FunnyBusiness is supporting Team Noah

FunnyBusiness is supporting the fight against Leukemia and Lymphoma by encouraging you to donate to Team Noah. This post is dedicated to the memory of Rose Freed.

Shortly after 9/11 I began rethinking my career. For the previous 20 odd years I had focused exclusively on business communications. During those 20 years, I rarely--except for election night-- missed my first career as a journalist.

9/11 changed that. With extra time on my hands,( lots of consultants found themselves with little or no work as corporations canceled contracts and stopped spending on outside vendors) I felt compelled to start writing about stuff I wanted to write about. Like many a hopeful freelance writer before me,  I went to Barnes & Noble, purchased the Writer's Digest ,and began targeting which magazines I would submit my stuff to.

"Remembering Rose" was one of the first pieces I wrote. At the time I thought it might find its way to a parenting magazine. Until today, it's basically stayed in a folder on my computer.  Magazines, I quickly learned, weren't interested in reading my stuff.

The moment my daughter Berit saw me standing on the steps of her summer school dormitory, she broke into a huge grin, and started running toward me. But, within a split second, she stopped dead in her tracks, her shoulders slumped, her grin turned to sobs—she knew why I was there.

            As I came to her with a consoling hug, she said, “Bubba died, didn’t she?”

Rose Freed was my mother-in-law. Lymphoma was just one of the diseases she was living with when she died in 2001.

Last month my son Noah decided to join the Team In Training program for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. His goal is to raise about $5000 and run the marathon in Hawaii this December.He is running in memory of Bubba Rose.

FunnyBusiness is hoping is hoping you will lend your support by donating to Team Noah Freed.

According to their website, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has raised over $600 million since 1988 by sponsoring a variety of "endurance events".  Which got me curious about the entire Endurance Events Fundraising strategy. Over the years I have walked for the Race for the Cure, March of Dimes and have supported others efforts as the ran, walked and biked for everything from MS to AIDS.

So it's interesting when I wanted to find out more about this fundraising strategy that I really couldn't. I wanted to know why this is so successful. I wanted to know how much money is being raised through these events. I couldn't find it.

I searched Google, Lexis Nexis, and then called the library. They called back saying they had not found any answers to my questions.

From a business perspective, I find this rather odd considering how prolific they are. Recently, the Daily Show's Dan Bakkendahl did a piece on the "walkanazis"  called "Look Who's Walking Too".( The link is to a page of his videos, scroll down and you'll find this one. It's very funny.) It's the story about a man who is angry because the charity walks interfere with his ability to get to Starbucks.

While I couldn't find specific statistics about the trend for nonprofits to use endurance events to raise money, I did find a blogger who is not a fan of these events. In July, Eric Crampton wrote:

Charity runs provide participants a lot of warm fuzzy feelings about helping folks and showing solidarity with those in need; they also provide an enforced exercise regimen: backing out from the run after having solicited donations from friends would be uncomfortable at best.

Any individual wanting to help the charity would almost certainly do better to spend the time working overtime (or taking a part time job), donating the money to the cause, and asking their friends to match a portion of their contributions. But race organisers would not do better by switching to the "work plus parade" format as doing so would reduce participation by more than would be gained by transforming wasteful training into productive work.

That may be true but as they say in marketing, there's a big gap between the way people "should" behave and the way they "do" behave. Obviously, these endurance events have legs.  Which brings me back to Noah.  Are his intentions purely charitable? Of course not. Running a marathon is a personal goal. Running it in Hawaii is a bonus.

His love for his grandmother was real,too.She had lymphoma. He does care and he is proud that his willingness to train and run can help provide funds to continue to search for a cure.