Day 25

Has teamed up with

Give One Million for St. Jude

To help us raise

One Million Dollars in One Year

for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!

June 19th, 2010

1408 Highway 7, Blue Springs MO

Yep, that's right. We landed our first big fundraiser for Give One Million for St. Jude. On June 19th Give One Million volunteers will be manning the Sonic Drive-in - In Blue Springs, MO. We will be doing the car hopping only. (not cooking the food) From 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. all tips and donations will go to Give One Million for St. Jude. Sonic will help promote our fundraiser with flyers and advertising on their marquee.

So if you're in the Kansas City area (or will be on June 19th), and want to help - send me an email!

I'm reading: Day 25

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 23

BUTTONS

This will be a good way to get the word out about Give One Million for St. Jude. The more blogs we can get these on the better. Some of these are created with my temporary logo. The official logo is in the works and should be done in a couple weeks – I was too impatient to wait.

Below you will see a picture of each button. Under each button is the HTML code that can be used to add the button to your blog. All you have to do is:

1. Copy the HTML code
2. Go to your blog in the layout section
3. Click to add a gadget wherever you would like it on your blog
4. Click on the HTML/Javascript option
5. Paste the HTML code you copied and save.
6. View your blog and click the button to ensure it works

Boom! You now have a Give One Million for St. Jude button. Welcome aboard!

<center><a href="http://giveonemillion.blogspot.com">
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hJ1o_IStdfI/S8kohh0i-PI/AAAAAAAAAI0
/fL_Hq9X4Hbk/s1600/GOM+Button.jpg"/></a></center>

<center><a href="http://giveonemillion.blogspot.com">
<img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hJ1o_IStdfI/S8aowZmtaUI/AAAAAAAAACg/cZzEAvXMRTQ
/s1600/GOM+Button+Follow+The+Story+1.jpg"/></a></center>

<center><a href="http://giveonemillion.blogspot.com">
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1oFOavDNf-tMJzN330eSlRJs_ch2G5y4FPuV70LYc6bW5Tf48h04Bipa3NTaveupF92S6hwK3Xvgn0AAFvv4ZrAvpVjvUt4FxCw7xaaBsrtkCfvzWTZX64Iic0xObxY0br_wUScqzborC/
/GOM+Button+Logo+Only.jpg"/></a></center>

<center><a href="http://giveonemillion.blogspot.com">
<img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hJ1o_IStdfI/S8apgcK94SI/AAAAAAAAAEY/_Ppo87aYEMw
/s1600/GOM+Button+one+million+one+year.jpg"/></a></center>

I'm reading: Day 23

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Day 20

So we're almost to the three week mark and so far, so good. We're at $300 as of now, so we are staying just about at our average of $100 a week. I'd be extatic if somone would make a donation that forced me to reference the median dollar amount as opposed to the mean when referring to our average donations on a weekly basis. (That last sentence is exactly why my wife says I'm a nerd :) -but that's a shout out to all the statistics geeks like me out there...)

I know you're dying to know what I've been up to the last couple days so here it goes...

1. You may have noticed I added a Give One Million One Minute Summary button over to the side. There is a purpose to it... Since we will be telling everyone to follow what we're doing here, there will be a lot of people randomly "happening" upon this blog. And it may be a little confusing or generate some questions when they first visit. When they visit and read the random post that happens to be first in line... I can see people asking themselves questions such as:

"Who is this guy?"

Or

"What the heck is this guy doing?"

Or

"Why is he doing this, and is it legit?"

Etc, Etc, Etc...

So... Now they have a place to click that will give them the one minute summary about what we are doing here at Give One Million for St. Jude. And then they will donate!!! :)

2. I've pretty much given up on High Schools to host an event, and moved on to Elementary Schools. They seem to be much more receptive. I'll keep you updated on that. Insurance for the event doesn't seem to be an easy topic either. After my wife made a few calls today, we're still at square one as far as that goes. hmmm.

3. The Give One Million logo is in the works. I've had some logo's submitted, that you may see bits and pieces of - but the official logo is yet to come. I will be working with a good friend/awesome graphic designer who is kind enough to help me develope it. But if it's going to be good... it may take some time.

