Buckets

We all have priorities and needs in our lives, some of them crucial , some of them small…

We all have lots of things pulling us in lots of directions.

Sometimes people talk about “buckets”, let’s use that to describe those things. Your time, your energies, your money, your heart and soul go into these buckets.

You have a bucket for yourself, one for your kids, one for your spouse, one for your parents, one for your friends.

One for your job. You have a large number, but limited number of buckets.

What about the woman you don’t know who lives 1.2 miles north and 3.4 miles west of you? Do you have a bucket for her?

Probably not; by the time you’ve put your time and energy and money and heart and soul into your buckets, there isn’t really enough left over for a bunch of someone else’s buckets!

It sounds pretty normal, but in reality isn’t that a terribly selfish way to live your life?

The song says all we are is dust in the wind.

That woman who you don’t know who lives 1.2 miles north and 3.4 miles west of you is no less a speck of dust than you are. HOW DARE YOU believe that you are the most important speck of dust? That you shouldn’t be concerned about her? Do you have the right to focus on yourself and your nearest specks of dust in this wind, to the neglect of ALL the other specks?

You don’t need to make room for a million more buckets.

But make room for one more. For your unknown Windmates.

We’re all in this together. Be a team player.

The NETWORKING side of the connection:

I was asked to describe the Business Networking and Social Networking side of the "connections" equation. What's in it for the Networking groups?
Well, aside from the obvious benefit of sleeping well at night because of helping out a worthwhile cause, there are very valuable "selfish" benefits to the Networker.

Start with Business networking. Business people who gather to develop and nurture business relationships and look for new contacts. If they move their networking meeting to the venue where a Charity fundraiser is taking place, think of the ADDED new contacts they can make! Those people who are NOW available to them during this event, the active supporters of DFW Charities are some of the most positive, successful, motivated, and helpful business people you'll ever meet!

And similarly, what about job seekers? Who should they be networking with? That's right, these same successful and helpful-minded folks!

And it relates similarly to the Social Networker as well. Those groups who meet just to meet, to chat, to laugh, to enjoy the company of others. Well, it wouldn't hurt their chances of finding some more quality friends and adventures if they were intermingling their social time with that of the Charity supporters with the big hearts!

And speaking of big hearts, let's quickly touch on the Single person looking for quality friends and romantic connections. Who do you want to be chatting with, the man or woman you meet at Joe's Wild Time Grille, or the man or woman you meet at a charity event. Who's the one with the potential??

Go look at the Calendar now. And get yourself, your friends, your networking groups to change the way they decide "where should we go?"!!

Website is up and running

The DallasCharityConnection website is up and running! This is a basic proof-of-concept version that will show what the intent of the site is, and not all functionality is available just yet. The CALENDAR is there!, and some links are working, and more will become live each day. Go to http://www.dallascharityconnection.com

Incidentally, I'm trying to find some data to help tell "the story" of how we will benefit from reaching out to the people we aren't inviting to our fundraisers. There are 6.5 million people in DFW. I'd like to find out how many donors the American Red Cross, for example, had in DFW last year. If 500,000 people in DFW donated to the Red Cross last year, that means that by just getting $1 from each of the others (and who wouldn't give A DOLLAR to a noble charity?), they would raise an additional $6 million. This is a made-up example, I need real data.

Lots of events this weekend. Check out the calendar.

Specific charities in need

I am becoming more and more convinced that this is a needed service - there are business networking groups who look for places to gather, and there are local charity groups who sponsor networking gatherings.

We must connect them.

This week I attended two charity fundraiser "happy hour" events. And found many specific examples of planned charity events that (a) don't know about each other, and (b) wish more people knew about them. Wonderful heart-related charities like Dallas Heart Ball, Friends4Heart, WWWhealthfoundation, and (future) DreamChase.

I spoke with people who run business networking groups, and they said YES, we would love to access a calendar of events and gather someplace that helps a charity.

It's going to happen. I'm going to need some help.

Intro

Freed last year from the world of corporate employment (!), I found my days and evenings provided me more than enough free time to dig and plant and harvest my next career.

So I quickly began looking for
a) Opportunities to help those less fortunate than myself, and
b) Opportunities to interact with DFW's noble residents.

Initially, these were two separate undertakings. The first was because I had always wished I had more free time to give, and the second was because I now hoped to meet a lot of people - who might directly or indirectly assist me in other business pursuits.

Those charity events I attended quickly breathed new life into me. I returned home from each one refreshed and inspired. I was interacting with positive people, and I was contributing my time and my money to something GOOD.... And I started making contacts.

BUT it was hard to find these events! All too often, I found out about GREAT events AFTER they had happened!

There was no single simple place to look to find out what events were coming up.

I found that "everyone" knows of a few events. And they'd be happy to share. And they'd like to learn about more events. HEY!, if we were all connected, then we'd ALL know about ALL the great opportunities!!

This blog is dedicated to sharing this information. Collecting it, posting it. Getting people to share the wonderful events they know about, with more people,... BEFORE the event happens!

Its only purpose is to get a lot more people attending the events!

Think of the last not-quite-as-well-attended-as-was-hoped event. How many people didn't come BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT??

I'm not saying there isn't any source of this information currently...
Au contraire!!, I am saying there are HUNDREDS of sources!

I don't want to re-create them! I want to CONNECT them!

And I'm not saying people aren't spreading the word about their events. They certainly are! But how do they CONNECT to all the people and organizations they aren't currently getting through to??

So please spread the word, let's get everyone CONNECTED.

Let's create some STANDING ROOM ONLY "problems" at some of Dallas' wonderful charity events!

Let's publish and discuss Dallas charity events, and share with each other external sources of information about ALL Dallas charity events - via posts in this blog, via links to other websites, calendars, connections to Social Media tools, etc...

I anxiously await your thoughts, suggestions, your help. Thank you.

- Drew Z