Raising funds for charity akin to begging?

I don't know why I feel this way, but wonder if indeed I am alone in feeling like this. I am "working on" a fundraiser for NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness), a non-profit grass roots organization. I have little experience inr aising funds, but I have done it on a much smaller scale twice before. This time I plan to pilot a bigger event. Target audience includes my close friends and those neighbors who know me by name and can actually pronounce it. I am making jewelery and Indian food with great hopes that there will be buyers.

For the jewelery that I am making, I need boxes that I can display them in rather than little ziplocs which make it difficult to examine. My initial thought was to buy jewelery boxes or cases, but that would drive up my costs and that is going to be my last resort. I spoke to some friends and one suggested that I could request our local departmental store if they could part with some of their stock. Mind you, this is a store I always shop in. It has variety and it is conveniently located. I explained to the Customer Service (Rolling my eyes) what I was doing and asked if they could spare me some boxes and their answer was rather long and convoluted. It boiled down to "no, not really, unless you want to buy our jewelery". What did they really think I was going to do with those boxes? Sell them on E-bay? Imagine coming to your store in a Lexus and asking for spare cardboard boxes and then selling it at E-bay for a hefty margin! lol

However, the whole experience made me more squeamish. The silver lining was that I savored the look on the clerk's (aka Customer Service rep) face when I started with, "Hey, I am doing a fund raising event..." It is the same look that you give people in the mall that want to polish your nails with a glorified sponge! It is the same look that you give people on your door step asking you to buy encyclopedias or fattening girl scout cookies. It is the look that says, "Dear God! This person wants me to part with my money. What is my exit strategy". Replaying th scene at the departmental store gave me immense satisfaction, but at the same time drove some guilt into me. The look conveys more meaning than that "Sorry, I can't help you blah blah blah".

Another friend suggested I solicit funds from my relatively well to do school friends that we recently connected with. My knee jerk reaction is "No, they will shun me because I am asking them to part with their moolah!" It'll make me an outcast. Mulling over this conversation further (all through the night), I realize I don't need to feel like a swindler or a pan-handler. I am not asking for their money to build me a sun room or to sponsor my vacation in the breezy blue Caribbean. I am asking them to support for a cause I believe in. I am promoting the cause I believe in and awareness. This may actually open doors for people because of the heavy stigma around mental illness and the skewed portrayal of individuals by the media after episodes such as VT or Dallas or Arizona.

All that said and done, I am not yet to where I need to be if my goal to be a vocal activist in the mental health arena. I need to have a better opening line. Still further, I should mentally overcome the guilt of a salesman since that is not appropriate. Every cell in my brain needs to buy into "Asking for charity is not akin to begging".

Many thanks to my friends who have supported this cause by volunteering to support me at my fund raising event, for donating generously to my team and for acting as the sounding board for my ideas.