FRCMem/PVN Y2KoP wrap-up article

= Your Kind of People: Worth Celebrating? You Bet! =

By Connie Hawkins
Those of you who were volunteers with the PERC when the Membership Committee launched the Your Kind of People (YKoP) campaign during September of 2004 will recall that YKoP is an annual membership drive where every PERC volunteer is asked to recruit 2 new PERC members. *See http://perc.ca/vols/pvn/09-30-04/ykop.html

Are you wondering what ever happened to the YKoP campaign? Well, it did end, and it has returned to the closet. Was it a success?

The results


 * Target
 * 95 participating PERC volunteers
 * 190 new PERC members


 * Results
 * 6 participating PERC volunteers
 * 11 new PERC members

Ok, to say that we didn't come close to target is an understatement. So why celebrate? There are 6 reasons!

Another Way to Measure and Celebrate Success

Thanks to the efforts of 6 PERC volunteers, the PERC gained 11 new members. Hats off to the following volunteers:


 * Steve Gurman
 * Connie Hawkins
 * Mike Kaulbars
 * Adrian Larose
 * Ellen Lee
 * Sarah Walker

Add a bow to Sarah Walker who recruited 4 new PERC members!

And let's not forget the other volunteers who achieved more than anyone could have asked during the YKoP campaign of 2003:


 * 7 new members thanks to Mike Kaulbars
 * 6 new members thanks to Chris Hamacher
 * 3 new members thanks again to Sarah Walker
 * 3 new members thanks to Jackie Adams
 * 3 new members thanks to Beth Dunning
 * 3 new members thanks to Joe Parchello
 * 3 new members thanks to Rick Richer & Rieko Shinomiya
 * 3 new members thanks to Elise Skinner

And, of course, there were many other volunteers whose success contributed to a record 50 new PERC members during the YKoP campaign of 2003.

The full results for both YKoP campaigns are listed at: http://www.perc.ca/vols-only/wiki/index.php/YKoPs%20Results Most of these volunteers asked friends, family, or colleagues to become PERC members. Some volunteers, who weren't already PERC members, became members. Many did both. Others also gave a PERC membership as a gift. The success of these volunteers' efforts really isn't surprising. The individual friends and family they recruited as PERC members are, like the volunteers themselves, and like us, middle-income, working-class or poor.

The PERC volunteers who succeeded during YKoP are no different from you and me. It wasn't easier for any one of them--no easier than it would have been for any one of us. The only difference is they overcame their fears and they asked. To deny this only diminishes their effort and their success. They've earned our admiration and deserve a huge THANK YOU!

As veteran fundraiser and consultant Kim Klein points out in her article You Already Know All the People You Need to Know to Raise All the Money You Want to Raise, it isn't the wealthy, or foundations, or corporations who give away the most money. In fact, it's "most people", that is, individuals who are middle-income, working-class or poor.

If this weren't the reality, groups like the PERC simply wouldn't be around. As Klein explains: "The concept of grassroots fundraising and, consequently, grassroots groups would not exist. We have a diverse, creative, and extraordinary group of nonprofits because we have a diverse, creative, and wonderful population of people who give away money."

As Klein explains, if corporations and foundations gave away the most money, the non-profit sector would be much less diverse with more focus on large organizations and more elite universities, research, well-funded arts groups, etc. I'd also like to add that there would be far more corporate-funded phony "astro-turf" groups replacing the real grassroots.

As Klein has learned from her fundraising training, when people accept the reality that they know all the people they need to know to raise money, they can react with both horror and relief. The relief is understandable. But why horror? Klein's answer: "People who are horrified by this notion realize that their best prop has just been knocked down; the excuse that worked when all others failed has just failed. If they already know who they need to know, what is stopping them?"

What is stopping us?