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    CGC Extra-Life Team Discussion

    Paeter
    Paeter
    Admin


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    CGC Extra-Life Team Discussion Empty CGC Extra-Life Team Discussion

    Post  Paeter October 16th 2014, 12:32 pm

    Hey Team!

    First off, I want to welcome Tim O'Donnell to the team! Welcome aboard, Tim and thank you!

    We've bumped our total up to 22% of our $1000 goal since I last wrote, which is good! But now it's probably time we kick our efforts into high gear.

    If you haven't sent e-mails out to friends and family yet, whether you're doing an actual marathon or not, I'd HIGHLY recommend doing that yesterday. Ideally we can send out more than one e-mail to friends and family before the 25th.

    If you're like me and find it extremely difficult to ask people for help or especially for money, I feel your discomfort. And sending out more than one request for donation to the same person is also a tough one for me. But as I think about our own giving habits when it comes to opportunities like this one, or supporting someone's short-term mission trip, I often simply forget about the opportunity to donate. I either get distracted by other things on my to do list or want to wait and talk about the idea with my wife. I'm betting that there are some people among all of our friends and family that are the same way, and could use a second or even third e-mail before the 25th to help them remember and genuinely consider the opportunity.

    I've included my last message to the team in the e-mail thread so you can still check out my first donation e-mail there if you want to copy/modify it for your own use. I am also copying my second e-mail below, sent out yesterday, which you can use as a starting point for your first "update e-mail" if you want.(I included some helpful hyperlinks in the original, but they didn't survive the copy/paste process.)

    With my second e-mail, I chose to make it even MORE personal and informal. I also decided to send it via two routes: the built in e-mail tool that Extra-Life provides, and also my personal e-mail account. The Extra-Life tool is nice because it sends e-mails to individuals without including the string of addresses the e-mail is being sent to. However, it also shows the e-mail as coming from your name, but an unfamiliar e-mail address, which some people (or spam filters) may interpret as spam and quickly delete without considering.

    When using my personal e-mail address I BCC'd everyone on the list and sent the e-mail to one of my own e-mail addresses. This can still look fishy to some people, but I think it's better than including everyone's e-mail in your "To" field.

    To hopefully overcome these minor red flags, I acknowledged them in my second e-mail and included some personal words that would make it clear the e-mail is from me and not someone who hacked my e-mail.

    Something else that may be useful is for you to donate toward your own goal. Some people may not recognize the genuine work and effort you're putting in to doing this fundraiser (to the uninformed, it might all sound a little like an excuse to justify doing what you already love doing), but putting some of your own money toward the goal will communicate that you're in this as much as you're asking them to be.

    I touched on the idea of "incentives" a little last time. I've got some personal incentives on my page that, if you think they would appeal to your potential donors, you're welcome to include on your page and promotions. Just let me know as soon as someone donates the amount in question. You'll see those incentives here:  http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=92024

    I've also just announced that from now through Oct. 26th, all proceeds from purchases at spiritblade.net/store will be donated to the Extra-Life Charity on behalf of the Christian Geek Central team. These purchases will not be tax-deductable, like donating on your Extra-Life page, but every penny SBP earns from them will be given to the hospitals chosen by our team members. I will do that by making a donation to the team member with the lowest current total each time a transaction is completed at spiritblade.net/store. So feel free to let people know that they can help our team goals while also getting some cool goodies for themselves!

    In addition to the e-mail below, I plan to send out one more e-mail on the 24th, updating people on my personal goal and our team goal, and letting them know that they have one last chance to donate before the event is over and help us reach our goal. (I should note that once someone donates, I take them off the list for future update e-mails. But that's a personal choice.)

    Then, sometime the week after the event, I will send out a final report e-mail, this time to all who received a previous e-mail, whether they donated or not, to let them know the final total after the event. If I'm not mistaken, donations can still be accepted after the event is over, which I will let people know at that time. I'm not sure when Extra-Life "resets" fundraising pages in anticipation of the next year's event, but I'd guess they wait at least until the New Year. (Don't quote me.) In any case, you wouldn't want to tell people this until after the event anyway, to help maintain a sense of urgency. (After all, it is a little anti-climactic if we only reach our goal 3 weeks after the event.)

