Early this year I wrote the following in another blog post:
“It only takes one.
One person to make a difference in the life of another.
At times, when we look at all that is wrong in the world, we feel lost. Where do we start? There is so much that needs to be done! We can’t possibly help everyone but we CAN help one. Have you ever been that ONE that has been helped? Have you ever been the ONE to help?
“In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance. Let us open our eyes and see the heavy hearts, notice the loneliness and despair; let us feel the silent prayers of others around us, and let us be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to answer those prayers.” ~Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Happiness, Your Heritage ~
So many prayers are being said on behalf of the people of Haiti. I believe in the collective power of prayer. I also believe in the collective power of one + one + one doing.“
You know what?
It worked!
It really worked.
A week before that post went up I took five minutes to add the widget you see to the right there for LDS Philanthropies. I never said anything about it. Never asked you to click on over. Just placed it on my blog hoping that it would help in some small way.
And boy did it ever!
At the beginning of August I received an e-mail and then a phone call from a representative of LDS Philanthropies. He shared the following stats with me.
- The first month the widget went “live” they received about 1 million hits to their website.
- It took them all of last year to get that many people to visit their website.
- Before the days of the internet it took about 20 years to get 1 million people to learn about/donate to LDS Philanthropies.
- I uploaded the widget on January 7. From that time until the end of July LDS Philanthropies received about 384,000 hits from this blog. Oh, yes, you read that right – 384,000! I had him repeat it several times because I was sure he was reading the number wrong.
- Some days, especially Mondays (which are the peak days for visitors to this blog), this blog sent more visitors to LDS Philanthropies than LDS.org (the main site for our church).
- Predictably, all of those visits created a generous amount of donations for the Haitian Relief effort.
A reporter from MormonTimes contacted me to write a story about the success of the widget. He asked what my secret was to get people to click over and contribute. I answered, “My readers are the regular, run-of-the-mill, mothers who are just trying to do the best they can. And maybe, that’s the key right there. They are mothers. They have nurturing hearts. I never said anything on my blog about the widget, never told anyone to click on it. So the secret to my success? I have none. All accolades go to the giving, generous readers.“
It is so true. It was you, and you, and you, and you who did this.
One + One + One + One = MANY
From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
© 2007-2010 Chocolate on my Cranium, LLC all rights reserved
I read the article today (or yesterday I guess) and was so thrilled that this experience happened! I only wish I knew about your blog then–I would have been a sure one to click;)
thats AMAZING.. i will say that I did click over.. but only once… so the other 383 999 …great!
I love when you hear feedback from donations you make. I love the behind the stories… makes you feel so proud to donate money to places.
That was truly amazing! Kudos to you and everyone for answering the call to serve!!! Awesome, awesome, awesome!!!! 🙂
Wow! Is there really anything else to say? What an amazing group of people you have following you!
I have chills running down my arms. What a fabulous result.
Amazing, just amazing!
that is incredibly inspiring!!!! thanks for sharing.
That is so cool! I betcha that feels pretty good.
So awesome! I teared up! We nurture. So much that some days it seems unbearable. Then we do it some more. Because that’s who we are.
I was just thinking that if each of those people donated just $1, that is a nice sum! Congratulations!
Awesome news!!
Wow, that is really incredible. It always amazes me how God works in such simple ways.
That is so cool. I got an email for that button a long while back, but I am so paranoid about unsolicited email that I didn’t click on the link or add it to my blog. But that story is so inspiring that maybe I should dig out that email and add it (now that I know it is real).
That made me tingle 🙂 wonderful, amazing.
wonderful sites!