$7K for Damian's 7th Birthday!
- brittanymarkham
- May 28
- 4 min read
Oh my goodness, what a massive whirlwind May has been! THANK YOU so much for all your help this month as we have been trying to fundraise in a big way for Damian’s 7th birthday!
I know many of you are as interested in the numbers and statistics relating to our fundraisers as I am, so today I am going to be sharing the figures and charts I’ve been tracking all month!
This first chart tracks how much we were able to raise throughout the month, separated by what type of donation it was – through Venmo, PayPal, GoFundMe, cash, or directly to the Wylder Nation Foundation (the developers of the treatment).
Which donation method do I prefer?
I often get asked which donation method is preferrable, and my answer is always whichever is most convenient for the donor! There is technically a transaction cost for every method (even cash, since I eventually write a check for Wylder Nation and then have to pay for postage to mail it) but the cost is SO miniscule and nearly identical across all methods that, truly, I do not have a preference over which method is used. I broke down all the transaction costs here if you want to learn more.
How many donations we got
This second chart shows how many donations were made each day in May leading up to May 24th (Damian’s birthday). You can see obviously there were days that were more active than others, and unsurprisingly, that number correlates precisely with when I was active on social media (posting new reels and posts, etc.)
...which segues nicely into our “Lessons Learned” section of today’s fundraiser recap!
Lesson 1: Out of sight = out of mind
I need to re-share posts more often! Not everyone is online every day and so not everyone sees all the things I post. I have to remind myself that a lot!
Someone once said something like, “Social media is like having a billboard sign. if you post something (especially to your stories) just once, it’s just as good as not posting it at all. If you share something 3 times, then people will start to see it.” I think there is a lot of truth in that!
Which leads me to the next lesson:
Lesson 2: Work smarter, not harder
This is the lesson of a lifetime for me. I’m REALLY good at putting things on my to-do list that are big and ambitious. I’m not as diligent about coming up with tiny ideas, repeatable ideas, or backup plans. But time and time again I’ve learned that consistency is the key when it comes to visibility on social media. I had a goal of posting nearly every day in May and I didn’t even come close to that because meetings, work deadlines, appointments, and all other life tasks had to take priority sometimes, and that was frustrating. In order to grow our campaign online, I have to be posting more. But I think rather than trying to fit more into my schedule, I need to learn to work and make content within the life that I have. Working smarter and not harder will require a little more simple creativity on my part.
Speaking of creativity…
Lesson 3: More merchandise!
I hope you all had fun with the giveaways that we did throughout May! I thought it was so fun and I’m SO happy and grateful for the amount of people who participated!
This turned out so well and I only regret that we didn’t have more of a variety of giveaway items! I have a few more paintings I am just about ready to turn into prints and magnets, and I have been working on something big behind-the-scenes that I can’t wait to share (hopefully soon!) – I think you all will love it!
By the way, if you are interested in purchasing any of our products, they are still available on our online shop!
Wanna hear something crazy???
There are a ton of reasons why I’m actively trying to grow our social media reach. Here’s just one reason:
Across all platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook), our campaign has accumulated nearly 63,000 followers. Do you want to hear something unbelievably crazy?
If 63,000 people donated just $29 each, we wouldn’t just raise another $10K. We wouldn’t just reach a big milestone.
If 63,000 people donated $29 each, we would FINISH the campaign. We would reach $3 million.
For me, that is an incredibly motivating reason to keep pushing for growth on social media.
I know realistically that not everyone can donate. I also know some people press the follow button and then never see our page again. But if I can reach 100 people, maybe 5 of them would be willing to donate. If I can reach 10,000 people, maybe 50 of them would be willing to donate. And maybe just 1 of them is in a financial position to give a sizable grant to the Wylder Nation Foundation. You just never know.
I’ve learned that fundraising is like digging for oil. Some wells are dry, but the more often you dig, the more greatly you increase your chances of finding a spring and ultimately reaching your goal.
This month we hit a spring!!!
We raised $7,756.00 for Damian’s birthday
We raised over $7K for Damian’s 7th birthday (nearly EIGHT THOUSAND)!!! I’m SO happy!!! Our initial goal was to reach $1.18 million and we are now just over $5,000 away from that! And the total number of donations we received was 144! Thank you thank you thank you all for your help!! I am SO grateful!!!
On to the next!!!!!!
<3
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