The evening of Friday February 21, 2020, I checked my email spam folder and found an email from a tour group organizer. She wanted to know if the group could meet with TNKR a few days earlier.
Because Korea was then struggling with COVID-19, the group had decided to cut the Korea trip short. Instead of meeting us later the next week, they wanted to know if we could meet them Monday morning. When I talked on the phone with the organizer, she said we had to have the meeting at 11 a.m. on Monday. Or not at all.
We already had speakers confirmed, so it was going to be an inconvenience to make a last-minute change. I contacted TNKR co-founder Eunkoo Lee, she contacted the TNKR students. Within about an hour, everything was confirmed.
Then a short time later, the tour group organizer asked if we could change the schedule again, to meet Monday morning at 9 a.m. After that, they would hop on a plane to get the heck out of South Korea. So again, Eunkoo had to confirm with the TNKR students that they would be available. Luckily, both speakers were still available, without complaint.
What if I had not checked my spam folder that night?
We had a nice time, the refugees told their stories in English, the audience members had many questions.
At the start and finish, as I usually do, I challenged the visitors to do more than just praise the refugees and TNKR. I told them that we have many tour groups who visit us, talk about how much it had changed their lives. Then we would never hear from them again. I asked them to stay connected to us, I handed everyone my card. They asked how they could help. I told them bluntly: raise money for TNKR.
They left, we went back to our work, then a few weeks later I received an email from two of the members from that tour group. They were going to take up my challenge. We talked about a range of options, then they committed to raising money for TNKR. March 29th, a little over one month after meeting us in Seoul, they set up an online fundraiser for TNKR.
They raised a few thousand dollars quickly. They even found a Matching donor who would double everything raised.
I was thinking it was so lucky that I had checked my spam folder on a Friday night.
Then the fundraiser started to slow down.
The virus that had seemed to be on the verge of destroying Korea instead was destroying the USA. Funding was going for fighting COVID-19.
By mid-May, our friends at the University of Alabama had raised more than $4,000 but they had run out of steam.
I kept thinking about that Matching Donor. Certainly we could do more. When it seemed that our Alabama fans might be ready to give up, I asked them if they would be okay if I took over the fundraising campaign. They had done the hard part--found a Matching Donor! With that, we should be able to raise money if enough of our volunteers and fans joined in. What they had raised was a bonus. It should be our responsibility, not theirs, to raise money. They had found a Matching Donor.
But I wasn't sure.
1) We had experienced a failed Matching Donation in 2019 when a fan of ours had tried to raise money from the business community. We had started raising money, but then his fundraising effort failed.
2) We couldn't be sure that our volunteers and fans would rally around this effort, especially during COVID. I am sure that many of them who don't realize how fragile our financial state has been over the years would not want to hear more requests to help us continue growing..
I began mentioning the Matching Challenge, but the initial response was underwhelming. On May 30th, I set up my own fundraisers. We had entered Phase 2: I would ask our volunteers and fans to support the Matching Donation Challenge. At first, I tried to consider the various situations and sensitivities of people. Some might be in bad situations, lost jobs, depressed because of conditions in the world. And of course I didn't want to irritate previous donors. They probably wouldn't want to hear from me. I tried to ask nicely, indirectly. There weren't many responses.
I then clicked to Phase 3: Ringing the Alarm.
I would ask everyone in the world. These are the ones I recall.
* 4,000 people at the TNKR Facebook group
* 3,000 at the Facebook page
* 4,990 people at my Facebook profile page
* 2,000 at my Facebook blog
* 2,500 at Instagram
* 1,200 in this email list
* 250 of our volunteers in about 50 Kakao groups
* 220 of our volunteers I messaged directly
* Tagged about 500 people directly on Facebook
* 4,700 people I invited to a fundraiser I set up on Facebook.
Yeah, I did it!
I held Zoom calls at 3 a.m. and 3 p.m. Korea time, hoping more would join the effort.
I am amazed I didn't get banned simultaneously by social media outlets. This was a super fantastic opportunity for TNKR, I couldn't let it die quickly.
And it worked. The fundraising total of $4,000 went to $28,000. At that point, I realized that I would need more people involved, which led to Phase 4: Directly asking volunteers and fans to set up fundraisers. About 25 people did. I continued asking everyone.
Then Phase 5: North Korean refugees joined, posting testimonials about TNKR.
We have now raised $31,000, in Korean currency that is 38 million won. And that amount will be matched. If we fail to hit 40 million won, then I will donate the rest so that 40 million won will be doubled. We have hit milestones along the way. First it was $5,000. Then $10,000, our budget in 2014. Then $18,000 which was our budget in 2015. We might not quite hit $40,000, our budget in all of 2016.
The most delicious number for me was when we hit 37,000 million won ($31,000 USD). I remember the moment in 2015 when Eunkoo told me that we had 37,000 won ($31 USD) in the bank. I told her that we couldn't even take the refugees out to dinner with our budget, we would have to continue spending out of pocket. I'm not that much into symbolism, I was happy when the amount hit 38 million won ($31.5 USD).
What if I had not checked my spam folder on Friday night, Feb 21st?
None of this would have happened, at least not this year. When the virus began to get worse, non-profits were getting worried about what would happen. So much money went to fighting COVID that many organizations saw their funding dry up. It is hard to tell, because some people who would have spent money traveling are now twiddling their thumbs.
Luckily, I checked my spam folder on a Friday night earlier this year.
Our Matching Donation Challenge will be finishing this Friday night, July 24th. We have had almost 450 people donate to it. Of course, we are still hoping to get more donations. TNKR is a grassroots organization depending on donations. This kind of fundraising is like TNKR hitting the lottery. For some other organizations we partner with, that amount we have raised would be a failure that could get their entire development team fired.
I messaged with the Matching Donor, he confirmed that he would be matching everything we have raised and that we can continue raising money through Friday night. He is wealthy, he may be wondering why we couldn't raise more.
Tomorrow we have four meetings scheduled. If not for those meetings, I would probably spend the entire day on Social Media asking people to support this effort.
Because of the Matching Donation, we have been able to hire two North Korean refugees. For the first time, we have two paid staffers who are handling our Academic Program. Today we had three North Korean refugees visit us, Eunkoo and I could spend a bit more time talking to them rather than handling many tasks related to the Academic program. It has taken us several years to get to this point, but finally even Eunkoo believes we won't collapse as an organization.
If you have read this far, you probably won't be surprised to learn that I have set up several donation options for TNKR. Many people with a link tree probably post their personal things, maybe links to their favorite celebrities. Every single link on mine is a donation option for TNKR. https://linktr.ee/
You can also see the donation options here and below. https://lovetnkr.org/
Thankfully, I checked my spam folder on a Friday night in February, and this Friday night, exactly five months after we first met the team from Alabama, we will be wrapping up the most successful fundraiser in TNKR history.
Regards,
Casey Lartigue Jr.
International Director
Teach North Korean Refugees
http://l.ead.me/casey (follow me on Social Media)
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