Difficulty meeting goals

[Duck on Wheels]

I did the cookie sales at work, and to friends with great success last year. A lot of my friends are still students and can't give much, but are always buying snacks so cookies went down a treat. I'll be doing the same this time around (for alc next year), but this year I am also trying something new. I've booked a table at the local pre x-mas craft fair and am knitting every spare moment I get. I'll be selling traditional Norwegian wooly socks and mittens. And a friend is making earrings for me to sell too. I'll let you all know how that goes....

Other things I did that worked last time around....I e-mailed/wrote to everyone I have ever met that I still had an address/email for, including people from projects I have worked on, friends I have lost touch with, family I have barely seen. Ended up with several unexpeced donations, and as an added bonus got back in touch with a few friends I hadn't heard from in years.

I can't do the cookie sale thing because food sale tables on campus are for student organisations only. So I guess I'll have to put in a couple of days' work loading up all the email addresses in my years and years of emailing. Gasp! Just think of the numbers of students I've emailed over the years! And colleagues, and businesses, and and and. It'll be quite a list! Then compose a letter that works for family, friends, colleagues, and all the way down to folks I've maybe never even met. Then we'll see. Times are tough, and the minimum fundraising goal is up to $3000, but Trek and UK got me hooked so I'll just have to try.

I'll also have to phone back and nag at my gym's publicity manager again. I could hear his eyes lighting up about the publicity possibilities, but he said they didn't have a sponsorship budget so couldn't donate. Hah! They've got a stunt going where for every friend you get signed up as a new member you get one month of your membership free. That's about $55 a pop. If the publicity of me training there for the ALC was enough to light up his mercenary little eyes over the phone, surely that's because he figures it'd bring in at least a few new members! Now if they would promise me say 3 free months, I'll do the promotion and contribute that money in their name -- anonymously if they don't want to set a visible precedent. Then if more than that sign up and mention the publicity thing as a motivator, they're welcome to "donate" more in the same fashion. Whaddaya think, ladies? Does that make sense? Would you be more inclined to join a gym if they featured a 60-year-old lady who'd trained herself in good enough shape there to ride 545 miles in 7 days?