St. Jude 2022 Fundraising Update
This year I will be scaling back my fundraising campaign for St. Jude Play Live, both in terms of our goal and in terms of the workload I take on personally.
For some context as to why I’ve made this decision, here is a quick background of my fundraising for St. Jude: in 2018, the 88bitmusic community raised $11,244.32, then in 2019 raised $25,001.00, more than doubling our previous efforts.
Then in 2020, we more than quadrupled that amount by raising $110,005.11. Quadrupled. With a q. As in, “times four.” The goal had only been $36,000, which I thought was going to be steep, so I committed to fundraising for the entire month in order to hit it. When we reached $26,000 on the very first night, I realized something big was happening and that my Play Live experience was going to be very different from before.
With the goal so quickly smashed and so much of the month remaining, I set new goals, which were then smashed, and more goals, which were smashed, and so on and so forth. With no clear target to reach for and seemingly limitless potential, I proceeded to massively overwork myself, spending nearly every waking hour either streaming or making new content to stretch our fundraising further. When the month concluded with over $110,000 raised, I was ecstatic that it had gone so well, but it also came at a pretty heavy mental toll. I experienced severe burnout for well over a month, falling into pretty serious depression.
When it came time for our 2021 campaign, a precedent had now been set (in my mind) that this is a channel where we raise crazy amounts for St. Jude. Specifically, the figure of $100,000 became this sort of looming monolith, something I must again achieve or else I would be a failure; washed up, past my prime, peaked, etc. I went into the fundraising month with this incredibly unhealthy mindset, though I was very aware of it and tried (unsuccessfully) to counteract it with the truth, which is that every dollar raised for St. Jude is meaningful and something to be cherished, and that whatever amount we hit was something to be proud of.
When it became clear early on that we weren’t going to have the same kind of runaway success as in 2020, I experienced that same burnout and depression, but this time at the very beginning of fundraising. I felt desperate, throwing every possible idea and every ounce of effort I had it. In the end, we raised over $90,000, a figure that in retrospect, from a healthier mental state, I am very proud of.
Which leads us, finally, to this year. I simply can’t do to myself what I did last year. I owe it to myself, my wife, and my viewers to be wiser with how I approach fundraising this year. And I’m not the only one who’s been stretched thin by it- the 88bitmusic community has been absurdly, unprecedently generous with their giving to St. Jude, and I want it to be as clear as possible that there is no pressure to give more than they comfortably can, and I can only truly do that by having a goal amount that reflects that.
So, this year we will be doing a single week of fundraising, rather than the entire month. I’m setting aside the week of May 23rd through 28th for our fundraising efforts (times TBD) and planning to end with one larger than usual stream. Our goal will be $30,000, one that I am very confident we can hit. But even if we don’t, I will be grateful for every dollar we raise, as will the patients and families of St. Jude.
I’m still going to come at this with everything I have and work hard, and I still encourage all of you to dig deep and give generously to this amazing organization. The work they do is phenomenal and giving to them is a decision you can always feel good about. The only difference this year from the past two is that I’ll be making a more concerted effort to do this in a way that isn’t dangerous to my emotional and mental wellbeing.
Above all, let’s have some fun. Fundraising for St. Jude has honestly been one of the most fun things I’ve ever had the privilege of doing and I want to get back to that mindset.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and I can say with all sincerity that I’m so excited to see you May 23rd through 28th for some gosh-danged fundraising.
-Trevor
Oh, and one more thing…
(#KillThePeepy #SaveThePeepy)