For those of you new to this site, I feel as though I should begin this week’s post like a weekly television series, “Previously at The Storyteller Cafe.” Instead let’s just say for nearly three years I’ve been sharing my slightly stilted view of life’s little adventures and hopefully a few laughs and all of those tales can be found on this site for your reading pleasure. For the foreseeable future, however, I’ve got a different task ahead of me.
Fundraiser In Chief
As many of you already know, following emergency open heart bypass surgery this past April, Jon and I were left with over $65,000CA, approximately $51,000US in medical expenses. Despite Canada’s vaunted healthcare system, as an American, even though I’m legally married to a Canadian, I fell through the cracks and, at the time, had no healthcare coverage to help defray expenses.
We began a GoFundMe campaign to help raise funds to meet these expenses, which our friends and families have very generously responded to raising nearly 10% of the total needed in just under a week.
Now the real work of raising the remaining 90% begins. And that is my new job, Fundraiser In Chief.
In order for this campaign to succeed, we need to reach far beyond our immediate circle of friends and tap into the vast reaches of social media. While reading about fundraising, I’ve learned that in order to raise large sums of money. it’s recommended you break up your campaign into a series of smaller, easier to reach goals. I know, it sounds like an even less exciting NPR fund drive, but without the free tote or coffee mug.
That said, the serialized version of my book, God Can Wait, and the story of my emergency surgery, The Cardiac Chronicles, are yours for the reading here at TheStorytellerCafe.com
If just 1,800 more people donate $25 US each, we will have met our overall goal of raising the $51,000 in healthcare costs. While that sounds like a lot of people, it’s barely 0.00000818% of Facebook users in the US and Canada. Not to mention other forms of social media.
The Golden State Challenge
I know, it sounds like an even less exciting NPR fund drive, but without the free tote or coffee mug.
Instead of appealing to two thirds of North America all at once I want to set up a series of challenges from around Canada and the US. Between us, Jon and I have hundreds of contacts in California.
I know many of you have already either made a donation, shared the announcement of our campaign, or both. Unfortunately repetition is also one of the keys to successful fundraising. Here’s our challenge to my old home state, as the birthplace of the technology that’s made social networking and crowdfunding possible, let’s see how close we can come to reaching those 1,800 people willing to donate $25.
Using the Facebook “share” button on our GoFundMe page, add the following text—or words of your own choosing—to encourage those on your Friends lists to help make California the leader in this fundraising campaign.
Hi, my friends Jon and Chuck continue to work at meeting their GoFundMe goal of $51,000 to cover the costs of Chuck’s emergency open-heart bypass surgery. Following the initial success of their campaign, they’re now relying on the kindness of folks like you who’ve probably never met or even heard of them to make this a reality.
As Chuck says, “If 1,800 people donate $25 or whatever they can afford, we’ll make that goal.” They have challenged California, home to high tech and the entertainment industry, to set the pace for their campaign. Please consider helping my friends pay for this life saving surgery by showing them California is up to the challenge.
Of course, if you’re not from California and want make a donation or set up your own regional challenge, that would be great as well.
Edited by
Kenneth Larsen
Next week: TBD
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