One Size
Does Not
Fit All

harity Burnout:
at Can We Sell?

RICA MEYER RAUZIN
ecial to The Jewish. News

I'

m on the board of a local chari-
ty and we have a tough dilem-
ma: we don't know what to sell.
We know'what to support: in
ur case, special education within
ocal Jewish day schools. We know
hat we need to buy: teacher salaries,
upplies, insurance. But we don't
ow what to sell. All the good
ood stuff is
a en.
The Girl Scouts have cookies all
ocked up; they're even kosher. One
earby school sells chocolate bars year
ound, and all the Jewish schools sell
assover candies in the spring. The
arket for caloric consumables is satu-
ated with fat.
Vie can't sell flowers. The high
ool kids have that locked up to
• enefit hospitalized children. We
an't sell raffle tickets unless we get
ome truly new and unusual prizes.

'

We can't sell books because the ele-
mentary schools all host book fairs.
We can't sell magazines because the
children already have renewed every
publication that ever came to the
house, to help the PTA subscription
drive.
A small, new charity like ours really
has to work to find a holiday, a prod-
uct, a fund-raising niche of its very
own. The deserving charitable causes
are easy to find; you have to search for
ways to raise the money.
I confess; I feel silly selling anyway.
I have no aptitude for ir. My father is
a former newspaper editor. Dad has
my sales style pegged. He compared
me to the 11-year-old boys he swore
were out there on the streets trying to
sell his newspapers by asking each
passer-by, "You don't want to buy a
paper, do ya, lady?"
So that's my pitch: You don't want
to buy a raffle ticket, do ya, lady? No,
of course you don't really — but you

will anyway, not only because my pro-
gram is compelling but also because
next week I'll buy your synagogue's
Passover candies from you. It's the
roundabout market in philanthropic
doodads, and I asked you first. Tag,
,
—
you re it.

Phraseology

(A little taste of Yiddish.)

Oif itlechen terets ken men gefinen
a nei'eh kasheh.
To every answer you can find
a new question.

Just check your neighborhood
Talmud study group
for proof on that one.

WaSIMEMBUNANAMENNESSMSMCSE:::::::'::

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73

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3/5
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Detroit Jewish News

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