1 mask purchased >>> 1 mask donated
When the pandemic struck, schools switched to online classrooms, and the government strongly encouraged sheltering at home. MASTERthese also made changes by pausing existing projects and postponing new project launches.
But MASTERthese members wanted to help provide pandemic solutions in some way, and not just helplessly watch as the effects of the pandemic turned from bad to tragic. MASTERthese members decided to repurpose our organization. Although our bylaws state that our entity exists for educational purposes, we figured that in this time of extreme need, temporarily repurposing is permissible.
We decided to launch a fundraiser that would allow us to purchase KN95 and Level 2 Surgeon masks, and then donate them to hospitals. A flier was created, a post was written for our website, and the fundraiser began.
Raising funds was a joint effort with MASTERthese American students working together with Chinese students who are studying in the U.S. on F-1 visas. The Chinese students were pivotal to this effort since they can acquire masks from reliable sources in China, enabling us to buy from eligible Chinese mask manufacturers from which American hospitals do not already purchase. We did not want our mask purchases to come from existing suppliers to American hospitals since those resources were becoming exhausted.
Our energetic student fundraisers quickly realized that asking the grandparents to write a check for our mask cause was limiting. Necessity required us to come up with creative ways to raise funds. Chinese turned to the Chinese WeChat app which is like WhatsApp, Google, Facebook, and Apple Pay all in a single super app. Americans used inventive ideas such as convincing gaming tournament participants to donate the winning purse to our mask cause. However, even with all the ingenuity, donations started leveling off.
In all, we raised almost $4,000 and donated more than one thousand KN95 masks, one thousand Level 2 Surgeon masks, and hundreds of face shields. The timeline from the initial fundraiser conceptualization to the occurrence of the donation curve plateau was three weeks. We were excited but also disappointed. We realized that the amount people donated came down to how much they may already have donated to others, whether or not they believed the cause worthy, the amount of cash they might have on hand, or if they felt like responding to six texts and four phone calls.
At this point, we knew we needed help from the outside. We do not have the funds to grow this idea, and we do not have the resources to respond to changes the country is going through quickly. As our planning moved forward, we decided to recruit a collective of business partners to help us supersize our original mask fundraiser idea. The resulting concept is to unite ALL Americans in helping each other keep safe and save our economy. Our business model is such that for every mask that is purchased, we donate a mask to someone on the front line who needs a mask.
Please check back soon for the next Lucky Masks posting. We anticipate our Lucky Masks Project launch to take place no later than the end of July.