Last summer I met a woman who teaches second grade in a local school district. I gave her copies of my books to share with her colleagues and students, and she suggested we set up an author visit. Months later she contacted me. She had met with her principal and set up an account with DonorsChoose.org to raise money for me to visit.
Part of me wanted to just do the visit for free. Part of me insisted I was worth the $300. After all, established authors charge $2,000 or more for a school visit.
So we sent out emails asking for donations, and the money dribbled in. In April, three or four months after setting up the account, we were still short about $180. My friend sent a final plea, since the target amount needed to be reached by April 15. We sent out more emails, resulting in one more donation, and I don't know about her, but I employed every form of manifesting technique I could think of, despite feeling that that stuff had never really worked for me before.
A few days before the deadline, our project was fully funded, the final chunk of money coming from a complete stranger who simply wanted to support education.
Last Wednesday I had the great pleasure of visiting my friend's school and talking about writing with about 80 second graders. I got to answer questions like "How long have you been writing?" and "How does Jenny solve her problems in the end?" Afterwards, my friend reported that in that afternoon's writing workshop the students were more excited and motivated than before. She's hoping to set up another author visit early next fall, as a way to kick off her school's writing workshop program.
And this morning, my check came in.
Thanks to hoping, thanks to the donors, and especially thanks to my friend's persistence.
