Behind the Button

All Aboard for a Cure | Amazing "mito kids"

Last Saturday was the most perfect beautiful spring morning in Norcross Georgia as hundreds of caring volunteers, family and friends gathered for the inaugural All Aboard for A Cure Walk to benefit the United mitochondrial disease Foundation. As if on cue a fully loaded freight train chugged right through the festivities!

I was there with my sister Sue and her two kids Morgan and Jack ~ my nephew Jack (below right) suffers from a severe form of mitochondrial disease. I don't get to attend walks as often as I would like so it was a very special opportunity of me to support a cause near to my heart and to meet some of the kids I had made buttons of.

People ask me all the time if it's "depressing' to make all these photo buttons for people going through difficult and sometimes tragic circumstances -- I'll say this it is always very emotional BUT it is never depressing, heartbreaking sometimes ~ but there is always hope. I have found that families who come to me to make buttons have an amazing strength, they are heroic, the way they deal with tragedy and still find a way to honor and give back.

Talk about strength,I remember meeting Katy Lyons and asking to meet her son Jake not knowing that he had passed away (I felt so sad) ~ but there she was with a big team ~ no doubt Jake was smiling on all of us that morning. That is what charity walks are all about and dare I say that is what America is really all about! [people like Harrison & his family above or Jake]

On Saturday though I had the opportunity to meet the real heroes --some of the kids I actually made buttons of, the "mito kids" Emily, Mallory, Colton, Morgan, Nicholas, Megan, Carson and Harrison to name but a few. Like my time at the Special Olympics a few weeks ago -- a face really does make all the difference! It was powerful for me to meet the kids after making hundreds of buttons I felt like I knew each one and in a way I did -- that is the visceral power of a face, a smile!

Oh and last I checked Atlanta had raised over $42,000! If your so inclined I know some mito kids who would welcome your contribution click here! Bravo Atlanta UmdF!

ps. I'd like to thank Mary Swinn and her daughter Emily (left) for inviting me to participate and make some of the most beautiful buttons I have ever made!

Seven million feet and an elephant = Relay for Life

What has seven million feet, one great big heart and won't sleep at night! You guessed it the American cancer Society''s fundraising & inspiration juggernaut RELAY FOR LIFE ~ and with over 4,700 events in 2008 they are surely coming to a town near you!

Everything about Relay for Life is "bigger than life" -- 3.5 million walkers, innumerable blisters, countless volunteers, courageous survivors and of course gazillions of dollars raised -- $406 million in 2007! [according to a study by the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council]

Whew.... so if you are a veteran Relayer you know the ropes and you've been a part of something amazing -- but what if this is your first Relay For Life or your trying to cajole five friends or coworkers into joining your team -- well that's a different story and it can all be a little daunting, a bit frustrating and even scary -- heck you might be thinking I can't even keep my eyes open past 9 how am I going to walk all night?! Don't worry there is a sea of contagious spirit and camaraderie awaiting you at each and every Relay for Life Starting line ~ that I can guarantee!

Maybe it's the other elephant n the room.... the fundraising part! There are two crazy truths about fundraising #1 it's not easy but #2 it's not as hard as it might seem. You can do this!

I started my company Buttons of Hope for just this reason and I am honored to be working with several Relay for Life teams and individuals to help them engage, motivate and inspire their teammates, their donors and most importantly themselves!

Heather Pusateri's team Purple Rocks of Calvert County MD is putting a face on their 2008 Relay -- Heather and her family are walking with and for her son Brandon who is in remission(yeah!!) in a courageous battle with hodgkins lymphoma. Heather had this to say about the using custom photo buttons as a fundraising tool...

"If you take a look at the site[Buttonsofhope.com], it's really nice! You can create a photo button of the person/people you "Relay" for. The man in charge is really great [awww] and easy to work with! I got my buttons in the mail today and they are absolutely perfect, exactly what I was looking for!"

We set up a "makehope" button gallery for Purple Rocks [see it here] and we will be adding more buttons of Team Purple Rocks heroes  so everyone will know not just why but WHO we Relay For!

I hope you will consider using custom photo buttons here's how to inspire your Relay for Life team or just make one for yourself. For about the price of a Starbucks latte you can honor a loved one or support a friend by "putting a face on your cause" ~ there are no minimums and one dollar from each button is donated back to Relay for Life -- now thats a sweet deal!

 

Charity Walk "Who is your cause?"

You know how it is, the morning of the walk ten minutes before the start and you're hurriedly scribbling the names of loved ones on your back!

At Buttons of Hope we make is super easy for you to make custom photo buttons of all your loved ones before the walk. You know why you're walking ~ now you can proudly show them for WHO!

less scribbling....

more inspiring!

This year show them [proudly] WHO you're walking for!

Successful Fundraising Event? "Share Why You Care"

Charity Navigator evaluates over 5,300 of "America's largest charities." [that does not include the thousands more local and grassroot organizations let alone bake sales, car washes & candy sales] and you wonder why it's hard to fundraise, hard to set your cause apart!? The point: Almost all of these are worthy causes with good caring people committed to making them successful. The Problem: So many good causes and smart people make it very hard for charities to differentiate and for donors to decide who to support -- in fact some people opt out all together understandably overwhelmed.

