I can say, without thinking too much, that celebrating my birthday with the people I care about is one of the things that I love the most (I even forget I’m getting older).
As, I believe, most of the people, I also started to question myself about a lot of new things during these almost two years that we’re dealing (or trying to) with the pandemic. All the time isolated made me wonder how privileged I am for being healthy and having the conditions to stay safe. But, most importantly, it also made me realize that an enormous amount of people were struggling. As we all know, everyone wants to give you a gift on your birthday even if you say it’s not necessary. So, I decided to ask for donations on my upcoming birthday.
This will be the first time I will do that so I started researching for ways that make it possible. I’ll be sharing what I found out in this post, so that you can use this information if you feel like doing the same and make your special day also a better day for the ones that need it.
I like the idea of creating a fundraiser on social media like Facebook as you might have many connections there and the engagement tends to be higher than just sharing the link to a website.
Also, it’s an easy way to see that others are helping which I do believe motivates others to join the cause. Here you can find the steps to create your own fundraiser.
Go Fund Me
By going to gofundme.com you can create a new fundraiser and set the deadline as the date of your birthday and then share the link with your friends on WhatsApp or on your social media profiles. Here they put together some tips on how to make it happen.
Ask for stuff
If you are throwing a birthday party, another good idea is to ask your friends for physical donation items (e.g., clothes, hygiene items, toys, food, etc.). You can always check the charity organization websites and see what they need. That way you can gather everything and drop the donations at the right location. Some charities we have around the Seattle area are Seattle Goodwill, Wellspring Family Services, Friends of the Children.
I’m still deciding which charity I’ll be fundraising for on my birthday, but I’m sure that even a small contribution can make a big difference to someone’s life. And I can’t think of a better birthday gift than that, can you?