I have recently, if not always, said that in order to succeed in the 3-Day for both training and fund raising you need to start early.  It’s not even 2011 yet and I’m already starting to fund raise for my walk next year.  If I remember to do it this year, I’m going to try and post periodic goals that I will try to hit to not only accomplish my fund raising, but to help my team stay motivated to accomplish theirs as well.  Hopefully by posting this it will also help another 3-Day walker to keep their fund raising in mind and meet and exceed their fund raising requirements.  I’m walking in San Diego in 2011, so the pace at which I am intending to raise money may not be exactly what you are looking to hit, but you can definitely up the monetary goals to adjust them for what you need.  Remember, these are just goals and exceeding goals is an fantastic thing, so don’t just stop when you hit the goal!

The goal this month is more difficult than it might seem at first glance.  The goal is to raise $100 in the next 30 days.  Sounds simple enough, and really since in a previous post I said that you needed to average about $200 per month in order to hit the minimum, this is below average.  But that’s alright.  $100 is something that I think everyone can accomplish if they put their mind to it.

Here’s the twist that makes it a little difficult.  Part of the goal this month is HOW you communicate and raise those funds.  Sure it’s easy to send out a bazillion e-mails or Facebook posts or letters and raise some quick cash, but wouldn’t it be great if you had some starting money before you actually relied on those e-mail contacts and Facebook friends?  And yes, you could probably pretty easily get these funds by asking several of your family members or even donating some yourself.  But all of those things are not allowed this month.  Yes, if a family member wants to send in a donation, definitely accept it, but don’t count it as part of your $100 goal.  Count it as bonus.

But wait!  If you can’t e-mail or social network and you can’t ask family, how the heck will you raise the money and who will you raise it from?  Let’s start with the how first.  The answer is simple and I’m sure you’ve guessed it already.  Talk to people.  Whether it be on the phone or talking to them face to face I find that talking to people has a MUCH higher percentage of success than any of the other methods of fund raising.  It’s a little harder because you do actually have to talk to someone, but it’s also much harder for the person you are asking to not pay attention and just hit delete if you’re standing there right in front of them or are on the other end of the telephone line.  To be honest, most people want to help you.  But they don’t necessarily want to read your e-mail.

Now on to who you’re going to contact.  That’s simple.  Anyone and everyone that is not in your family!  If you haven’t relied upon them in the past for donations, then even better because it just widens your fund raising reach.  This could be co-workers, friends, neighbors, people in your book club, cub scout den or knitting circle, local businesses or even total strangers.  If you only have a certain amount of time, then try to focus on the people that you know you won’t be able to e-mail for one reason or another, that way when we get to the e-mail goal a little later on, you will still have plenty of people left to e-mail.  Remember these two important things when you’re asking these people for a donation:

1. You are not asking for yourself.  You’re asking for money to help save the lives of women and help eradicate breast cancer.  It’s a lot easier to ask for money when you think of it that way instead of asking people to give “you” money.

2. You’re not just asking for a donation.  You’re spreading awareness.  Make sure that people know why you’re walking.  Tell them what this money is going towards and how much you have to raise to participate.  If you happen to run into someone who seems a little more interested in most, take the time to talk to them about what you’re doing and then if they still seem pretty interested you might think about asking them to walk with you.  Let’s face it, having one more person raising $2300 for the cause is a lot better than having one more person donate $20 to the cause (though either is hugely welcome!)

The last thing I will talk about is the average.  I’m big on thinking about the average.  If I say that I have to raise $100 then that means that if I try to get every person that I ask to donate at least $20 then that means I only have to have 5 people donate.  Wow, that’s not bad.  Now, even if I only get 1 person out of every 5 that I ask to donate, I could ask 5 people a day for 5 days and be done with the $100 goal.  How awesome would that be to accomplish your first month’s goal in 5 days?  The important thing to note here is that it does require you to go out and talk to five people about the 3-Day every day for five days in order to achieve those results.

I wish you luck in achieving your goal over the next month.  Good luck, remember the earlier you start with your fund raising, the easier it will be to accomplish your goals!