A few years ago, I tossed out a really great idea for an office holiday party to ring in the season. I didn’t take my own idea all that seriously, but others did. And then one of my colleagues was put in charge of pulling off my great party idea.
Not long after, she pulled me aside and said: “Sometimes when you’re walking toward me, I think to myself, ‘What stupid idea has Dan had that I’m going to have to do?’”
She was being funny, of course, but also (rightly) asking me to be more careful when popping off good ideas in front of others. She’ll find below, I hope, that I took her advice to heart.
What follows is a photo essay of a charity pickleball tournament this past weekend that was technically my idea, but a ton of people had a hand in pulling off (including myself, thankyouverymuch).
Below is visual proof of what this Substack has tried to express about fundraising over the past month:
Evidence of how to raise money is all around us—even in pickleball!
The special sauce behind volunteers’ influence? You’ll see it displayed below even if it’s hard to put words to.
So many people worked on this event. The time and effort they put in is written on the faces of those competing, networking, volunteering, and learning about our organization.
When we asked people to play pickleball for charity, many said yes. Some said no. Others said “ask me later.” But we always asked. (One guy—hand to God—asked if there would be a buffet lunch. Took me right back to Ponderosa!).
Preliminary hat-tip, though, goes to the woman whose organization, hard-work, patience, good cheer, sense of humor, and collaboration brought it all together. The event may have been my idea, but she gave everybody a role to play.
Key stats about Amritha Mohandas:
Number of Languages spoken: 4 (Malay, English, Mandarin, and Malayalam)
Number of times she asks me to do something before I do it: Also 4
Navy call sign: Dinkasauraus Rex (Also goes by: Lady Smash-a-lot, Optimus Mohandas, and El Diable Acechando en la Fila de la Cocina)
Hobbies: Mixed martial arts, motorcycle riding, and wearing funny socks. (The last thing you’ll see before she delivers a devastating roundhouse kick will be the dogs riding motorcycles on her funny socks as she’s breaking your face with her foot.)
I’ll call it out when I can, but just scroll through and see for yourself what Fundraising For Breakfast is trying to bring you each week: What it looks like when people have fun and work together to raise money for a cause they care about.
If you go back and skim through the posts from the past month you’ll see much of what I’m talking about there illustrated in the above photos. There’s a ton more I could have put up there, but you’re smart people and you get the gist.
One person’s idea coupled with a lot of people’s time, effort, money, and expertise.
Fundraising is more fun when you’re doing it with friends.
Bloody Marys and margaritas help, too.
See you next week, beautiful people.