One of our clients has a fundraising event that is fun. Yes, you heard me right - fun.

Graceworks, a human services organization providing essential services to underprivileged families, has joined forces with the local Harley Davidson Club and together they are having fun and providing for the needy.

The concept is simple: the Harley Club collects toys and cash donations from their members. Then on a crisp Saturday morning in November they all get on their motorcycles, and with Santa leading the way they deliver the goodies to Graceworks and dozens of thrilled kids.

How can you have fun fundraising too? Here are three steps to get started:

1. Ask yourself these essential questions: What do we do well? What community needs are we meeting. Who can we partner with to do what we do better?
2. Are there any tasks we do regularly that could be done with a little flair and fun if we had the right partners?
3. Who are the people among our staff and volunteers that would be energized by a project like this.

Go for it. Have fun!

Today is Election Day. I know I don’t need to go on about how important it is and what a privilege it is, and how many have given their lives so that we can exercise our right to vote and live in freedom . . . oops, I guess I just did.

Seriously, I believe today will be historic not simply because of the skin color or gender of the ones elected, but because our country is shifting. It’s been shifting for some time now but this election will no doubt speed up the process significantly. It is most noticeable in the attitude of the general populace: “I’d be a fool to do for myself what I can get someone else to do for me.” At face value this attitude seems reasonable - surely it’s a good thing to delegate effort. That way you are freed up to work on something else, thereby multiplying your productivity. But there’s a subtlety to this that is insidious and, I believe dangerous.

Over the past few decades we have gradually assigned more and more personal responsibility to others. This is is evident in two ways: 1) feeling like we have a right to the privileges of others and, 2) feeling like we are victimized if we don’t get what we think we have coming. What concerns me with regard to this election is this reassignment of responsibility is being aimed at the government. After today I believe we will see this self-serving attitude spread and amplify exponentially.
We’ve come a long way from JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”