It’s about this time of year every year that I look at my fund raising status and I start to worry. Not because the 3-Day for the Cure is all that close, I’m walking in the last walk of the season this year so I still have a good amount of time to get there. But despite all that time, I start running through all these doubts in my mind about whether I can do the fund raising again this year. I looked at my fund raising earlier today and saw that it was still at $68. That’s $2232 away from the minimum that I need in order to do the walk. So that’s a little frightening.
I always start to think, “Are people going to donate this year?” or “Maybe they’re tired of supporting me as I do the walks,” and a number of other worrisome thoughts. And really, when I look back at something I said a few months ago about having to average $200 a month in order to make your goal, I’m way below that number right now. I think I’m probably at $15 per month so far. I didn’t do the math, that’s just a guess. But then I start to think about what I followed it up with: you’re not always going to be raising that much money. There are some months where you will be getting donation notices every day. I will admit that usually around March to April is when I really start seeing a lot more donations come in. It also happens to be when I really start pushing a lot more for donations than normal, probably because of the worry that I start to feel around this time of year.
I guess where I’m going with all of this is that it’s a little bit early to start worrying. I realize that the people walking in Boston, it may seem like the right time to start worrying, but you still have almost half a year. Just put your fund raising drive into gear and I’m sure that you’ll be able to make it there.
Now, while I may not be doing a whole right now directly to fund raise, I have started thinking about what I am going to do for my fund raising efforts this year. That, I think, is the important thing if you want to be able to raise a decent amount of money: if you’re not fund raising, you should be thinking about what you will be doing next for fund raising. With that in mind, I wanted to go ahead and put up some of the ideas that I have been playing with that may make the cut for fund raising this year:
- Businesses – This is probably going to be the new thing I try this year. I always try to do something new each year, so this will probably be it. I have talked about this several times with several people that I know and I think that this year I am really going to devote some time to contacting businesses to see if they would make a donation to my fund raising. I’ll probably stick to local independent businesses so that I don’t have to talk to a corporate office in a far off land or something.
- Door to Door – I raised a decent amount doing this last year, so I will probably continue on with it again this year. I’ll probably wait until most of the school fund raisers are done so that people don’t feel like they are getting inundated with people asking for money.
- The Video – I really enjoyed doing my video fund raiser last year and it got really good results. I think that this year the challenge may be to get me into a pink tu-tu in addition to the bra. Still working out the details on this, but I’m sure that in the next month or so it will go into effect.
- Video Game Tournament – This idea has been on my list several times and has just never really made it to execution. I would really like to get a video game store to agree to host the tournament (there’s a local store that has a room that is set up for something very similar to this) and use the entry fee as a donation. Again, we’ll see what happens with this as it really hasn’t developed in the past.
OK, so those are the ideas so far. Please share in comments if you have any ideas on fund raisers that I should do or modifications to any of the fund raisers listed. Some of you may have noticed that The Speed Gamers are not on my list this year. It turns out that most of the guys are graduating from college and will not have as much time to do so many marathons as they had in the past. They have decided to choose 3 or 4 charities that they will raise money for because of that. While I would love to work with them again, I know that they have charities that are near and dear to them, so I understand if my 3-Day walk is not selected. They have done an awesome job over the past two years helping raise money in the fight against breast cancer and I can’t thank them enough!
I’ve kind of wandered around on topic here a little bit, so I will try to get back on point. If you’re looking at your fund raising and getting concerned right now, then take a deep breath. You are not yet to the point of worrying. As long as you are doing SOMETHING to advance your fund raising goals, even if that something is trying to decide what you will do to raise money this year, then you are moving in the right direction to meet your goal. I wish you luck in all your fund raising this year!
If you would like to help out with my fund raising, please consider making a donation at: http://60miles3days.com/donate
Hi John –
A friend of mine told me about your blog this morning and I thought it was a bit ironic that I saw it just after you made this post. Last summer, a local Denver woman was having similar trouble coming up with a fundraising idea for her own race and sketched out a very cool “Fight Like a Girl” design, had it printed, sold some t-shirts and was able to participate in the walk.
That’s how Fight Like a Girl / ACS Apparel was born. We loved the design and loved the cause even more (each of us has had a loved oned affected by breast cancer). We now have more than just basic cotton t-shirts (more are still awaiting posting to the website, actually) and $5 from the sale of every item goes back to breast cancer, whether it be Komen, Avon or other local organizations we’ve found.
We realized recently that we’re not alone in efforts to raise enormous amounts of money each year to particpate in something we believe in. We’re making the offer to anyone who feels as strongly as we do that we need to find a cure and is willing to walk a 5k, 10k, 39 mile or 60 mile race to do just that.
If you would like to use us to fundraise, we would be glad to give you the $5 from every item you’re able to sell (it was going to be donated anyhow!). We’re a small business so we’re trying to get our name out there and we know that you’re trying your best to raise money for a great cause. We’re hoping that it’s a win/win for everyone!
Feel free to contact me at 720-394-9488 or Lauren@allcancersucks.org if you’re interested. You can also check us out at http://www.myfightlikeagirl.com . Thanks so much and best of luck to you in your fundraising efforts!