First, the good NET cancer news
There is some good news on the NET cancer fundraising front this week. My personal Jimmy Fund Marathon Walk campaign is rapidly closing in, unofficially, on $5000. That will put me one-quarter of the way to my personal goal of $20,000 for that event.
I made Jane a promise.
At this point, I think reaching $15,000 by September should be pretty straight-forward. I have not yet launched my online effort or started to look for businesses to sponsor our team’s shirts. Combined, those efforts should net another $10,000. But that will still leave me $5,000 short of my personal goal. And that is $5000 I have no idea where will come from as I write this. I’m sure I will figure that piece of it out. I have six months to work with.
We need NET cancer walkers
The larger problem is finding 40 more people to walk on our team. Despite a great deal of effort, we only found about 16 people to join our Caring for Carcinoid/Walking with Jane team last year. And our team total was only a bit more than $19,000 after topping $35,000 the year before.
The goal is to double that ($100,000) this year.
So far, I remain the only person signed up to walk for our team. And while I think $20,000 is not out of the realm of possibility for me personally, raising the $40,000 that is our team goal would mean raising more money than any single person raised a year ago on any team–if memory serves. If I can get to $20,000 that means we only need to average a little over $500 a person if we find 39 other walkers. And that average declines with very walker beyond 40 we recruit.
We can reach our NET cancer goals
And I am fairly certain I have a way to get everyone on our team to raise at least $500. It is the same method I have used to raise more than half of what I have taken in myself to date–so I know the method works.
I’ve dropped off folders to over 80 local businesses…
I have had some nibbles over the last week about the possibility of joining our Jimmy Fund Marathon Walk team–I know a number of folks are thinking about joining us for at least part of the Walk. But no one else has signed on yet. That needs to change–and change soon.
Relay for Life efforts behind NET cancer’s
Our Greater Fall River Relay for Life team has the opposite problem. There we have some numbers–and we are significantly ahead of where we were a year ago in terms of money raised. But our team goal there is double what it was a year ago: $10,000 in 2012 versus $20,000 in 2013. And while we are ahead of last year, we are not that far ahead. A mid-three figure total would worry me less were that event not less than four months away.
I am fairly certain I have a way to get everyone
on our team to raise at least $500.
Part of that has to do with my focus on NET cancer and the Marathon Walk. And part of it has to do with my failure to translate lots of effort on securing corporate sponsorships for the event into solid results. I’ve dropped off folders to over 80 local businesses and so far have managed to recruit one new team–and no new sponsors.
NET cancer fundraising limits
None of this would matter were my goals for this year for Walking with Jane not so high. Last year we generated just over $100,000. The goal is to double that this year. But when I do the math I only see us matching that figure without inventing new ways to raise significant amounts of new money. I’ve personally asked everyone I can find a way to ask–or will have done so shortly.
I have six months to work with.
But I will keep working to figure it out. Too many people die from cancer every year. Too many people are incorrectly diagnosed with something else when they actually have NET cancer every year–and too many people die because of that.
Keeping my promises
I made Jane a promise. I made her doctors a promise. And I made me a promise. Raising the money to find a cure–no matter how difficult it appears at the moment–is easier than watching NET cancer kill someone you love–and much, much easier than being the one dying.
