Billy's Birthday Mission

A video with some final thoughts.  I recorded a bunch of videos and wrote a bunch but decided to just speak from my heart. Thanks everyone for your support!

8 organizations donated to:

1. American Red Cross
2. Catholic Relief Services
3. Clinton Foundation
4. Direct Relief International
5. Doctors Without Borders
6. Entertainment Industry Foundation
7. Mercy Corps
8. One Days Wages

Although I recommended Doctors Without Borders, I didn’t want the organization I chose to prevent people from giving, so opened up donations to any organization.  A significant portion of donations, $4,429 (26.91%), went to other organizations!  I’m happy my mission got to help many other valuable charities out there :)

Donation goals and dates reached:

• $1,000 - January 15 (day 0)
• $2,500 - January 15 (day 0)
• $5,000 - January 20 (day 5)
• $10,000 - January 22 (day 7)
• $15,000 - January 29 (day 14)

As you can see, there were many ups and downs.  It was impossible for me to guess when I’d reach any given goal.  I thought $10,000 was going to be the toughest since many large donations came in to get me to $5,000, so I didn’t think any more large donations would come in.  Of course, I was wrong :)

Surprisingly, large donations did not really die off until the very end and even then, I still got many large amounts.  Many of large spikes are due to the generosity of others, from people who offered their own gifts and services (Kevin, my sister, Maxine, Ryan and Paul) to people who helped galvanize many donations (Julie and Zach, CJ and Mr. Hou, Soo and numerous others).

Before 100 for Haiti goal (Jan 15-22): 51 donors - 6.38 donors per day

After goal announced: 61 donors - 6.78 donors per day

The majority of people donated on the first day, 29th and 30th.  Those days totaled 45 donors or 40.18% of the total donors.  Getting 100 donors was more difficult than reaching the monetary goals, but I’m happy that I did it.  51 donors got me to $10,000, meaning I was getting mostly large donations.  The last $6,000 were contributed by 61 donors, pushing me over 100!

In summary:

• 17 days
• $16,461 donated
• 112 donors

Incredible.

I will end with a final thoughts post tomorrow or this weekend.  Thank you all!

Much love,
Billy Shih

I’m working on my summary post with lots of numbers telling the story of my mission from start to finish.

I’ll share one fact: $12,032 was raised for Doctors Without Borders!  Thank you all for supporting an organization that I believe in :)

In total, we raised more than $16,000 for Haiti!  Thank you!

Please stay tuned for more,

Billy

:)

I’ll still be collecting donations if people want to donate on my behalf, however I will no longer be doing outreach for donations.

I hope to turn this mission into something longer term, but haven’t fleshed that out.

Please come back to the site later this week and I will post up the final numbers, as well as share info on any other projects I cook up.

Thank you all for making this a success!!!
-Billy

PS I realize I said I’d do a full update, but I’d rather take some time and do it right than rush it out now.  I hope you all don’t mind :)

Billy Shih

Hi everyone,

We have surpassed $15,000 and are already almost to $16,000!!  You all are so incredible!  Not only that, but we are only 6 people away from 100 donors.

We’ve crushed every other goal, so please help me get 6 more new donors.

If we can say that we raised over $15,000 AND got 100 contributors, how awesome would that be?  All within 16 days.

If you want to join, just donate at the Doctors Without Borders website and forward your confirmation email to me at: bbshih@gmail.com

My mission is almost over, but let’s not rest quite yet!

Thank you all!
Billy

To encourage more people to donate, we’ve decided to change the structure of the Mariners package and lower the price:

• Donate $100 minimum and get 4 tickets to any game (section 339)

This is $25 a ticket, pretty much face value.  Can’t get much better than that.  Get 3 friends and donate together to add 4 people to my mission!

Please tell everyone you know about this offer :)

-Billy

Click here to learn more about the seats and the original offer

Only $520 and 28 people away!

To reach my goal, I just need 28 people to donate $18.57 each. Email me now if you want to help!

$15,000 has been a battle but with some intense fund raising from Maxine Toh, Kevin Wong and the contributions from 23 donors, I am only $520 and 28 people away from completing my mission.

This all started on my birthday, January 15th. 13 days later and we are at an incredible $14,480 and 72 donors! That’s an average of $1,000 collected each day from 5-6 people. Your generosity blows me away.

Question: Do you have $18.57 to spare or can you find someone who does? Please help!

We are almost there. If you can spare to just 5 minutes to donate, send an email to a few friends, post my website on your Facebook or call up someone who can help. There are 3 days and 3 nights left, let’s finish this with those goals achieved!

I’m still offering my time and energy as a match to your donations. Additionally, I’m teaching a beginner’s photography tutorial and Mariners tickets are up in exchange for donations.

Get on board and help me make the last leap. I’ll give you a hug (and you still get my time and energy match :P)

• Mariners tickets are still up for grabs! Get tickets and raise money for a good cause :)
• We’re almost to $13,000!
• Need a few more people to make it to 70 donations.

Huge thanks to Maxine for getting 5+ new donors through her photography session auction!

I’ll be going to Gas Works Park on Sunday, February 7 @ 3:30PM to do a photography workshop with an existing donor.  She said its alright if I invite others, so I’m putting on an invitation to you all!  (If this day doesn’t work, I can schedule a separate time, no problem :))

I’m no pro but I know my way around a camera and can take a decent photo.

Gas Works Park

Earlier, I helped a donor with her jewelry photography, this time the focus will be on everyday photography and photography basics.  I can tell you how to take better photos of people, landscapes (like the beautiful skyline from Gas Works) and details (how to find the little things at a big place like the park.)  Whatever you want help with, let me know!

If you’ve already donated, you’re free to join. However I am trying to use this to drive new people and new donations, so please if you or anyone you know has  a dusty camera or who wants to sharpen their skills, let them know about this! Since this happens AFTER my fundraiser ends, I need to hear from them before the 31st.