How do people continue to fund raise for the same cause year after year? How do they sustain donor attention and donor support from the same people in their circles?

I’ve realized that a lot of the donations I’ve gotten for the AFSP donor drive are from people who are new to me, mainly colleagues that have started within the last year, after I did my first Out of the Darkness walk, who would not otherwise know my story about my brother. Three of my colleagues were incredibly generous and donated $100 each; I was so shocked and touched at the same time. But would they still donate next year, or the year after that, and the year after that? My story will evolve every year, but how do I keep people understanding that this is not just a one-time effort to get attention, that I really believe in what I am fund raising for, and that I believe we as human beings have a bigger purpose in this life other than just earning money and earning a living and simply existing?

I don’t know how to answer that. I just have to ignore the people who ignore my cause, otherwise my cynicism will grow, which is exactly what I don’t want. My level of cynicism should either stay the same or go down. Otherwise, Ed will probably be pissed at me.