Last night wasn’t my night
In general, I am quite the meet and greeter but for the first time in a very very long time I found myself sitting at a table just waiting out the event. Very un-me. It was a long time and an exhausting day on many levels. It happens.
So, to all those last night that I didn't get to speak to or I appeared to be disconnected from, sorry. It just wasn't my night. It happens.
As for Donors Choose, which is a great organization, I'd like to see it be stickier. What I mean by that is in the world that we live in, the world of instant gratification, it is so easy to press a button and donate. That works for many but not for all. Perhaps a good handful of the people there would have liked to take their donation to another level by getting involved. In the early days of MOUSE, we had barn raisers on Saturdays where people who wanted to literally climbed through ceilings and wired High Schools. Perhaps Donors Choose can figure out to have Meet-ups at actual schools on the weekends where people can plant a garden, set up the computers, go through the library books and organize them. I am just tossing out some ideas here but as the teachers ( the only people who really met last night ) are teaching the next generation of leaders, maybe we can do more than just send cash.
Comments (Archived):
You’re right. As a teacher, I see first-hand the huge difference Donors Choose (as well as Adopt-A-Classroom) can make in a classroom (mine and those of many colleagues). It would be wonderful if Donors Choose gave donors the oportunity to have more hands-on involvement with a class or school. Public Schools are hurting, and children are suffering. For instance, our new school library sat with boxes of unopened boxes of books for two years before a group was finally brought in to organize the books, but as we have no automated check-out system and no librarian, the library is closed to students (and teachers) and used only for faculty meetinss.
Let’s hope they are listening..
Hey Joanne, Charles here from DonorsChoose.org. Thanks for imagining how we could deliver a physical volunteer experience! As a baby step in that direction, we do frequent “feedback parties” where volunteers get together in our office and help package the student thank-you notes which we send to every donor who gives $100 or more. (As you probably know, even donors giving $1 get photos and a teacher thank-you note and results letter.) We’ll think hard about how to extend volunteerism and allow for more face-to-face experiences…
I really do believe that face to face volunteerism will create a small poolof very loyal donors.