    Once again, I'm brand new at this. So I have no idea if my ideas are any good or not. If you have some ideas to put on the table, by all means let's brainstorm! In fact, I think I'll copy this all to the Brainstorm Shelter on the CGC forums. Wouldn't hurt to raise additional awareness in the community, right? Maybe we can continue the conversation there? http://www.forums.christiangeekcentral.com

    Alright! Totally, "go team" and stuff! CGC on three... 1..2..CGC!!!!!

    -Paeter


    (Paeter's Second E-mail)

    Hello again,

    Sorry for the "spammish-looking" delivery method for this e-mail. Rest assured this is the 100% real-deal, Green Lantern loving Paeter Frandsen! (Though you may get this e-mail twice, once from the fundraising org. and once from my "paeterboy" e-mail, in case your spam filter doesn't like one of them.)

    AAAANY-hoo, this is just an update on my fundraising efforts for the October 25th Extra-Life charity event I'm involved in. (If you didn't get my last e-mail and don't know what I'm talking about, you can visit my fundraising/info page here: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=92024 )

    Things are off to a solid start for me and the Christian Geek Central Team. I'm troubleshooting and working out tech details for my 24-hour video game live-stream on the 25th. And as of writing this I'm only $50 away from my personal goal of $200 raised for the charity! The CGC team as a whole is off to a good start, but we still need some help. We're at 22% of our $1000 goal with just 11 days left to finish the job. I'm kicking things into high gear in hopes of reaching that total and maybe even beyond it!

    In addition to donating to the cause some myself, I'm donating every penny received from purchases at the Spirit Blade Productions online store from now through October 26th toward the Christian Geek Central team's fundraising goal. So if you'd like to get some cool goodies for yourself and help children at the same time, please visit the Spirit Blade Productions online store and consider making a purchase! 100% of the proceeds will go toward helping children receive much needed medical care they could not otherwise afford.

    You can also donate directly on my Extra-Life Page, which is tax-deductable and counts not only toward my own goal of $200 but the CGC team goal of $1000. Even a donation of $5 would be a wonderful help toward my goals!

    Thank you so much for your consideration,

    -Paeter

    Spirit Blade Productions
    Equipping, Encouraging and
    Inspiring Christian Geeks!
    www.spiritblade.net

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: paeter@spiritblade.net
    To:
    Cc:
    Sent:Mon, 06 Oct 2014 09:41:20 -0700
    Subject:Team Update (Welcome, Matt!)


    Hey CGC Extra-Lifers!

    I want to welcome Matt McKinney to the team! There are 4 of us now, and when I last checked we are currently at 20% of our $1000 goal! That's great!

    Please feel free to invite others to join our team. And if you haven't  check out the tools and resources on your Extra Life DonorDrive Central, there's still time! I found some useful tips and ideas there!

    If you haven't sent your e-mails out yet, I would highly recommend doing that as soon as possible. I sent out my e-mails to friends and family just a couple of days ago and already I've gotten $125 in donations! I also wanted to do it early so that, if it didn't feel too pushy, I could send out one more near the end to those who haven't donated yet that got my first e-mail.

    Facebook and twitter are your friends, too! I think the more people hear from us, and the more PERSONALLY they hear from us, the more likely they will be to donate. The form letter Extra-Life provides is decent, but it doesn't read the way I talk. Feel free to modify/personalize your communications with friends and family as well, as I think it makes a real difference. Form letters are easier to delete than an e-mail from a friend or family member.  (See my donation e-mail below below. It's modified from the Extra-Life form e-mail and you may copy and modify/use the e-mail I sent out if you like.)

    Something I'm trying out, which you can do as well even if you aren't doing a marathon, is donation incentives. (You can see mine here: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=92024 ) So you might consider something "crazy" you could do and put on Youtube if you reach a certain percentage of your goal. (Jump in a cold swimming pool, shave your head/beard/eyebrows, do the "truffle shuffle", eat something nasty, etc.)  Or special incentives for those who donate a certain dollar amount.

