Tales of fundraising

As I've mentioned, I'm once again raising money for Bolder Options.  One of the ways this happens is the annual phone-a-thon where a whole bunch of Bolder volunteers get lists of people who've donated in the past.  We call past donors and thank them for their support, we also ask if they'd like to make a donation this year.  I'm much nicer to people who call asking me for money after having done this job.

Here's a couple conversations from tonight:

Me: Hi, is this (name)?
Them: Yes.
Me: Hi, I'm a volunteer from Bolder Options.  I'm calling because it's our annual phone a thon and it looks like you've supported us in the past so we wanted to say thanks.
Them: Uh....
Me: It looks like maybe someone else in your house may have made the donation.
Them: No, it couldn't have been anyone else.
Me: It looks like (name of another person) was your original contact from Bolder Options.
Them: Oh.  That was someone my husband knew.  He's my ex-husband now.
Me: Oh.  Well, let me update our database so we don't call you again.

You'd think that'd be the most awkward conversation I had tonight but no.  The coup de gras was this one:

Me: Hi, is this (name)?
Lady: No.
Me: Oh, sorry I was trying to reach (name of lady) or (name of dude).
Lady: Well (name of dude) isn't home right now and (name of lady) died.
Me: ...

Awkward.  Party of 1.  It took me a full five minutes to recover from that one.