Some of you may recall that my holiday newsletter asked for your help. I have 3 favorite charities and I wanted input from you as to which was your favorite. I pledged to donate $1 for every person receiving my newsletter to one of the 3 charities. If you replied with your vote, that $1 would become a $3 donation to the winning charity.
Almost as murky as the 2020 presidential election, the votes continued to trickle in long after the end of the day. The election results weren't called until . . . well, now. While no results were contested, and there were no voting irregularities, the outcome was not super decisive. Without further ado then, here is how the tally ended up.
American Cancer Society +3
St. Jude’s Children's Hospital +7
Habitat for Humanity +10
See what I mean? Not a landslide victory by any means.
So, NOT in the spirit of Washington, I decided to compromise. I’m simply going to make a donation to each of these charities, as I do every year. For St. Jude’s Children's Hospital and the American Cancer Society (the “losers”) I’m going to send my usual contribution plus triple the number of votes that charity received. So, for example, the American Cancer Society will get my usual contribution + $9, and St. Jude’s will get + $21.
The grand prize winner, Habitat for Humanity, will receive a total donation of $168.00 (which I rounded up to $170).
But wait . . .
Just as I was getting ready to write the check, I got a letter in the mail from Habitat saying that Lowe’s was issuing a challenge and pledged to double every donation made through April 15, 2021. So, my $170 became $340.
With your help and the help of the Lowe’s Challenge, I made donations to 3 extremely worthy causes for a grand total of $420.00.
Not bad for a simple email reply.
Many thanks to those of you who replied and made your voices heard. These three worthy charities, no doubt, thank you too.