Day 6 - $175

Thanks to my good friends for bringing us up to $175! All I have to say is: AWESOME!

This has been a pretty cool first week. I find myself consumed with this project. I've been up until one or two in the morning every day working on this. When I'm at work I constantly think of "things I could do to the blog" or "ways I can get people to donate" or "ways I can publicize what we're doing here". It's actually really fun to have something like this to focus on... Something that is more fulfilling than sitting in a cubicle and working on spreadsheets all day.

So this is what I've been up to lately...

I started a Give One Million Twitter account. I'll answer before you even ask: No, I have never used Twitter before. I'm not sure that I've even been to their website. But I'm willing to give it a try if it will help the cause. I figure it will be one more avanue to spead the word about St. Jude, and that can only help... right. So if you are on Twitter follow me, and if you're not... well heck, sign up and start following Give One Million. Then you can tweet all your friends and enlist them in our one million dollar goal for St. Jude. You'll also notice I added a cool little Follow Me Twitter button to the right. Is that cool or what?!?! OK, maybe everyone and their dog has something like that. But if you stayed up until midnight figuring out how to add that to your blog, I think you would be a little more impressed with my feat. I'm just saying...

You will also notice I added some neat little Share buttons below each post and a buzz button above each post. A lot of you probably don't even know what half of those buttons are, let alone how to use them - but trust me - there are people out there that do, so I'm hoping it will make it easier for everyone (you included) to spread the word, and create a little buzz for us. So please use them if you can. Especially the buzz button at the top. Thanks to everyone that's followed along for this first week, and especially those that have donated! We are just beginning, and have a long way to go, but we can do it.

So...

As my Dad would say, "Let's light this candle!!!"

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Day 5

I changed the "Click Here To Donate" link at the top right of the blog. I think it looks a little cooler now...

Now that friends and family have been sent the email, I'll be moving on to my next ideas to get some traffic coming to see what I'm up to. I was doing some more calculations again today, and I'm starting to realize this is going to be a lofty goal to achieve. I knew it would be hard, but my eyes have been opened a little bit. If I average $150 every 5 days (which has been the going average so far...), I would only have $10,950 in one year. That's a long way from $1,000,000. Does that scare me a little... yes. Does it discourage me... No. I have plenty more ideas up my sleeve. Remember, it's only day 5. I still have 360 days to get $999,850. Piece of cake!

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Day 4 - $150

It's day four and the financial analyst in me needs to run some numbers. according to my calculations, I'm .015% of the way to my goal. Doesn't seem like too much, but I think it's a good start. I figured it would take a while to get the ball rolling. When we hit 1% we'll have a party!

Watch the video below. It will give you a better idea of where the money is going. And who benefits from what we're doing here. And once again... Please pass this on. If I'm ever going to reach this goal of one million for St. Jude, it will be because each of you spread the word. After you watch this movie you can't look me in the face and tell me there's no better reason to SPAM everyone's inbox you know, or no better topic to bring up around the water cooler at work.

giveonemillion.blogspot.com ... pass it on!!!

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Day 3

So it’s day three and we’re still at $100. I’m not surprised though. As of right now I think there are maybe two other people in the universe that know about this “little” endeavor of mine.

That’s all about to change…

Tonight I check off the first item on my list of ways to raise money: Email friends and family. So to everyone who’s here now for the first time… welcome aboard!

Now that I’ve welcomed you, let’s get down to business. Please Donate! Please help me spread the word! And last, please check back here often - as I will definitely be needing your help and support.

Let me break it down a little more.

Donate: I may be the one asking you to donate, but please remember this is much bigger than me. I may talk about this being my goal or project or whatever, but don’t forget what this is really about: fighting cancer. I’m sure all of you have dealt with cancer personally – either with friends or family, and it’s a terrible thing. However, if we work together we can help. I may joke around and be light-hearted sometimes through this process – but don’t let that mislead you regarding how truly serious I am about this.

Those you that know me; know that I’m a goofball 90% of the time – but the 10% serious Dave had to come out there for a minute to make things perfectly clear.

Now moving on… Just give something. It can be $5 dollars, it can be $500 (maybe you’re filthy rich or have filthy rich friends: it can be $50,000) – just give something. It’s simple to do, so you have no excuse not to donate. Just follow the directions in the previous post.

Spread the word: This is an especially important step for those of you out there that have the aforementioned filthy rich friends. OK, I’m kidding – this is important for everyone. (But if you do know someone that burns benjamins in the fireplace to stay warm on a cold day it wouldn’t hurt… I’m just saying…) So if you got an email to come here, pass it on to everyone on your contact list. And regardless of if you got an email or not just tell all of your co-corkers. Tell everyone at church. Tell that weird uncle that pulls a quarter out of your ear at family reunions and tells you not to spend it all in one place. Tell your kids. (Have you seen how fast they can text???) Tell Everyone!

Maybe you can send the link to this blog to one person a day. Maybe you can post a link to this blog on your blog. (There will be more to come in future posts on blogs, facebook, twitter, etc, but you can get started now.) Maybe you can use this as an excuse to call an old friend. Just do what you can to get the word out: giveonemillion.blogspot.com

Check back often: Trust me, I’m going to be up to a lot in the upcoming year. As of right now I have a list of 26 things to do in order to reach one million dollars in one year. Everything from posting videos on YouTube to organizing a pancake breakfast charity event. And I’m sure I’ll come up with about 10 more ideas every day. So what I’m saying, is I will need help and support – And plus it may be somewhat entertaining to see “what crazy idea David has now”. Or to read the blog posts chronicling the failures and successes as we strive for one million in one year to help fight childhood cancer. And most important – the more you come back, the more chances I have to talk you into donating! (or donating again)

Well, it’s getting late, so I think that’s enough for day 3.

