Your thoughts on our recent Fundraising Campaign

The fundraising campaign is over now. We raised a little over $4,400 through 85 donations.

We want to thank all donors and everybody who helped out throughout the campaign and who helps out day-in, day-out to make the community and our programs possible.

Since the funds raised were a little under 1/3 of the goal we had, we also want to ask everyone some questions to help us improve future fundraising campaigns and our programs at large:

  1. If you donated, what prompted you to do so? What DHF program(s) resonate more for you?
  2. If you didn’t donate, besides economic reasons, would you mind sharing with us why? Was there something we did/didn’t do during the campaign (or before it) that prompted your decision?

P.S. If you feel more comfortable replying to any of these questions via private message, please do so. We really want to hear your feedback.

Manny, when I first saw this I thought this is good, however we, my wife and I, have guidelines on any charitable org that we donate to. I went to community initiatives website to get their financial reports and found none, the document that was presented as an annual report was nothing more than an advertisement. Any org that chooses to not share their finance as well as those that have excessive ‘costs’ and return too small a percentage to the cause receive no donations.

Fair enough. We will make sure to let them know about that, although from this point on (since we now have our 501©(3) status, we will be able to do our own fundraising w/o going through Community Initiatives in order to offer a tax deduction on all donations).

We will do our best to have an annual report published by our December fundraising campaign.

I joned this community and the friendships i have formed one could never put a price on that. But the reading and learning about my disease have helped me make serious decisions about my health. I just want this community to continue to exist…If i was able to give more i guess i would worry about financial reports and such. But i was happy i could give alittle…God Bless You Guys You are doing a great job.

No worries, Leticia. Your support helping get the word out there, welcoming new members, etc. helps.

Manny. I love this site. I have learned so much information here. I find it amazing that I have been a diagnosed Type 1 for almost five years, but there was so much I didn’t really know. This site also helped a lot transitioning to a pump. I have been on other boards, but none compares to this one. The people are great, the advice is solid, and the opinions are normally heart felt.

I donated because I need to support this site and everything that it stands for. I wish I could give more, but we give a lot already to our church and other charities. Sometimes a site touches me so much, that I have to ensure it stays around. This is one of those sites. It is hard for me to explain. I didn’t even know what the gifts were for donating. I was so surprised when you told me about me winning a shirt for donating. That was a nice extra, but not one I was expecting. Nothing like that motivated me. I have to believe in the cause. I was not worried about the financial part since the programs are new. I realized that was something that would come later. I looked at it more as a grass roots sort of thing.

Anyway, that is why I donated a little of my money.

Thanks so much, for your donation, your support and for explaining what made you donate.

Take care, Mike!

I donated because I feel strongly about everything the DHF stands for! I have been diabetic since I was a child and if I had a place like this site to come to back then it would have helped me so much in so many ways! I found this site by accident and its been one of the best “accidents” I’ve ever encountered! :slight_smile: Having others who understand what this is like day in and day out is really helpful! It’s nice to hear others personal experiences with diabetes instead of just hearing from the medical community what you should and should not be doing all the time. I’ve learned a lot even in the short time I have been here even dealing with this for so long myself. I’ve met so many nice people too. Being here inspires me to try even harder managing my diabetes every day to stay in as tight of control as possible and to not give up. When I have a question or am curious about something regarding anything diabetes related I know I can search under old forum discussions to find answers or ask questions here myself. I feel I donated to something important and I would do it again! Thank you Manny and to everyone here! :slight_smile: Keep up the good work!

Thanks so much, Stacey! This helps and means a lot to us.

We didn’t donate, and I’m embarrassed about it. I think that one reason is that there didn’t seem to be any sense of urgency in the appeal. You said you ‘needed’ to raise $15,000 by Sept 28, but you didn’t say what would happen if you didn’t. Your appeal was to my altruism rather than to my self-interest. You told me what you (that is, dhf) wanted to do, but you didn’t tell me what it would do for me.

It’s a little like public radio, it’s here and I get it for free so what’s the big deal? You weren’t threatening to go away. They threaten to go away all the time, tell me what I will lose if they don’t get their money and remind me of what I get by listening to them as compared to my alternatives.

