances and after that I told her she had to go to bed.   Thus began the tantrum because I wouldn’t let her do the thing she didn’t want to do.   It went on and on— the wailing, the moaning, the crying and falling into a blob on the floor—all the typical tantrum components.   She tried everything to get me to let her try again.   The one that was the sweetest was when she told me, “my heart hurts because I can’t do my sight words.”   I told her if she wanted, she could have another chance in the morning after breakfast.   And this morning she remembered and spent a good bit of time working on the words.