It’s 6:15 PM. The start time was 5:30. It’s time to face the inevitable… no one is coming. Heat rises to my face and my heart pounds as I apologize to the teacher who volunteered her time to lead this paint party fundraiser for us. She responds with incredibly selfless grace and encouragement and I thank God for her. I help her clean up, gather my things, thank the instructor again and leave.
You know those Facebook friends that only post the good and exciting parts of their life? Well we have decided that will no longer be us.
Only sharing the happiest parts of life with others does not give an honest representation of reality.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9 –
So here we go, boasting about our weaknesses in order to share what God did through it and what we learned from it. Our supporters and future racers deserve for us to write about the good, the bad, and sometimes even the ugly throughout this journey so that the power of God will be magnified (and so that other racers can learn from our experiences). We have been very blessed by blogs written for future racers and we hope that this will be beneficial for others.
What to do when no one shows up to your fundraiser:
1. Give the people you invited the benefit of the doubt
Most likely, it’s not personal. People are busy. People forget. Unless they have held fundraisers, most people truly don’t realize how helpful it is for you to have definite attendance numbers.
2. Thank the people that were there to help you
This is a no-brainer, but go above and beyond to show your gratitude. I told my mom that she got the mom of the year award for being the only person there. Don’t let any current feelings of humiliation cloud showering your supporters with thanks.
3. Learn from any mistakes you may have made and be proud of the work that you put into it
We learned that it is important to think about what other people have going on in their lives and be realistic about whether or not it is a good time of year to hold a fundraiser. Back to school? Not such a great time to have an event. This doesn’t mean to not do it, but if you only have 3 people who have confirmed that they will be there and 4 maybes, consider the fact that cancelling might be better. I didn’t want to do it, but it would have been better in the long run to not waste the time of the people helping me. Besides those things, we honestly did everything we possibly could have and I am proud of the work we put into inviting over 200 people. It is a good feeling to know we did our best on it even if things didn’t turn out as we had hoped.
4. Know that this will help you to become more flexible (which is key for the race!)
There will be many times that plans change and your expectations aren’t met while on the field. At least you have a little bit more of this experience with being flexible under your belt now!
5. Trust that God sees your hard work and knows your heart
All that we can do is our best. Sometimes, the truth is that fundraising isn’t always “fun”. But fun isn’t what we are called to is it? Trusting God and being obedient is what we are called to do. Don’t let your faith falter just because your work does not seem like it was successful. Success in fundraising is defined by great faith, hard work, and boldness.
6. Process through it, shrug your shoulders, laugh, and focus on what’s next
Do what you need to do to think through the event (for me it was writing this blog), accept what happened, and move on! Do not let it discourage you and if you need encouragement, be honest with those around you that you need it! God will give you peace because He loves His children.
And also eat the cookies that you made for the event and now have left over. The calories don’t count if it was done for fundraising, right? Chocolate and laughter are the best medicine.
We know that this won’t be the only difficult event that we’ll experience throughout the year and we are making a commitment to be real throughout our journey. Can you imagine what it would be like if the New Testament only included the happy parts of Jesus’s life? Not only were the writers honest in sharing the challenges He faced, but Jesus himself did not shy away from speaking the truth no matter how difficult it may have been for Him to do so! Therefore, we can’t wait to share all the work that God does no matter what it may look like and we are so grateful for our supporters who will journey alongside us!
