fund raising frustrations

this was my last poker tournament. we started this, have done four of them in the past two years, and this was basically my last one. the management of my department supports it enough to allow us to hold it, but not enough to participate. the overhead for this event was about $2,600. we raised $1,500.

was the cause good? yes. we were raising money for sunshine acres children's home. a fantastic charity for children with no other options.

was there enough interest? potentially. i mean, we've hosted this event for four times - we wouldn't continue to do it if there was no interest.

what happened this time? management got the go ahead from the higher ups, the big wigs that tell us that we can host such an event. management also got approval to host a golf tournament. the problem is that they have to be held the same day. now, for the management, they have the opportunity to shmooze with vendors and executives of the company. they drop their cash there. after playing golf all day, most of them don't want to play cards in the early afternoon! they just want to go drink with their shmoozing friends.

people say they'll come, then don't show. sure, there's a lack of integrity there, but who's going to hold them accountable? beyond that, because they're not going to participate, they don't plug it in the department. they don't encourage anyone to come play.

all in all, this is a very sad day for me. i was really hoping that this would be a growing event, each time raising more money than the last. more vendors would participate - pulling their staff and, hopefully, some of the companies, vendors, and customers with whom they work. i hoped that this would be an exciting event that didn't discriminate - whether you were a regular employee, manager, director, executive, vendor - whatever.

instead, for my last event, we raised the least amount of money. we had the least amount of interest. we had a failed event.

this sucks.

oh, but it doesn't end there! i fully anticipate on driving this with other organizations! this is something that's exciting - everyone that was there was enjoying themselves, even if they weren't playing. the event was a lot of fun. sure, the turn out sucked ass, but it was lots of fun. i'm glad we did it. my faith in the management of this organization, however, shrinks on a daily basis.