Profile

 JV Raises Funds with her Facebook Friends

Colleen Kerrisk was a Jesuit Volunteer in 2010 at Proyecto Pastoral in Los Angeles, California, and serves her second year at For Love of Children in Washington, D.C. Like all of the incoming JVs, she asked others to help sponsor her through the annual Send Me to Serve campaign. Prior to her first JV year, Kerrisk reached out to her friends through Facebook and quickly reached her goal.

Q: What first brought you to JVC?

Colleen: I was involved in campus ministry at Georgetown from my freshman year and I learned about JVC from a few Former Jesuit Volunteers who worked there. I thought, “Oh! I could do this. JVC could be the way to continue my Jesuit education outside of the classroom.”

Q: Tell me a bit about your strategy with Send Me to Serve.

Colleen: The problem for me was that I had done service projects in college that required fundraising and I didn’t want to ask my relatives again. I had to think of who else I could ask, and it was my friends. I knew I could only ask them for reasonable amounts of money.

Q: What inspired you to use Facebook?

Colleen: One day, I looked at my Facebook page and realized that if everyone I was friends with gave me $1, I would exceed my goal. I talked through the idea with JVC and felt supported.

I created an event on my Facebook page called “Is our Facebook friendship worth $1?” I sent it to every one of my friends, regardless of who they were or when we last spoke. Using Facebook was an easy way to explain to a lot of people at once what I would be doing in JVC and why it was important to me.

Q: What sort of response did you get?

Colleen: After just one day, I reached my goal of $500. After two days, I passed $700. Facebook spread the word quickly and the Internet made it convenient for my friends to donate, since young people don’t want to send a check. It was a great experience to share what I was going to do and know that I would be supported by friends even though they wouldn’t be there with me. I felt blessed. Afterward, I sent an email thanking everyone and announcing my total. I received 78 gifts totaling $780.

Q: Do you have any advice for new JVs who are fundraising through Send Me to Serve?

Colleen: Be bold! Asking for money may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the friends who know you and how important this experience is for you will want to give.

Q: Did you encounter any challenges with technology during your first JV year?

Colleen: We didn’t have Internet access, so it was a challenge to discover how much I relied on the Internet in my daily life. Switching my reliance to my housemates was rewarding and has created a stronger sense of community. Not being connected helped me slow down and focus on what’s important. It’s ironic when compared to how I used Facebook to fundraise—it was being so connected that helped me be successful.