"Starting my fundraising journey I was a little wary that not many people would donate to my fundraising page. I was thinking of the people I personally thought would donate to me, who were mostly relatives. Even then I was worried they would only donate $20-$50, which would not let me hit my fundraising goal. I talked to my Dad about it and he came up with his own list of people who he thought would donate. His list was much bigger than mine, including his clients and personal friends! I thought because the majority of his people didn't know me personally or only knew me as his daughter that they wouldn't donate. But I sent out an email to everyone anyways. I just included my journey, what my objective of going to India is and a link to my donation page. Within hours of sending out the email I was receiving overwhelming support. Also, don’t be afraid to send follow up emails and make phone calls, people get busy and forget they wanted to donate.  The majority of my donations were people from my Dad, that didn't know me personally but wanted to support me and believed that Rising Star Outreach was a worthy cause to donate too.  I would say don’t be afraid to email people and ask for support, reach out to more than just family. You will be surprised how many kind people are out there willing to support your cause and passion to provide meaningful service."

--Hadley Evans