Help me!

Which one? itouch or iphone?

I already have a blackberry so I really don't need a phone. but the idea of facetiming my nephews makes me want to buy a real phone.

Speaking of apple, I have to thank Steve Jobs on behalf of my firm's United Way committee as the self-appointed associate representative. We held a raffle draw for the ipad last year which was such a success that we decided to continue again.

From an economics point of view I was not a big fan of having any raffle draw at all. I felt that it was diverting donations away from the bigger pledges. People won't give as much when they're buying raffle tickets. Ultimately we only raise about a thousand dollars from a draw for a bunch of donated prizes plus the ipad. The firm may as well just donate the purchase money to United Way.

But the ipad's star power more than paid for itself and the meager raffle money it pulled it. Our biggest boardroom was packed last Friday at lunch time with people from all walks of the firm. Everyone wanted a shot at that tablet (even those who dictate their emails!?) In the end, while we only raised a thousand bucks from the raffle, our firm raised over $50,000 from pledges! That is about $5000 more than last year's campaign, and about $10,000 more than two years ago when we didn't have any grand prize with any star power. I'd like to think that Steve Jobs' creation had a hand in raising awareness for the United Way.

For a workplace our size (250+ ish people), that's a lot of money in a two-week, voluntary, fundraising drive. (I hear that at other firms, donations are voluntary but expected. E.g. donors' names and donation amounts are circulated in firm-wide emails).

The best part of all this is that I am part of the committee. So I take all the credit. Maybe next year we should have multiple ipod touches as prizes? or an iphone?