From Birdathon Novice to Fundraising Champ

By Ilana DeBare

Marjorie Powell had never done Birdathon fundraising before. In fact, she’d never done any kind of fundraising — no raffle ticket sales, no Girl Scout cookies, nothing.

Yet Marj ended up as our top first-time fundraiser last Birdathon, generating $550 to support Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s conservation and education activities.

“People do respond in ways you don’t anticipate, and are often more generous than you anticipate,” she said. “The big hurdle is just getting started.”

Marj’s path to Birdathon started when she moved to the Bay Area in 2014 with her husband Joe, after retiring as an attorney for a trade association on the East Coast. Living along a tributary to Chesapeake Bay, she had enjoyed birding there and chose Alameda as her Bay Area home  because of its beautiful shoreline and copious shorebirds.

“We moved from one bay to another,” she said.

Birding at Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary, she met GGBA Executive Director Cindy Margulis, a fellow Alameda resident who encouraged her to get involved in the organization. She initially considered taking part in Birdathon 2015 but didn’t sign up for a trip in time.

“I tend to put off making decisions,” she said. “There were several trips I wanted to go on, but by the time I decided which one I wanted, they were all full.”

So in 2017, Marj decided to act more quickly. She was drawn to a number of trips, but picked one that she would unlikely be able to do on her own — the behind-the-scenes tour of International Bird Rescue. Because revenues from that trip would be split between GGBA and Bird Rescue, she set an ambitious goal of raising $500.

“I’d never done fundraising, so that was totally new to me,” she said. “I’d just been at the other end, where I bought all kinds of Girls Scout cookies and wrapping paper, especially when people I worked with were raising money for their kids’ activities.”

Marj was nervous about a lot of it — how to set up her fundraising page, how to express the reasons for her participation in a short space, whether her friends would be irritated by her solicitation.

But she signed up and GGBA staff walked her through both how to create her page and how to approach her friends.

“The training was really helpful, especially with setting up my page, because I’m not adept with new computer things,” Marj said. “But it turned out to be really easy.”

Marj put a lot of careful thought into crafting her message for her friends. She decided to tell them about GGBA’s work rescuing injured young Black-crowned Night-Herons in downtown Oakland — partly because Bird Rescue, the focus of her Birdathon trip, was rehabilitating those very birds.

She searched out photos she’d taken in the past of night-herons in other parts of the country, closer to the friends she would be approaching. “I tried to find ways of tying in to things beyond Oakland, because people on the East Coast wouldn’t necessarily care about birds in Oakland,” she said.

And then she sent her first two emails, with those photos.

“I started with the easiest ones — people I felt close to, and people who were more likely to make a contribution because it wouldn’t be a hardship for them. I had a couple of people respond, which was very encouraging. Once I got started, the next round of emails was really quite easy. Then I started thinking of other people I could add. I was quite surprised by the generous size of some people’s contributions.”

Marj ultimately approached ten friends, eight of whom made donations — adding up to her total of $550, surpassing her goal of $500.

Her Birdathon trip to Bird Rescue was fantastic.

“It was just fascinating,” she said. “I was struck by the enormous amount of work involved in cleaning oiled birds — the number of times they have to put them into the water and wash them, which they can’t do until the bird is strong enough. Then watching a release (of rehabilitated birds) was like icing on a dessert after the rest of the trip, an unexpected treat.”

Marj took photos during the trip. And then she incorporated those photos into thank-you cards that she sent to her donors, sharing the story of her visit to Bird Rescue and the great work she witnessed them doing with Oakland herons.

Overall, she emerged from her first Birdathon experience inspired both by Bird Rescue and this new kind of connection with old friends.

“I had really nice feelings about the people who contributed, some of whom I hadn’t seen in three years since we left the East Coast,” she said.

Oh… she also won a pair of Opticron Natura binoculars, a Birdathon prize donated by Out of This World Optics in Mendocino!

Her advice for other potential Birdathon fundraisers?

“People respond to stories,” she said. “If you can figure out how to tell a story, it’s really helpful, like tying your request to the Birdathon trip you’re taking or to the work that Audubon does. It’s important to keep at it — don’t just send out one set of emails and quit. And be sure to say thank-you with some kind of follow-up.”

Her plans for 2019?  This year she is a member of the Birdathon committee!

“And this year, I’m going to make my decision (about which Birdathon trip to choose) early,” she said.

Update: Marj just chose “Birds and Chocolate in Alameda” for her trip this year. If you would like to join her you can register here.

Editor’s Notes: You too can be a prizewinning fundraiser this year. It’s easy. Just go to Create Your Personal Fundraising Page to get started. We’re here to help. If you have any questions you can contact Ilana at debare@well.com or Leslie at lweir@goldengatebirdalliance.org

Curious about what prizes you can win? Find out at Birdathon 2019 Fundraising Prizes

What Birdathon trips are still available? Check List of Birdathon Trips and Registration

Need a few more fundraising pointers? https://goldengatebirdalliance.org/fundraising-tips/