50 = 1500 (or, Greenpiece)
I really do enjoy being on the road for Conn. Meeting with alums is great, but the time between my meetings is often even more interesting (boring introductory statement complete).
On Monday I was strolling the streets of Washington, DC, a.k.a. "A Windy City" (they make no claim to be the only windy city, unlike a certain other presumptuous blusterous metropolis), and I was flagged down from about 50 feet away by a young woman whom I thought was former fellow Conn College Class of '07 Camel Julia Kwolyk, but who, upon closer examination, turned out to be a Greenpeace worker. Since I had already made eye contact and walked towards her, I felt obliged to stand out in the beastly breeze for a minute and speak with her. As someone relatively new to the field of fundraising, I was also interested to see what her solicitation strategy was like...
"Do you care about the environment?" she asked. Since I live in the environment, I responded that I do.
"Do you support philanthropy?" she continued. Since I work in development, I not only support philanthropy but am supported by philanthropy, so I once again answered affirmatively. At this point, I was completely trapped between the "if" and the "therefore" of her syllogism. I agreed that I would donate using their monthly plan, which is the same system I use to donate to Conn and which I recommend to everyone, especially young alums. I told her I'd like to donate $5 per month, which is the same amount I give to Conn; that seemed like a pretty reasonable donation considering that I'd be doing it indefinitely. She informed me, however, that there was a $15 per month minimum! I agreed to the rate but now feel like I have to give Conn $10 more per month just to even things out! She was very excited to have gotten a donor and enthusiastically walked me through the address and billing information. After I said "New London, CT" once prompted for my city and state, she asked why I was in town. I told her about traveling for Conn and meeting with alumni and soliciting gifts. This got her even more excited, and she told me that we should get together to compare notes on fundraising tactics. I told her that I was flattered but was only going to be in town for a few days. "Well," she began, "if you change your mind, I work at this corner every day, so you know where to find me." It's quite perplexing that I can't get a date in New London, yet women are trying to pick me up off the street when I'm on the road. Maybe if I was on the road all the time.....
Yesterday I got out of a morning meeting with this really nice couple from the classes of '98 and '99 and decided to take a cab to my next meeting since it was so cold out, despite the fact that the distance was probably walkable (forget I said that, Accounting Office). I hailed a cab with relative ease and gave the driver the address that the alumna with whom I was meeting next had given me: 50 Massachusetts Avenue NE. While waiting to arrive at my destination, I browsed through a few files. When the cab finally stopped and the driver told me the fare, I hurriedly paid him, packed up my things and exited the cab. As he drove away, I looked around and realized that there was no sign of the restaurant that I was supposed to be at; in fact, there was no sign of anything except dozens of row houses and a few cars passing by. I soon discovered that I was at 1500 Mass Ave SE! It's times like this that separate good advancement officers from great advancement officers (or in my case, from pretty good advancement officers that don't have the cell phone number of the person they're meeting and therefore cannot call ahead to say that they'll be late). Since there were no cabs or metro stops anywhere in sight, I laced up my dress shoes as tight as they would go and traversed the 1.5 miles in record time. I actually made it to the meeting (which turned out to be inside of Union Station, which would have been very easy for a cab driver to find) on time, but needless to say I wasn't smelling like a bouquet of daisies on a spring afternoon. I took a quick bathroom break to get my freshen up on and had plenty of time to relax before lunch.
Compared to this stuff, my meetings seem pretty dull, so I'll spare my readership (which at this point probably just consists of my mom) the boredom of hearing about them.