The Shoot Charities, Don't They?

I have been insanely busy these past 10 days or so. I have agreed to help three different non-profits and all three have immediate needs. I haven't completed any of the projects yet and am feeling like a big walking disappointment.

I have to say that a major priority of mine since last Wednesday has been in trying to get votes for Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Network Cares (the disease my girl have) through Chase Community Giving on Facebook. Chase Bank (for those of you who haven't been bombarded with requests), has $5,000,000 to give to the 100 charities - out of 500,000 competing charities - who can get the most people to vote for them. We have till midnight Friday to get as many votes as we can and the small group of us who are really rallying have become crazy with the need to wind up one of those 100. We investigate as best we can to see which other charities are doing better than us, and then, how much better, and then, how many there are. Everyone has 20 votes to spread across 20 different charities and we withhold votes we would otherwise give if it seems that those charities might be in direct competition with us or if they seem to have too any votes already. We strategize as to how best to ensure votes from our friends and associates and how to get our friends to get their friends to vote. All of this has to be done on Facebook. Every one of us working on this have exhausted our "friends" lists, sending mass messages, personalized messages, and generalized posts. We are literally hounding people. Those of our group who are college aged have done tremendously well because they have thousands of "friends" (something until this week I thought was ridiculous!). Our little tiny charity has over 1000 votes to date but we need at least 1000 MORE in order to really have a shot and then I'm not even certain. And so we talk to each other, and strategize some more and our laptops are glued to us - even in the bathroom. It is unbelievably time consuming. I was up until 1:00 last night thinking "just one more" and let me tell you, you can "just one more" yourself to death. And I am happy to do this because it is worthy of my time. It is incredibly important. And I am overwhelmed with emotion and love for everyone who is voting for us and especially for the family and friends who have taken this effort on as their own - not the least of which is my daughter, Amanda who has spent literally every waking hour not dedicated to studying for finals, working for this cause. Yesterday, she took her laptop to her classes and personally made sure every single one of her classmates voted.

But in the midst of this, I was ticked off. And I couldn't figure out why. Until this afternoon.

There are so many of us in this competition with such need for our own important causes and all of them (well, almost) are worthy. We are all passionate about what we are doing. And Chase asks us to answer the question: Which do you think is more important: Helping the Homeless, Curing Diseases, or Helping the Environment? How do you answer such a question? And because this campaign requires you download an "app", Chase is able to collect data on everyone who votes (so far, nearly a million people) so they are greatly benefiting because they can now solicit directly to us, and for weeks, we are are running around like chickens with our heads cut off to win what every other charity deserves as well. And suddenly, this afternoon, I am reminded of the movie "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"

"They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" was a movie that came out in the 70's (yup! I saw it first run) with Jane Fonda about the marathon dances they used to hold during the great depression. You had to dance for hours with nothing more than 15 minute breaks for days on end to try to win $100 or something. People paid money to come watch as women literally held up their sleeping partners with their arms, on their backs, keeping their feet on the floor so that they wouldn't be disqualified. Every so often to diminish the numbers, they would blow a whistle and everyone would have to run until they blew the whistle again. Those who collapsed from exhaustion would be dragged off the floor and sent away without a single penny for their efforts. Every single one of the contestants was desperate for the money, to pay for food for their children or shoes for their feet or a ticket to someplace where there might be work again. And some people actually died during the competitions.

Now no one is going to die from this. And $5,000,000 is going to be split between 100 deserving charities so there is no denying that this is a wonderful thing, but the fact that we are in a cut throat race to out-do those we should also be rooting for is unsettling. In the case of my charity, were we to win, lives would most certainly be saved. But the same could be said of most of the charities out there. Though in my case, we are talking about my daughters. So there my passion lies.

In the end, this is a marketing campaign for Chase, wrapped in "philanthropy". And there is nothing at all wrong with Chase trying to build their business. But I'd have felt better about it had we been asked to submit a proposal for a grant. I really, desperately want my charity to win, but if it does, it will most certainly be at the expense of children who are in need of fresh water in a third world country or some other, similar need. And as wonderful as I will feel if we win, I won't feel good about that.

I've been writing this for too long. I have to get back to getting votes. And that isn't a "button" sentence to end this. That is exactly what I am going to do.

http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/235097 - also Lily of the Valley AIDS Foundation and CareNow.