Not sure if you feel like I do, but after I reached 40 I didn’t want to talk about my birthday anymore. Now I am reaching 52 and I have to say I am a little excited about my birthday coming up. Why? Because of your generous hearts, the last 2 years my birthday wish has raised $12,567 to help fight homelessness. In fact, this birthday wish campaign has become the primary fundraiser helping Invisible People get badly-needed operating funds.
I never thought my life would be here at 52, yet I don’t see any other path that would have been as fulfilling as helping to give influence to so many people who have no influence. As you may or may not know, in 2008 I started Invisible People during a long stretch of unemployment. Since then, Invisible People continues to make history as the most effective awareness campaign in the fight against homelessness. Because of your love and support, millions of people all over the world have been educated in the real truths about sleeping rough, living in a weekly rate hotel, emergency shelters, under bridges or in tent communities. We also continue to lead the way in new media storytelling and we will gladly share what we have learned with other nonprofits. Homeless charities have seen the impact from Invisible People and have started their own blogs and social media campaigns.
Invisible People continues to change the story of homelessness. Invisible People connects people to the face of homelessness in a direct and meaningful way that humanizes the subject and builds empathy in the viewer. This is way more important and impactful than simple awareness and has caused communities to rethink their policies on homelessness
But the bottom line is this: because of your support people who were once homeless slept inside last night.
With your help, 2013 can be our best year yet. We hope to launch a massive outreach campaign to accompany @home, a feature-length documentary about our work that will be released this year. We have already started to plan at least one, maybe two road trips this year. Although I hate cold, I have always felt we need to travel during winter. This will also be the year we launch We Are Visible.2, a online peer to peer network for homeless friends. We will continue to explore ways technology can help get people our of poverty and homelessness. This year we plan on reaching out to schools and colleges with an educational program, and we will continue to build a foundation that will help establish local Invisible People chapters in local communities.
Please help me raise $10,000 to help fight homelessness for my birthday.
All the very best,
Mark
