Bitches Get Stitches

yesterday was quite a ride.

i thought the fact that i gave myself a month of planning this time around would make it less stressful. it wasn’t. if anything, it just meant more pressure to do well, to at least match last year’s total (with vain hopes of far surpassing it) it’s like adding a part time job to one’s life. i will say, however, it’s given me an insight into the world of fundraising, promotion, cross-promotion, business, and all that kind of stuff.

i mean, it wasn’t as tough as last year in that i didn’t have to ‘cold call’ people to help, and i have enough friend in the biz that i knew at least i’d get some great prizes to donate. but it was interesting to see who’ll actually return your email, and who won’t, who’ll tell you ‘no, we’re not interested in helping’ and who just ignores you completely, who won’t respond to your email, but then still help promote on the day without even letting you know! it was also interesting to see who’s voice prompted the most traffic, whose readers are the most generous, and which kinds of people are the ones who care the most.

i’m way into tracking my stats
and there were some interesting ones this time around.

for instance.

this year there was a lot of international support,
with donations made from people in the u.s., canada, the uk, sweden, and the federated states of micronesia!
(i admit to having to look that up.
they’re islands near australia)

this year, more than 7% of visitors made a donation whereas
only 2.5% of people who visited the site made a donation last year.

but that number is tempered by the fact that
i got roughly 45% less traffic to the site this year,
even with all the extra promotion people provided.
(maybe because it was a saturday?)

but! there were 50% more people that actually make a donation.

last year i had a lot of $100+ donations,
whereas this year i had many between $1-$10.
most of those people were either on a tight budget,
but a good 5% of donations came from people who were unemployed!
$10 from a person with no income? that’s generosity!

this year, almost every single email included an apology for not being able to donate more, even if they were donating over $100. all of those apologies came from women. the mind reels.

last year, an official count from the pittsburgh aids task force confirmed that we raised $4,765.00 with around $100 going to other hiv testing centers as well, making a grand total of ~$4865.00.

this year, based on the numbers people gave me in their emails, pledges for matching donations from people’s employers, and a couple donations going to other hiv testing centers we raised, $4979.40 (the 40¢ cracks me up). while i wanted to make it to a solid $5000.00, i still beat last year’s number! and got a lot more people involved.

what matters is that we raised enough money to pay for roughly 122 rapid hiv tests. that’s the only number i care about.

not too shabby for day’s work, eh?

now i’m off to consult the random number generator, and email the winners. keep your eyes on your inboxes, bitches!

edit: all winners have been notified. have you checked your inbox? thanks to everyone who donated!