{"id":1046,"date":"2011-12-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.causevox.com\/?p=1046"},"modified":"2024-05-08T17:42:20","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T17:42:20","slug":"from-facebook-like-to-living-on-rice-and-beans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/blog\/from-facebook-like-to-living-on-rice-and-beans\/","title":{"rendered":"From Facebook \u201cLike\u201d to living on rice and beans"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post by our friend Howard Freeman.\u00a0Howard Freeman is Founder and Principal of Zoey Creative Development, a charitable giving consultancy in NYC serving both organizations and also individual philanthropists.\u00a0 He can be reached at howard@zoeycreativedevelopment.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Upper West Side of Manhattan is not the best neighborhood to shop for cheap groceries if you only have $7.50 to cover five days. But then again, why would you try?<\/p>\n

In May 2011, I joined thousands of others in the \u201cLive Below the Line\u201d Campaign organized by the Global Poverty Project (GPP).\u00a0 The \u201cline\u201d is $1.50, below which 1.4 billion people live.\u00a0 Sometimes an entire family lives on this amount for all needs; I was to do this alone and use only for food\u2014my wife and kids would continue as normal. But for those doing LBL, we were being reminded for five days of the desperate need of those living in extreme poverty. So were our supporters. And the idea was to transform each of us to do something more. Beyond this one week.<\/p>\n

Let me outline how GPP was able to accomplish this goal in me, as a micro-fundraiser for them.<\/p>\n

Sometime in 2010, I had attended a large reception and presentation where about 200 people heard GPP Founder Hugh Evans tell his story and call us to take a simple action.\u00a0 Would we \u201cLike\u201d their Facebook page? Or write a letter to a politician? Or make a donation?<\/em> And would we do it that night?<\/em> I recall taking the path of least resistance: I went home and \u201cliked\u201d the GPP Facebook page, delegating it to the electronic attic of Fan pages alongside the TV show \u201cHouse,\u201d my favorite dead authors, and \u201cBrother Jimmys\u201d restaurant. In other words, I clicked \u201cLike\u201d on Facebook, got a laboratory-like boost of Altruistic Endorphins shooting through my body, and then I went away.<\/p>\n

But GPP used that \u201cLike\u201d skillfully.<\/p>\n

Many \u201cLikes\u201d on cultural items both great and small later, I got a Facebook event invitation with a link to a video, seen here<\/a>. \u00a0I was impressed by the quality of the video, and it didn\u2019t hurt to have one of the X-Men pitching me.\u00a0 (In fact, I bet you clicked over just now, if you didn\u2019t already.) I received another and probably a third, asking me to consider the LBL event.\u00a0 At one point, I just thought, \u201cWhat the hey.\u00a0 Sure.\u201d\u00a0 So I signed up to do it.<\/p>\n

In the week before the LBL fast, I was supposed to raise money.\u00a0 (The food I bought is for another post.)\u00a0 Now, I had raised money as a professional for 16 years prior, but always on behalf of an organization, never to sponsor me personally.\u00a0 So, it was a bit intimidating.\u00a0 Yet, once I jumped, I didn\u2019t look back.<\/p>\n

To kick off my fundraising effort:<\/p>\n