It's a “donuts to dollars” - and shekels - dream come true: A Beit Shemesh resident is planning to eat at least 50 Chanukah donuts (sufganiyot) – to raise from friends, neighbors, and folks from around the world, via the internet, for good causes in Israel and the U.S.
“Last year, a few of my neighbors and I made a gentlemen's bet regarding who could eat the most sufganiyot between Rosh Chodesh Kislev and the end of Chanukah,” says Baltimore-born Elie Klein. “We turned it into a contest, updating our Twitter and Facebook statuses to 'keep score. I joked with my wife that I was eating so many sufganiyot that someone should sponsor me.”
And that, says Klein, is exactly what happened. This year, Klein made the same donut bet with friends, and the same sponsorship joke – this time, to a cousin of his wife, via Facebook. And this time, he says, “she met the challenge – and pledged $10 per sufganiya to the cause of my choice.”
From there, the project just snowballed, Klein says. “A few minutes later, a neighbor of mine decided to "join in on the fun" and pledged NIS 10 per sufganiya to a Bet Shemesh-based charity. So I updated my Facebook status to let everyone know that I now had an 'altruistic reason to eat sufganiyot; and thanked my new sponsors. And a few minutes later, another neighbor sent me a message on Facebook to let me know that he had named my new initiative and created a Facebook event for it.”
Once that page was up, Klein says, “the pledges starting rolling in. Every time I updated my Facebook status and the event page with the names of the new donors and the per sufganiya amount that they were pledging to the causes of their choice, I received several more pledges.” Now, just a few days before Chanuka, says Klein, he has raised an amazing NIS 11,975.20 for 35 causes in Israel and the U.S. - a total some NIS 330 for the 34 sufganiyot he has eaten so far. My goal is at least 50 sufganiyot, but I have a feeling that it will be much more,” he adds.
The causes Klein is eating for include a panoply of social service and educational organizations in Israel and the U.S., including MDA, Zaka, Aleh, Lema'an Achai, the Koby Mandell Foundation, Chai Lifeline, NCSY, Arutz Sheva, and many others. Donors name the cause and the per-donut donation they are willing to make, and Klein eats, "charging" donors for donations based on the number of donuts he eats. Thus, he's got a built-in "incentive" to reach 50 donuts, and go way beyond that number, too.
Amazingly, Klein says, he didn't gain weight in last year's donut-a-thon – and hasn't gained weight this year, at least so far. “I was blessed with a crazy metabolism,” is his reasoning for this unusual phenomenon. His favorites? Well, Klein says he likes them all, but plans on going for the “fancy” ones from the better known bakeries on Chanukah itself. “But I've had an opportunity to sample the wares from smaller, less well-known bakeries in Beit Shemesh, where I live.”
Besides having the opportunity to explore Israel's donut culture, Klein, who works with Jewish non-profits, believes that the pledge drive could become a new model of fundraising for Jewish organizations. “This experiment has conclusively proven the power of social media, grassroots movements and human kindness. It's entertaining and new, it's not the same old walk-a-thon. I didn't force anyone to donate,” he says, “there was not a single solicitation. I simply invited my Facebook friends to the "event" and updated my totals in real-time, thanking every new sponsor as they came along. Sponsors commented that they just had to 'get in on the fun.'” Innovative ideas like these breathe new life in fundraising, Klein says. “Everyone has a cause or charity that they believe in. This initiative is about giving them an 'excuse' to open their wallets.”