7 ways to raise more money

US Weekly is not something I read regularly anymore. I read lots of it when I was in treatment, both during chemo and radiation. They are reporting that Friday’s Stand Up to Cancer raised “over $100 million dollars”.

I know that’s a lot of money but I’m actually a little disappointed.  On stage we saw $25 million donation by philanthropist Sidney Kimmel make a pledge of $25 million. This country has a population of around 300 million people.  You don’t have to be a mathematician (thank God) to see that donations per person were pretty darn low.

Not pitting one disease against another, but Jerry Lewis raised $65 million dollars this year for MDA.  Now of course he has been doing this for years and therein lies my point. Here’s my list of ways to increase the numbers.

1. Make plans now for another telethon the same time next year.
2. Get the networks to really buy in.  Disney-ABC Television Group for example has multiple channels in the Disney platform, SOAPNET, Lifetime, A&E and ESPN.  Show the telethon on all of the stations covered by the group.
3. Expand the program.  This was a good first effort but one hour is not enough time.
4. Add more performers and performances.
5. Bring on more and more and more survivors. Particularly survivors who have something unusual about their illness.  A man with breast cancer or a 20 year old with breast cancer gets more attention than your usual woman.
6. Increase the publicity and the intensity.  Increase your online presence and move it up.
7. Make it easier to find t-shirts, stickers and more.  I had loads of people coming to my blog to find them so I just put a link to the Cafe Press site. This is a small blog and I had 72 click throughs in just a couple of hours. Even if only a few of those people bought a shirt there is increased revenue.

I am glad that this was done, it is a start.  But if the costs of research are anything near the costs of treatment much more is needed.

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