In my last post, I wrote about getting friends to make donations. I was raising funds for Asha for Education, a charity that works on bringing education to children in India, in parallel with my preparation for the Chicago Marathon.

I was given a target of $1200 to meet. After reaching out to friends for support, there came to a point where I thought all those who were interested to donate would have already donated. In other words, it was probably hard to get that many more people whom I know to contribute. At this point, I had only less than 50% of my target met and it was only over a month to go before the Marathon.

There was an easy way out. I could have made up for the balance with my own money. However, that sounded to me like taking part in a Marathon but hopping onto a bus half-way to be brought closer to the finish. I thought I could at least think of something else to do that might helped raise more money.

Reaching out to the Indian community made sense because Asha does work that benefits children in their homeland. I tried my luck at approaching the manager of a well-known South Indian restaurant in Atlanta to ask his permission for me to approach his customers for donation after they finish dining at his restaurant. I managed to secure this opportunity after a few phone calls and a visit.

Many Indians frequent this restaurant and the place is rather busy on weekends. I was confident that I could meet some people there, but I had no idea what sort of response to expect from them. We were, after all, strangers. If you ask me, I will tell you that I am the skeptical kind who hardly give money to strangers. If most people are like me, I might actually collect very little donation. Nonetheless, I told myself that I would give this approach a try and see what results I would get.

I printed a stack of brochures that introduced Asha and explained what I was doing. I wrapped up a tissue box which I would use as my money box. With some very good advice, I prepared a poster board that would help to draw people’s attention. I was ready for my first weekend at the restaurant.

I set up my modest little “booth” outside the restaurant. My approach was to leave people alone as they entered the restaurant unless they struck up a conversation with me. It was as they leave after their meals that I would tell them about what I was doing there and invite them to make a donation.

As I expected, there were people who declined. Also, to my pleasant surprise, when people did decide to give, they can be very generous. It was, overeall, a humbling experience. Think about it, people whom I have never met before, and whom I will most likely never meet again, entrusting me with their money after that short span of time during which I told them I was helping to raise funds for children in India to go to school. Moreover, some of these donations were not what I considered small amounts that I would hand to somebody I did not know, even if they claim do be representing a charity.

At the end, I spent three weekends at the restaurant. I am very appreciative of the people who left a donation in the box as well as those who stopped and listen to what I had to say. The response I got from the three weeks was beyond what I had imagined. By race weekend, I had exceeded my fund rasing target. So I avoided the situation similar to hopping on a bus halfway in a Marathon. I guess I was really lucky to have met many generous people.

With the incredible conclusion of having to reach out to thousands of people whom I do not know in order to reach my fund raising goal, I reasoned that I had better approach people whom I know first. I thought and I hoped that people who knew me, who knew my interests would be kind enough to show their support by donating more. In fact, this would have been how I acted. I would have been more responsive to a friend compared to a stranger who asked me to donate money.

The challenge here is how to get people interested and respond. Mass mailing does not work. Yes, it is easy to get to hundred over people through mass mailing. The reality is that people rarely respond to them. I do occasionally receive mass mails from people I know asking for donations. These were mostly emails that were forwarded on and arrived in my mailbox. So it was probably my friend’s friend’s friend who was trying to get help. I do not remember having responded to these emails. They end up in my trash bin, especially when I hardly know the person and when I could not identify strongly with their cause.

These are two important points, at least to me – knowing the person and identifying with the cause he or she supports. So I was hopeful to mobilise some very old friends as well as those who are aware of my enthusiasm for running. I was hoping that they can give their support if they can.

It was more difficult to establish a rapport with people on the second point. I do not think many of my friends are as crazy over India as I am. Bringing education to children in India may not be something in the radar screen of my circle of friends when it comes to supporting a charity. There are a few of them, however, who know of my adventures in India and know that I am very fond of the country.

Despite it being more difficult to connect with people on the cause, this was in fact the most important factor in keeping me persistent in pursuing my fund raising campaign. There are many good causes to support and I could have chosen just any charity to run for. The result would have been another good deed anyway. The problem is it being just “another good deed anyway”. I think there is a difference between “it is good to do something for them” and “I would like to do something for them”. In wanting to do something that contributes to children’s education in India, I actually got quite serious in doing what I could to meet my fund raising goal.

So, how did this exercise fare eventually? Well, firstly, I have some friends who graciously offered their donations. Many thanks from me to them for their support. Secondly, some other friends replied to tell me that they are not able to help, which is perfectly fine since everyone has their own priority. I am appreciative of them letting me know their decision. Then, I also have friends who have not replied. I suppose their answer is “no”, but not having heard from them also made me wonder if I should be doing a better job in keeping in touch with people over the years. Maybe it is the idea of this distant woman popping up only once in a while and with whom they share little in common that explains the absence of a response.

Anyway, after this wave of activities, the good news was that I was very conservative in my initial estimates on the number of donors I needed. People were very generous. I figured that I actually needed not as many people as I thought, but the bad news was that I was still far from the amount I had to raise. In other words, there was some progress, but not enough.