Obit: Burl Green

I had a wide-ranging laundry list of tasks while working in Iowa, but fundraising was absolutely never one of them. It made my job loads easier to never have to ask for money. It was hard enough asking people to leave the comfort of their homes on a cold January 3rd night to join the caucus fracas.

I was reminded of this when I read today's Cherokee Chronicle and saw that Burl Green had died at the age of 84. He came to one of my community meetings to hear more about caucus night. A long-time Democrat, he knew exactly what a caucus was, yet he was attentive, answered questions that I couldn't, and even verbally sparred with another woman (later resolved). But the first thing he did was hand me a check. It caught me off guard. It was the first (and last in Iowa) check I received. And it taught me to be more aware of people handing you checks (something which happened more regularly in Colorado and Ohio). So, in a way, he taught me a thing or two about money and added a memorable moment to my time in Iowa. My respects to Linda and Colene Green




From the Cherokee Chronicle-
Burl F. Green, 84, of Cherokee, former long time rural Cleghorn area resident, passed away Saturday evening, Aug. 23, 2008 at the Cherokee Regional Medical Center following a lengthy illness.

Getting Better at Charity

While I know it's strange to blog about obituaries twice in one week (unless you're this blog), I do want to comment on the NJ Herald. They took an interesting step this past week when they updated their website. If you look at this obit, you'll see that they give you a link at the bottom to donate to the charity mentioned in the obituary. I think this is a logical thing to do, and I am surprised this is the first time I'm seeing it. It puts the charity request in a convenient spot to benefit from the emotions of the reader. There's an immediate "ask".

However, it still requires you to click and go to a different website (and enter payment info). Once websites get a little better at talking with each other, we'll see Paypal and Google Checkout integrated right there on the NJ Herald site. By linking the payment process with the emotional experience, and not the experience of filling out a check or trying to find your credit card number, it will make it more enjoyable for the person donating and boost funds for the charity. The dead person will probably remain indifferent.

Also, my condolences.

Also, can you believe the NJ Herald updated their website? As a result, I recommend avoiding air travel this week. There's bound to be some flying pigs sucked into jet engines.

[update: After more thorough investigation, it turns out the Herald is still a bit lazy. If the charity suggested by the family is not a major one, they don't make any effort to direct readers to the proper site; instead they keep recommending the same 3 or 4 charities regardless of what the person actually died of. C'mon, Herald.]