4. I'm working on making some buttons/widgets for YOUR blog! I am trying to make quite a few, so you have something to choose from. I don't have our official logo yet, but I still wanted to make these buttons in the meantime. They will have to do until we get better ones.

5. I have been thinking about other ways to physically raise money off-line. besides the pancake breakfast, I will be making calls and setting up other activities as well. If you want to host an activity in your town for Give One Million - just let me know - That would seriously be cool, and I'd do everything I could to help.

So that's a good summary of the last two days or so. I have a day job I have to get to tomorrow morning (or should I say later this morning) so I better hit the hay. Keep telling everyone you know http://www.giveonemillion.blogspot.com/ !!!!! So far we've raised $300 for the kids at St. Jude - let's keep it going!

Goodnight,

Dave

I'm reading: Day 20

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 18 - $300

Thanks to my big sis and her fam for bringing us up to $300!!! You guys rock! Thanks for your donation - but more importantly - thanks for you support. I've been blessed with good family and friends. I come home to a beautiful wife and two healthy kids every day. I have a brother and two sisters that are such good examples to me. Nobody could ask for better parents than what I've been given. God has truely blessed me - Maybe that's why I feel such a need to give back.

I'm reading: Day 18 - $300

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 17

Calling All Followers!!!

If you are here on this blog - reading this post - I'm going to assume you care just as much as me about fighting cancer, and more specifically childhood cancer. So if that's the case, why not follow this blog??? Do you see that little sidebar title down to the right that says FOLLOWERS... Well - that's what I'm talking about. Follow this blog, follow Give One Million on Twitter, and follow Give One Million on Youtube and Facebook (when I get those up and running).

Just to convince you, I'll list the top five reasons you should follow Give One Million.

5. When we reach our goal - you'll be able to tell your friends you were one of the first to follow.

4. Since you'll be up-to-date on everything - you will be able to help out when you can.

3. You'll show your friends and family that you are supporting something to find a cure for cancer

2. It will help me know that I'm not staying up until one in the morning every night chronicling this goal for no reason. (OK - maybe that's a little selfish on my part - but it's nice to know that someone out there is listening - and actually cares about what we're doing here)

And the number one reason to follow Give One Million is...

1. With every donation, and all your support - you will literally be helping kids that have been diagnosed with cancer and the families of kids with cancer at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Anything you can do to help and support them is a good thing!

OK - I'm just thinking out loud here - but go with me for a minute. Imagine if Give One Million had 10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000 followers? Just think what we could do to reach our goal of one million dollars. Melissa (my wife - for those of you that don't know me) came up with a great idea: Dollar Day. We tell all of our followers that such and such a date is dollar day. Tell all of our followers that on that day (whatever day it is) to donate just one dollar. that's it. Just one dollar. Well, if I get half of my followers to donate $1 on that day - and let's say we have 20,000 followers for this example - that means we earn $10,000 in one day toward our goal!!! Do you get where I'm going with this... That's just one idea of something we can do if we get people following what we're doing here.

So are you in? Good!

I'm reading: Day 17

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 15 - $200

My prayer was answered!!! SWEEEEET!!!!!! I don't think you all understand how happy I was when my wife called me at work to tell me we received another donation today. You know who you are. Thank you!

So we're up to $200. That's 100 bucks a week average so far. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. If we keep it up we would end up with $5,200 raised. That alone would be a victory - but I think we'll get more than that (like One Million!!!). I think as the word spreads, it will grow exponentially. This is just the beginning.

As I'm looking for locations for the pancake breakfast I called a local high school today. I was told In addition to the approximately 500 or so dollars I would need to rent the space - that I would also need proof of a one million dollar insurance policy. Did you hear that?!?! One Million Dollar Insurance Policy! I just thought you might find that as "interesting" as I did. It's just another bump in the road though. No biggie. We'll find a place.

I think T-Shirts are in the works. I'm very excited about that. Just think how cool you'll look in your brand new Give One Million T-Shirt. All your friends will be jealous. No worries though. You can just tell them where you got it, and they can have one of their own. 100% of the proceeds will go to St. Jude :)

I'm reading: Day 15 - $200

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!