Talk Soon,

David

***UPDATE***

Remember how I said there were only two people that knew about this website??? One happens to be my wife, and the other happens to sit next to me at work. Needless to say, each of them listen to me flap my gums for approximately 8 hours a day. Well my wife obviously supports me in everything I do, and was more than by my side in donating our first $100 – but now we have our official number two donation!!! We are at $150 now – Major props to my awesome co-worker for being the first to donate Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

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Day 2 - $100

Well, it’s day two, and here it goes…

I will be the first to donate. I want to donate enough to make a difference, enough to show that I’m serious, enough to encourage others to be generous, enough so it hurts a little – you know – makes a dent in the monthly budget. So my first donation will be $100. It may not be much for some people – It may be a lot for others. But for me, I think it’s a good start.

Now let me explain how you can donate as well. It’s simple. On the right side of this blog you will see the CLICK HERE TO DONATE link.

Click it.

This will take you to my St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital donation page with the goal of $1,000,000. It has a neat little progress bar that tells us how we’re doing on the side. But the important part is above that; the DONATE NOW button.

Click it.

Just follow the directions, and BOOM! You have officially joined the fight against cancer.

So here’s the deal. At this point I have a grand total of $100 toward my goal of one million for St. Jude. The first logical step is friends and family. So if you’re reading this now, there’s a good chance you know me or are related to me somehow. (Hi Mom!) But even though I’m one cool dude, I only know so many people. I’m thinking I may get a thousand or so - if that - from family and friends. So that means I am going to need to get approximately $998,900 from people I don’t know… total strangers. That’s quite a daunting task. Don’t worry though, I’ve got a bevy of ideas on how to get the word out – and I’ll keep you up-to-date on everything I am doing as I do it. All you need to do is check back here often because I may be asking for help. Speaking of help... who’s going to be number two???

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Day 1 - $0

Well for my first order of business, I plan to start a blog so everyone can follow my progress, and know when and how to help. Second order of business is to name my “Goal”.

So if you’re reading this, I’m guessing it’s safe to assume I got the blog thing figured out. This will be a continual work in progress, so don’t get too used to anything. As I learn more about the whole blogging thing, hopefully it will get better. Though this blog will be the place all traffic is directed too, I will set up a donation site with St Jude’s that I will be the actual place of donation. That way all the money stuff is taken care of through their system, and I/you don’t have to worry about it. They have a pretty nice little set up for this, so there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel.

Now, onto the name…

I’m just thinking out loud here. I want it to be catchy so people remember and participate in what I’m doing. But not so catchy that it sounds like I’m some used car salesman. Hmmmmm. Let’s evaluate the options.

My St Jude Project
The Million Dollar St Jude Project
The Million Dollar St Jude Challenge
The Million Dollar St Jude Experiment
St Jude Millionaire
One Million For The Kids
One Million For St Jude
Project Cancer Killer
We Can Do It For St. Jude
Help David Help St Jude
Help Me Help St Jude
St Jude Goal
The St Jude Challenge
Give One Million For St. Jude
A Million Strong For St Jude
A Million Strong: The St Jude Challenge
The Million Dollar Goal: St Jude Children’s Hospital
The Million Dollar Challenge: St Jude Children’s Hospital
St Jude: The Million Dollar Goal
St Jude: The Million Dollar Challenge
The St Jude Project: David Feldman’s Million Dollar Goal

I think I like “Give One Million For St Jude”.

Yep, now that I think about it more, I think that’s the name.

Well, that’s day 1. I know I’m basically writing this to myself because I haven’t publicized what I’m doing yet, and if you’re reading this, it’s most likely a few days past day one. (Whenever I get around to sending out links to this site.) But regardless of when you begin following Give One Million For St Jude, today was a big step for me - Possibly the biggest.


*** DISCLAIMER*** Let me get this out of the way up front. Yes, I did take a business writing class in college, but no I’m not an English major. There will be grammatical and spelling errors in my posts. I don’t plan to reread each post 50 times to make sure everything is correct before I publish it. The point of this blog is to get the point across about what I’m doing, and enlist everyone’s help for this cause - not create an example of grammatical perfection. Also, I’m sure you already noticed, but I like to use ellipsis a lot because I feel like it conveys how I think in my head. So if you don’t like it… too bad.

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The Beginning

The Goal: One Million Dollars.

My wife and I went out for dinner and the topic came up that I’m sure many of you have asked yourselves: “What am I doing for others?” I consider myself to be a fairly nice guy. I help out when I can, and have spent a good portion of my life serving and helping in little ways. But is that enough? I bet you’re like me, sometimes you wonder if one normal person can make a difference. Well with this project/ experiment/challenge or whatever you want to call it, I intend to prove that one person (With the much needed support of my family & friends) can make a difference.

So here’s the plan… raise one million dollars in one year – starting today. 100% of the proceeds will go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. (So far I personally haven’t had to deal with childhood cancer in my family, but have seen and read the stories of families that have – So for me there’s no better cause to fight for!)

The Rules: Anything goes.

As long as it’s moral, ethical, and legal I plan to do whatever it takes to reach my goal. I will keep you up to date on what I’m doing, with this blog. I will post my doings as often as possible.
I intend to use all mediums of communication to get the word out… social media, blogs, emails, phone calls, videos, write letters, word of mouth, organized events, door to door, standing on the corner with a sign, guilt trips… You get the point.

The Man Crazy Enough to Attempt This: David Feldman

Husband, Father of two, financial analyst, college football enthusiast, Pee-Wee soccer coach (Ex coach actually since we moved – but I fully intend to regain that title shortly), and friend to all. Basically just a normal guy like you.

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