A Kickass Day Raising Money for the ACLU

Yesterday was an awesome, kick-ass day in which Albert and I launched a matching campaign and collective effort that helped raise over $100,000 in donations for the ACLU (possibly closer to $250,000).  We’re thankful for all of our friends, acquaintances, and others who contributed — and for an amazing chain of matching donors to whom we could pass our matching baton.  

Here’s how the day unfolded:

-I launched this blog post at 9:02am explaining we would match ACLU donations up to $10,000 made yesterday only.  As proof, folks needed to tweet their ACLU receipts marked with yesterday’s date.

-We announced the same on Twitter and Facebook

-It quickly went viral with folks posting/sending receipts right and left.  

-By 12:15pm, given the enthusiastic response and seeing that our original $10,000 matching cap was fast approaching, we decided to increase our matching cap to $15,000.  

-Fred (Wilson) reached out to Albert, letting him know that he, Joanne (Wilson), Brad (Feld) and Amy (Batchelor) would match an additional $20,000.

-At 12:19pm, once we reached our max, we let folks know that Fred, Joanne, Brad and Amy were taking over.

-By 1:39pm, according to Fred, they “blew through” their $20,000 match cap.  An anonymous donor contributed $5K to push them over.

-At 2:02pm Patrick Collison “grabbed the torch” from Fred, Joanne, Brad and Amy to keep the matching marathon going.  

-And at 6:30pm, the matching torch (or is it a baton?) was passed Mike Vernal who agreed to match an additional $50,000.  

Still not sure what the exact total of our collective effort was.  I will say it was thrilling to watch everyone come together to support such an important cause. And wonderful to see the matching baton passed so seamlessly.  

Thank you to everyone who donated yesterday. It was a kickass day.