Day 14

Well, we've officially hit the two week mark. We are still at $175. Thanks to everyone so far, but we still have a long way to go. So PLEASE spread the word!!! www.giveonemillion.blogspot.com Luckily we still have 351 days to pull this off - so I'm still very confident. The pancake breakfast is coming along. What I mean by that is: from the phone calls so far, I can officially mark off a few places we can't hold the event. But I'm still working it, so stay tuned on that front. I'm up late once again searching for ways (any ways) to get the word spread about Give One Million. Once we get some traffic here, I think it will open a lot of doors on things we can do to raise some money. Until then - if you're reading this, do something. If you can't donate money, just tell your coworkers! I'll settle for that at this moment. If your thinking you'll "get around to it tomorrow..." Let me just tell you from someone that knows a thing or two about procrastinating... it will never happen! Act now. Do something now.

I'm tired. I'm going to bed now. But before I do, I'm going to say a prayer - and pray like crazy that when I check this tomorrow we are over $175.

I'm reading: Day 14

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Day 12

This is what I've been up to the last couple days:

I submitted an add on craigslist (KC)

I tried to post an add on KSL.com multiple times but couldn't. I've posted on there in the past with no problems, but for some reason it's not letting me post... Frustrating!

I used one service on Fiverr.com in an attempt to get some increase visibility for Give One Million. I think I will continue with that.

I submitted giveonemillion.blogspot.com to Twitcause.

I started a YouTube channel. I haven't posted any videos there yet, but hopefully that will come in time. If you have a good video you think will help our cause - shoot me an email or leave a comment, and I'll see what I can to to get it posted. I'll add a YouTube badge to my sidebar as soon as I have an actual video there to watch :)

I contacted St. Jude to discuss the possibility of using their name and information to promote my pancake breakfast. It's looking good as far as that goes. Now I just need a location before I can make it official. I started making some calls today - I'll keep you posted on that.

And last, I've been spending countless hours (mainly on the internet) brainstorming and looking for ways to get the word out about Give One Million. Once again... any help with that would be greatly appreciated. Talk soon.

I'm reading: Day 12

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Day 10

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."

~Albert Pike

Pretty sweet quote don't you think... I heard that quote right before this whole project started. (Click here if you don't remember how this all began.) I don't remember where I was when I heard it, but I think that may have sparked the initial conversation my wife and I had that started this process.

What have I been up to the last couple days? Well - besides going out with my wife to celebrate our 8th anniversary, I've been spending a lot of time figuring out ways to spread the word via internet. I think I've found a few, so if you are here reading this now, chances are you may be some of the fruits of that labor :) I continue to work on the blog. I figure it's the communication hub of everything I'm doing - so I tend to spend a lot of time making sure it "does" what it's intended to do. For or those of you in Missouri - I'm in the beginning stages of plannning a pancake breakfast fundraiser. More details to come on that as soon as I have more concrete information - like date and time. And that's about it. So far, I think everything is going great. If you want to help in any way feel free to email me. - David

I'm reading: Day 10

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Day 8

Hey everyone. Thanks for coming and checking out the site. There's a lot going on behind the scenes. Remember it's only Day 8 and a lot of my ideas will take some time to develop and get organized - And it takes time to get the word out. So if there's not a post every day - don't get worried.



Here's the financial analyst in me speaking again... If we (I say we because I know I'm never going to be able to raise this money without every one's help out there) are going to accomplish this goal, we either need to reach a few really rich and generous people, or millions of not so rich people. I have a feeling it's going to have to be the later. So here's the breakdown...


As you can see, I have broken it down from Bad to Awesome. I put the average donation at 5 bucks, but I really have no clue what the average donation is - that's just a guess on my part. Is it too optimistic? Is it too pessimistic? Only time will tell I guess, but I figured it was a good starting point. So what I'm trying to say is that even in the best case scenario above we still need to get the word out to over 4 million people! And if people happen to be not as generous as we would like... Well - we're talking over 20 mil folks. The key is your help. Especially at the beginning. We need to get the ball rolling. How can you help? Well number one is obvious - click on the donate button and donate today. Not tomorrow. Not when you get around to it - but today. Number two is to join me in this cause and tell everyone you know about what we're doing. Thanks for every one's help so far. It's getting late, and I've got to get some shut eye. Feel free to comment. Talk soon...

I'm reading: Day 8

Help me reach one million in one year. Donate now!