In fact, you’re still here.

Some front page, frank and heartfelt promos, like those from Dino, Judith and Lee Ann probably would have shaken my money loose.

When asking for money, you gotta get in people’s face a little. Y’know, block the sidewalk for a second. Ask for the sale and like that.

Is it too late to make a donation?

Terry

Oh, and premiums. Gotta have premiums, even if it’s only a wristband. A wristband would be cool.

I donated last year, but couldn’t afford it this year. My apologies to everyone.

This is a truly amazing resource & it becomes even more amazing community as time goes on. I can’t even imagine the time & effort Manny & the admin team devote.

Once I’m able to, I will be sending a contribution.

At first, I didn’t think that I had enough money to donate. But then I thought, that if TuDiabetes had a “membership fee”, I would pay it. I get more useful info and support here than from any other book or resource that I do pay for.

Perhaps TuDiabetes could think of having a “suggested” membership fee and ask only those to pay who can afford it? I don’t think that it should be a requirement EVER, but you could have a suggested donation amount and allow people to set up a way to donate easily monthly.

An annual report would definitely help because when so much of your work is online, it is hard to understand what your on-going expenses are. Perhaps you could calculate what it costs to just run the community (not extra awareness programs) and divide that by the number of number of active members and estimate some monthly suggested donation.

When I was a student (i.e. very little money), Habitat for Humanity contacted me and asked me whether I would be able to commit $10 per month for a year. They set it up to automatically deduct that amount from my account. This was easy and I knew that this meant one less dinner out. I figured that I could do that. I agreed and hung up the phone, then I realized what a good approach that was. Had they asked me to donate $120, I would have immediately said NO because I didn’t have that much money on my account. But I knew that I would have at least $10 there each month. This monthly donation approach might be a good option.

What a fabulous idea!

I like this idea.

You know, anyone who banks on-line can set up an automatic payment themselves and ‘push’ the money to dhf rather than have dhf ‘pull’ the money from the account.

Terry

I donated,because it is diabetes related and because I feel , I have a connection with you Manny and in part with the remainder of the Team . I like to spread the the seriousness of diabetes in my little way on TU as does everyone , who contributes to the discussions, blogs , pictures, videos .I want TU to continue .
I would have donated more, if I could have received a tax receipt as a Canadian .

True!

Thanks so much Manny for all that you and the administrative team do. I wish I could have donated…and I hope to be able to do so soon. In the interim, I will spread the news and encourage others to check the site out. My doc was impressed w/ what I shared w/ her and I hope their center will spread the word, because I think the networking and sharing is what is missing w/ conventional diabetes care. I understand the need to raise funds and would be willing to work at getting donors…to tap the industries and entities that can give…to give. I thought of having a fund raising event…but, takes time to pull together. Reality is that many of us are strapped for cash and have lost jobs…but, we definitely want to help. Take care and again…thanks.

I hear you and highly admire/respect all that you do in spite of all the limitations.

Thanks so much for your support!!

{{{{Big hug}}}} In my book…you have stored up a lot of good karma…be well, my friend:)

After years of donating to other, bigger organizations from which I never really got anything in return, I’m so grateful to have an organization of which I feel like I’m actually a part. I don’t want to single other organizations out here (although I’ve offered my, uh, critiques on the blog), but a few years ago, really looking to find some connection, I got involved with a local chapter, but in the end, I didn’t feel like I got what I needed, I appreciate what that organization does for the larger diabetes community, but I want to get a return from my investment, whether my investment is time or money. They just wanted more money all the time, so I felt like they were essentially taking advantage of me. TuD/DHF is so different from that. I have friends here, I feel like my contributions, whether it’s money or posts or something else, are all valued and appreciated. How could I not want to be a part of something that wants me to be a part of it?

Plus, it’s exciting to see how creative expression is valued and supported here. That’s such a unique part of DHF. I LOVE that, and it’s an honor to be able to support that and be involved.

I think the idea of automatic account deductions is fabulous, BTW. Most people wouldn’t notice if a few dollars was deducted from their accounts once a month, and that could add up to a lot over a year.