More than anything, Raven Anne Lucas wanted to be a healer. A career in massage therapy beckoned. Though she and her husband were employed, a mortgage and high school-aged child made challenging the $3,000 down payment for massage school. Even so, Raven Anne figured that with so strong a calling there had to be a way.

As a prominent member of the Elmhurst (Illinois) Chamber of Commerce, she had been to many dinner dances and fundraisers where auctions and raffles were standard revenue builders. Reflecting on the success of these events led her to what seemed an audacious idea …

 a raffle for herself. 

Intrigued, Raven Anne did some research and found that raffles were (ahem!) illegal unless the tickets were free or in support of a not-for-profit organization.

She discovered that it was not illegal, however, to ask for a donation.

So, the enterprising young woman put together a tempting raffle package that would provide the winner one massage a month for a year. She printed 150 tickets that she would offer free or for a $20 donation. If all tickets received the suggested donations, she would net the needed $3,000.

As she prepared to announce her raffle at the next Chamber of Commerce breakfast, her confidence wavered. “They knew I wasn’t a crackpot,” Raven Anne told me, “but I felt vulnerable. Would my asking for something completely personal in a professional environment be deemed inappropriate? Basically, I was asking them, ‘Please help me.’”

She gave her pitch.

The Chamber got behind her.

Encouraged by the membership’s backing, Raven Anne continued asking. She went door to door at local businesses offering raffle tickets to owners and employees. “As I got more comfortable, I basically threw the doors open,” she says. “I even went to the bowling alley and asked everyone there. I asked everywhere, asked everybody I could think of, and sold every ticket.”

And she discovered a secondary benefit.

“Not only did I receive the money to get into massage school, I created an enormous buzz around my becoming a massage therapist that I was eventually able to build into marketing my private practice. About five people were happy to have the free ticket, and as far as I was concerned, they were my proof that if the IRS ever called, the donations were just donations.”

While working full-time, Raven Anne attended massage school and provided updates on her progress at Chamber meetings. When later in the year she completed her certification, she was made class valedictorian. “My proudest moment,” she says, “was standing up at the Chamber breakfast and showing them my certificate and letting them know their support had not gone to waste.”

In thanks for their support, Raven Anne offered to come to members’ businesses and give free chair massages for employees during the winter holidays. She estimates that within one month she gave nearly 70 employee massages.

Despite her successful tuition-raising effort, there was a time when asking did not come easily for her. “I was raised to help yourself, to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. If you weren’t self-reliant and self-sufficient, you weren’t really successful or very worthy. So, I learned not to ask and to do things all by myself.”

She credits her campaign’s success, in part, to skills learned in Pathways for Successful Living, in which she discovered that obstacles offer helpful steps toward growth. “So, if my appointment calendar isn’t as full as I’d like, I just call my clients and say, ‘Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while, want to come in?'”

Today Raven Anne Lucas resides in Cody, Wyoming, where she continues her 15-year massage practice, Pure Harmony Massage.

“You need to spend all of your time and energy on creating something that actually brings value to the people you’re asking for money!”

– Gary Vaynerchuk

My Ask: Did you find this story inspiring? If so, please share it in your social networks or with someone you know who needs the encouragement to ask for what they want.

Paul Quinn is author of a book-in-progress about the power of asking, from which this story is excerpted. As founder of See The Potential LLC, he helps leaders at all organizational levels prepare and deliver presentations that win for all stakeholders.