Appreciating my own value part II

Tomorrow it’ll be May which means it’s the time to raise funds for FA research via the Lend Us Some Muscle campaign (more information here).

It’s not hard to get involved. Simply decide how you’ll be active and when during the month, that part’s easy.

What many people find much more challenging is turning their activity into funds.

The first steps are straightforward – your fundraising page can post your photo and a link to Twitter, to Facebook, even to LinkedIn. It’s much more effective but more difficult though, to include a link to your page and compose an email to all your contacts asking them directly for donations. “Now?” “When the news is filled with stories of a cost-of-living crisis and real wages going backwards?” “It feels like I’m always asking for donations!”

Well here are just a few thoughts to balance out those challenging ones. First of all, like I said with the NDIS (here’s my note in case you haven’t seen it), you’re a conduit. Funds you raise don’t go to you. They go to fara and fund research.

Secondly, people who can’t afford to give won’t give. They simply won’t click the link in your email, but some people probably will, and if you didn’t ask, that funding might never have gone to FA research.

And finally, for anyone who can give, for any donation above $2, from an individual or a company, fara issues a receipt and they can claim it as a deduction against their taxable income at tax time.

As Ron Bartek of FARA US says “Acting alone, there is very little any of us can accomplish. Acting together, there is very little we will not accomplish!” I, you, we have value in so many ways, especially when we participate in a team effort to create possibilities for others.