The Wish Book Fund was a holiday charitable campaign that connected donors with families and individuals in need across the Bay Area. My role was to engage prospective donors and sponsors through direct outreach — phone, in-person, and written communication — and motivate them to give.

Selling a charitable cause is different from selling a product. It required genuine belief in the mission, the ability to communicate impact clearly, and the emotional intelligence to connect with donors on a human level rather than a transactional one.

This was a goal-oriented environment with clear individual targets. Meeting and exceeding those targets required consistent outreach, disciplined follow-up, and the ability to handle rejection without losing momentum.

I developed the habits of a professional salesperson here — tracking activity, managing a pipeline, and staying focused on outcomes even when the work was repetitive or difficult. These habits have served me in every sales and business development role since.

Beyond the sales mechanics, this role gave me an early appreciation for the intersection of business and community. The Wish Book Fund had real impact on real families — and knowing that the work I was doing contributed to that made the effort meaningful in a way that pure commercial sales rarely is.

It also gave me experience working within a large media organization and understanding how a brand like the Mercury News could be leveraged to amplify a cause and build donor trust.