Why did you join JLCD?? by Karen Gaumer

I think most of us can say we joined to do something with our time that would be a valuable way to give back to others. We do this because we are the kind of women that admire family, community and the joy of giving.

So, I thought I’d share my perspective on the recent concerns for the big fund raiser we will be working on come the next several months, Moonlight in Monte Carlo. Given we are in the structural building phase of this project, we are seeing the outline before us and often times this part of the process is the least glamorous part to say the very least. What we will see going on right now, primarily is the hardest part…asking for money, asking for things like sponsorship and donations. For most of us this is the most difficult part of being a part of a charity, asking for money from others and given the state of our economy it’s even harder. What is sometimes hard to connect with is that all charities are in the very same boat we are. We are all faced with the challenge of asking folks for their buy in, whether it’s donation, participation or just verbal advertising. What we need to keep in mind is that there are folks that WANT to give and sometimes don’t know how, who, or when to give. Just because you and I don’t have an abundance to give we give our time and that’s on par just as valuable as a monetary donation. How this thought process ties in to the Moonlight event is that, well, this is not a low budget event and we need to treat it like the Oscars or the Grammys. We need to focus on those that do have the money to give and it very well may be folks outside our normal circle of friends and family, I know it might be for me but my goal will be many things. I will aim to find out who has the money to give, tactfully, then ask them if they’d like to have fun giving to charity, getting all glamorous, get their pictures taken, eat amazing food, play on the craps table, spend the evening dancing all the while they are giving to their community. Now doesn’t that sound better than just writing a check? How about asking someone to buy a ticket to give as a Christmas gift, send a friend or two to a glamorous night out and maybe volunteer to watch the kids and it goes to charity…..Think of all the grandparents that would do something like that for their grown children that need a night out. And it’s not ordinary night out……it’s a night in Monte Carlo.

I know most of us are tight for money, there’s no getting around that, I know… believe me I do but some of the greatest events had to start somewhere. Imagine we’ve gone to the greatest efforts and blown the attendance away with what we accomplish, we will not only cut in half the work for the next one, because folks, if this knocks off the socks of the movers and shakers, then we can count of the next party being half the work and much more money. I think if you inquired about the humble beginnings of Art Harvest you’ll find, the first year, we made something like $16k. No doubt they put a lot of work into it, possibly more than we do now (maybe/maybe not – we work pretty hard on this event every year) but it has grown into an animal all its own and raises $80k now. Now, our economy will not always be in the state it’s in now so even though it’s hard to see the future it’s not as hard to set the ground work for great things to come. It takes a little faith, support and hell of a lot of hard work and some of that hard work involves asking for the hardest thing out there……someone else’s money. Keep in mind enthusiasm, teamwork, excitement and good ole’ hands out sidewalk peddling are all free. But, girls, it starts with you. I ask you to become the foundation for the ground swell of enthusiasm and excitement this event needs.

What I do know is that we don’t want to loose any member of this league for financial reasons, we’re all in similar situations so get creative, find a way, be the volunteer you really want to be and find a way to get what we need and that’s money. Let’s face it folks, the goal is to give money back to the community and we have to make money to give money. I’ll finish by telling you a true story and then ask you to try it….I went to a seminar many years ago and the speaker starts by saying to the attendees…..Take you left arm, lift it straight up in the air, bend it down, reach over your head and touch your ear……the entire group methodically all take these steps and looks to this speaker to see if they’d done it correctly…this speaker says to the attendees…..”Just look what you can get people to do if you just ask…….

So, ladies, just ask……