This post is a complement to a podcast episode of Social Entrepreneur with Nathan A. Webster, of which I am a monthly contributor. Listen to the episode below!
It’s time to get personal. And introduce you to someone very important: my sister Tomasine.
I was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2010. I didn’t know anything about it or anyone who had it, so it was a confusing time for me. So I turned to a nonprofit organization for help: the National MS Society.
At the same time, my sister was living across California, and she and my mom wanted to help. They googled walks that benefit MS causes and found Walk MS Silicon Valley, a 1K or 5K walk designed for people with all sorts of abilities – and TEAM CHAPIN was born.
Tomasine and I want to share with you some of our experiences in fundraising for a charity walk – because we’ve learned a lot, raising more than $50,000 over eight years (shout out to our other TEAM CHAPIN members!!). And we know it’s a very common way to raise money for some very important causes out there.
Tomasine is our team captain, coordinating our members and handling team logistics. Our team is made up of family, friends, and others we’ve met who are impacted by the cause. While we are grateful for all levels of involvement, we look for a few key things in a member of our fundraising team.
Desired traits in a team member include:
- Being comfortable asking for money from their networks
- Being committed to raising at least the minimum amount required to get a t-shirt (for Walk MS Silicon Valley, that is $100) – it helps create community at the walk
- Having excitement for the cause – you can walk, be a virtual walker, or just come to the event and spend time with us
- Being willing to help out at and/or attend team fundraisers
- Being creative in how they fundraise
At the end of the day, the job of a team member is to raise money. Here are some tips of how we have been successful in asking for money.
- It sounds simple, but our most successful way to raise money is emailing family and friends, and announcing on Facebook. As we’ve talked about before, it’s very important to share a personal story with this.
- Don’t forget to remind your donors about checking with their employer to see if they match donations.
- Team fundraisers have been successful as well. One or two people will spearhead, and others will help with logistics & getting people there. We always share personal stories and information about MS at these events. Our successful events have included: Cupcakes & Gear for a Cure, U-Jam for a Cure, the MS Awareness Challenge, and garage sales.
And of course, we’d be nowhere in our fundraising over the years without saying thank you. A couple of tips for saying thank you that we’ve done:
- Immediate thanks is always appreciated. I like to do a thank you on Facebook, so that our mutual friends also see and are reminded if they want to donate. If they request to be anonymous or aren’t on Facebook, I send an email.
- Speaking of Facebook, we’ve also had a team member post fun thank you videos on Facebook, which was very effective.
- Tomasine always coordinates a post-walk thank you card that is sent to all donors, and includes photos of the team on the walk and another personal message.
We hope that these personal anecdotes help you with your fundraising for any charity walks or runs you participate in. And if our story has inspired you, you can check out the TEAM CHAPIN fundraising page for Walk MS Silicon Valley 2018 (which is happening April 14) at bit.ly/teamchapin2018. Thank you!
-N.C.