So what to do? How do you make YOUR fundraising event successful, first you don't...they do! You as a fundraising professional or semi pro have to make the cause/event about them -- your participants, your volunteers and your donors. Successful fundraising events boil down to a simple equation VFD+E! 

[V] volunteers/staff [F] fundrasiers [D] donors + [E!] enthusiasm. Simple theory more complicated in practice -- yet maybe more complicated than it needs to be.

So here's your tip... "make their story part of your cause." Keep doing all those things people expect like free t-shirts, inflatable slides, face painting, free schwag all of it and then do one more thing. Encourage, facilitate and cajole your people to share their story. Whether it's a cancer walk, a school fundraiser or heaven forbid a political rally -- everyone is there for a reason and in that reason is a story. [don't overlook the volunteers and donors they have stories too it's why they do what they do or give what they give] 

Helping people, encouraging people to "share why they care" will ignite your event -- think about it, the best events are the ones built on a story -- if you don't have a story find one -- don't be phony [nothing worse than that] --but if you look you will always find a compelling story to rally around year after year. Think: Same cause, Different story

So what do I know? well I started a cycling team 3 years ago called Mojoridng (yeah for the young it's Austin Powers for the rest of us the DOORS) -- last year 60 of us raised over $110,000 for two causes which still stuns me -- but at first my team was like any other group of middle aged people --overwhelmed, over-requested and even a bit jaded -- so while the 24 Hours of Booty | LIVESTRONG cancer fundraiser was a worthy and fun event -- how does a captain energize a team to do the remarkable?

Of course we all know Lance's story but it wasn't enough so I encouraged my teammates to share their stories -- and share they did it was if they had been waiting for someone to ask, someone to care -- they told stories; Dale's and Janie's and Carl's and Bev's and Omar's and more...and then the secret sauce -- we made it tangible -- we made photo buttons to wear in honor our loved ones, to share our stories the buttons were a tangible expression of the emotions we felt pride & love -- we even set up a gallery here which encouraged (peer pressured a bit) more people to make buttons -- my team got engaged, motivated and inspired ending up the top team with $55,000!  Encourage and help your participants|donors to personalize the event and they'll not only match that success...they'll probably exceed it!!

I am unabashed in promoting photo buttons for your event -- Buttons of Hope is my company but I have seen the profound difference it is making for people [see the Atlanta UMDF All Aboard Walk gallery here] and I think the promise is no less than the transformation of fundraising by simply putting a face on it.

Fundraising success = sharing your story with a great cause!

Buttons making a difference.

Tony Edmond Barthelemy died June 28, 2006. Tony was a victim of two tragedies first Katrina in August of 2005 and then the ultimate tragedy -- he was murdered in the town he loved New Orleans. Tony left behind a Mom [Michelle Brown], a Dad and two brothers Patrick and Lorenzo. As is so often the case it is the Mom who bears the brunt of the loss. Yet inexplicably it is Moms like Michelle who also have the bravery to establish and care for their loved ones legacy. Michelle Brown is one of those Moms, in her words...

My last phone call from my son, Tony, was on Sat., June 17, 2006. We talked and he told me that he and some of his friends were going shopping for Father's Day. He wanted to get his dad a gift. I told him, "Be careful." Tony said, "I will, Mom. Then he asked me, "Did you and Dad get the card's I sent to you?" I said, "Yes, we loved them. Tony said, "Mommy, I love you and I want to come home soon." [Tony was in the Young Marines] I said, " Mommy loves you too baby, and I am coming to get you soon. He said, "OK. I will call you on Father's Day." No call came from my baby, on Father's Day.

Tony's life was cut short due to an animal, that kidnapped, beat and shot my baby in the neck. His body was found on Father's Day, June 18, 2006, in a wooded area in Aligers, New Orleans, Louisiana. [see Tony's beautiful online memorial at Memory-Of.com]

Michelle and her boys find some solace that Tony is truly in a better, happier place ~ and I am proud to have been able to help them honor his legacy with photo buttons. Michelle will tell you we had a time making those buttons; problems with the digital images, buttons lost in the mail but in the end I think those little buttons are making a big difference. Michelle recently wrote to me...
"My Son's smile in that book [Southpark magazine] brought tears of joy knowing that he was a hero. I wear my button each day to work and everywhere I go ~ I love them and will be ordering more for Tony's birthday [May 16] & his angel day [June 28].

That, is simply powerful!

[Here is the Southpark Article with Tony's button image & another hero Hope Stout (a beautiful story too for another day]

Make their story part of your cause!

 Jason Dick over @ A Small Change has asked for input about how the nonprofit world treats donors small versus major. [My answer at bottom.] First a caveat -- for the most part I think fundraisers and donors get treated pretty well by the major charities. As an active participant and fundraiser in recent National multiple sclerosis Society, LiveStrong and Habitat for Humanity events my donors and I have been treated well, but...there is plenty of room for improvement & thinking different.

