I just donated to a new e-newsletter subscriber. Here’s why.

I am practically the definition of jaded. Seriously. Tell me your sob story. I won’t cry. After years in this business, I feel like I’ve heard it all. There’s no end to the wanting.

But yesterday i got a notification that someone had signed up for my newsletter, and as usual, I went to check out their website before writing back. The woman’s name was Helen. And her charity, Michigan Aids Coalition, or MAC. I loved the poignant yet not cloying quotes on top of some beautiful pictures on her website.

I started to read her blog. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that she could really write. It was so beautiful, and compelling that I kept reading, long after I should have stopped, and started my email to her. So while I was in the middle of the email, I remembered I had an extra three dollars left in my paypal account, and I clicked the donate button on her website, and I gave.

I do have friends living with HIV. I do believe in her mission to educate people and to give grants to AIDS organizations. But more than her mission, I believed in her blog posts, one of which talked about the importance of collaboration to keeping her nonprofit afloat.

“Wow” I thought. “Here’s a leader who really gets it. I bet she writes a killer appeal letter too.” So I gave. I gave out of admiration. I gave because her staff looked happy in their pictures. I gave because she seemed like “one of us.”

Do you know what I mean? Have you ever given to a nonprofit for this reason too?
I’d love to get your comment.