    I'd also be interested in chatting on speakerphone with any of you during my 24-hour stream on the 25th. If you'd be available (even if you'll be playing games too!) and interested, let me know and we can look at our schedules.

    Also, if you have any ideas to throw in the pool, we could all use them! So don't be shy!

    Thanks for all of your efforts! Keep it up!

    -Paeter



    (My "Donation E-Mail")

    My hope is to increasingly imitate the love of Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2) and more and more often think outside of my own needs. As a small part of that life-long endeavor, I'm on a fun but worthwhile mission to save the lives of children in my community through Extra Life. Extra Life is an organization that benefits Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, allowing children to receive much needed medical care who could not otherwise afford it.

    On October 25, 2014, I will take part in a 24-hour video gaming marathon (Yikes! Been a looooong time since I stayed up 24hrs!) and would sincerely appreciate your support. I'm not looking for "hour-based" pledges dependent on my time spent gaming, but simply one-time donations in support of my fundraising. I've set a personal goal of raising $200 and am leading a very small team with a combined goal of $1000. A one-time donation of $25, $10 or even $5 would be a wonderful help to my efforts.

    I hope you'll consider clicking the SUPPORT ME link at the top or bottom of this message to make a donation today. All donations are collected securely by Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and 100% of your donation is used to treat children in serious need of medical care.

    You're also invited to watch any of my entire 24-hour marathon online from Saturday October 25th 7am(Pacific) - Sunday October 26th 7am(Pacific) at christiangeekcentral.com or twitch.tv/christiangeekcentral

    Thanks for your time and consideration,

    Paeter

    Find out more about Extra Life via the official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ExtraLife4Kids
    Paeter
    Paeter
    Admin


    Posts : 5708
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    CGC Extra-Life Team Discussion Empty Re: CGC Extra-Life Team Discussion

    Post  Paeter October 17th 2014, 11:08 pm

    Hey Guys!

    I was just notified via auto-message that I've hit my fundraising goal of $200! The final bump to $200 came via a generous $50 donation from Travis Morrill, a member of the Christian Geek Central community.

    This weekend on the SBU podcast I put the call out to the community, asking them to get behind our team to help get us to the finish line.

    If we all reach our personal goals, we'll be at $800. Just $200 away from our team goal. Granted, that goal of $1000 was back l when mistakenly thought the average Extra-Lifer raised $200 and not $100, and also based on the assumption that we would have a team of at least 5. Well, half of that ended up being true, but that doesn't make $1000 a ton easier to reach. Maybe that goal is unreasonable. Maybe at the end of October I'll be eating humble pie and admitting I had no idea what I was asking us to bite off.

    While that would be okay with me (humble pie is actually pretty good for my health now and then), I don't want to give us a reason not to push on toward the goal. I also don't want to assume that God doesn't want to do something exciting and surprising here if we each have a willingness to embrace inconvenience to push our efforts that "one step higher".

    So consider looking at the tips and ideas provided by Extra-Life and apply one that you haven't yet. Or send out another e-mail to those friends and family who haven't donated yet. Or maybe add some people to your list that you haven't contacted yet.

    From here on out I'll be channeling as many as I can to donate to your efforts rather than mine, but I'm betting that to reach $1000 we'll each still need to be as resourceful as possible.

    As always, if you have any brainstorming ideas, share them via e-mail or on the forums! We can do this!

    Thanks so much for your involvement!

    -Paeter
    Paeter
    Paeter
    Admin


    Posts : 5708
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    CGC Extra-Life Team Discussion Empty Re: CGC Extra-Life Team Discussion

    Post  Paeter October 20th 2014, 3:07 pm

    We're up to 32% of the team goal! Keep at it!
    Paeter
    Paeter
    Admin


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    CGC Extra-Life Team Discussion Empty Re: CGC Extra-Life Team Discussion

    Post  Paeter October 22nd 2014, 8:43 pm

    40%!!!!!

    Practically at the halfway mark!! Keep it up!

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