Jason asks, "What if we treated all of our donors like major donors? What if instead of cultivating and personally soliciting donors we started treating them all as if they were major donors?....what is a major donor and why do we only personally cultivate donors at a specific level?"

So to answer Jason's question why do we (charities) only personally cultivate donors at (only) a specific level? Simply, they do what they can -- for most organizations it is just too expensive (time and money or both) to personally cultivate each fundraiser let alone each twenty or fifty buck give. That is too bad because these are the seedlings that become the grass roots! But in the major charity's defense it understandable -- it IS NOT economically feasible [certainly not in the traditional way we've always done it mode]. But...I actually think it can be done.

My experience (small) is with the active charity fundraiser segment; walkathons, cycling and running events. According to Run Walk Ride (study of top 30 active events like Relay for Life, Susan Komen Race for the Cure and JdRF Walk to Cure) in 2007 an astounding  12,094,000 people (fundraisers) participated and raised $1,640,636,458 yes that's with a B! Before you get too excited that's only $135.65 each! One can argue or spin those numbers but OK for kicks let's double it; that's still $270 each, small potatoes. The reality however is that SMALL is pretty darn BIG! Keep cultivating that next $5-10K donor but don't ignore the seedlings and here's why...

SMALL has the potential to be a lot, lot bigger & fast -- after all it's not that hard (is it?) to help a $135 fundraiser reach $200. So if 12 million people raised $65 more that would be $786 million more give or take -- gotta love the long tail!

Answer: First, every person in the NP world should read Made to Stick, NOW,TODAY! The answer/key (beautifully explained in MtS) is to help each individual fundraiser & donor tell their story and to make those stories an integrated & persistent theme of the NP's message "make their story part of your cause" not the other way around. Instead of asking donors to make your charity or event part of their life -- encourage and enable them to tell a story about why (who) your charity is part of their life! I know this is not new or particularly profound but IMHO it is not being done effectively or persistently. Telling their story, personalizing a cause. This is not your Father's Sally Struthers!

A few helpful tools and ideas:

• check out the March of Dimes Share you Story 
• believe in and foster user forums, meaningful blogs, social media: Facebook, Zimbio et al (danger! read meatball sundae first) and...
• consider putting a face on fundraising one (photo) button a time.

Do whatever it takes to make their story part of your cause!

Buttons of Hope and NC Special Olympics

The North Carolina Special Olympics has featured Buttons of Hope on it's website homepage! I am so honored  to be referred to as a partner with this Amazing organization. Special Olympics has been one of my favorite charities -- these athletes and their families, the Special Olympics staff and volunteers that support them all exemplify the active definition of hope! Be a difference in the world!

We are going to be making custom photo buttons on site this weekend for the NC Special Olympics Basketball and Cheerleading competitions -- we are looking forward to helping everyone honor these remarkable athletes by wearing photo buttons.

I think Lynn Butler summed it up best talking about her son & very Special Olympian Zach Butler...

“I think the button is a great idea, and I know I would buy a button for each sport my son participates in,” said Lynn Butler, mother of Zach, an accomplished Special Olympics athlete. “I know I would want one each season and each sport he's participating in each year, this way you can see your child growing up.”

Thanks again to everyone at NC Special Olympics, Zach and the Butler family.
We hope we can keep up with ya'll this weekend!

Have you heard of mito?

Wow and this today from another "mito mom" Stephanie..."Throughout the years, we have been approached by numerous "button people." Never have I seen the same quality, originality, and character as the one's[buttons] you have produced for UMDF! Your company is a wonderful asset to so many families."

Thanks Stephanie, made my day!

mito. It's what moms like Mary Swinn and Sue Vaden call (unaffectionately)  mitochondrial disease.
The United mitochondrial disease Foundation UmdF explains it this way...

...failures of the mitochondria, specialized compartments present in every cell of the body except red blood cells. Mitochondria are responsible for creating more than 90% of the energy needed by the body to sustain life and support growth...causing the most damage to cells of the brain, heart, liver, skeletal muscles, kidney and the endocrine and respiratory systems.

Mito affects adults and children but every 15 minutes a child is born who will develop mito by age 10, the "mito kids". My nephew Jack was born with mito and symptoms like blindness and a host of other serious  problems persist -- one thing he does have a loving family. Recently I met another family who is dealing with mito -- the Swinns.

Emily Swinn 13, Emily suffers from epilepsy, hypotonia, ataxia, speech and language disorder, learning disabilities, and lethargy. Emily may use a wheelchair at school but she has become an advocate for
bringing awareness to this disease.  Emily has spoken to many groups including legislative groups, crowds at fundraisers, and several schools. In 2007, Emily was awarded a certificate from the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation as an Honorary Ambassador for UMDF.

On March 29th, Mary and Sue family and friends will take part in the inaugural All Aboard for a Cure Walk in Atlanta to benefit UmdF. You can be sure they will be wearing Jack's & Emily's photo buttons proudly.See all of the mito kids in our All Aboard gallery. Buttons of hope is honored to support causes like this, caring families & friends & courageous kids..."mito kids".
Come out the 29th & Ask me about mito?