Having lost my sister, my best friend to cancer 6 months ago, I have been reading alot about groups that help raise money for helping to find a cure.

Relay for life and the Lance Armstrong Foundation are the two that I have read about. The people who support these wonderful groups are amazing to me. They truly have a passion for raising money to fund these organizations. Relay for Life works with the American Cancer Society in education for how to detect, prevent and fight against this terrible disease.

Relay for life celebrates cancer survivors and has an event every year. They get together to recognize the survivors and their families and honor those who have lost their lives. I like the way the start their relay’s, the survivors take the first lap and all the supporters follow.

The Relay for life teams must raise money through fundraisers to support all their efforts in fighting cancer and hopefully one day ending the disease.

My brother raised money to be the Lance Armstrong bike ride, my sister was there cheering him on. He raised several thousands of dollars to help in the cause.

Supporting these groups when they come to you with a fundraiser is vital to keep the work going, to help find a cure and honor those who fought the disease.

When you want to make a difference at your high school by doing something good for other people, you may have decided that holding a fundraising event is the best way to go. After all, it is a great way to raise money for the school or an outside charity, while also getting all of the students involved in working together.

School Fundraising can be a lot of fun when executed correctly, and doesn’t have to be a chore to pull off if you have a team of willing helpers to aid you in making the best event. But before you get started you will have to decide on exactly what type of fundraising event you are going to hold.

One particular event that you may like to go with is a healthy fundraiser. Healthy fundraising is becoming more and more popular in schools nowadays, since it promotes healthy eating for young students who may not know all of the facts about food. It can teach them the importance of eating fewer fatty- and carbohydrate-rich foods that are often found in school cafeterias, and also warn them of the dangers involved when people continue to eat an uneven diet.

You may even find that your healthy fundraising idea encourages the school itself to get on board and change the school’s lunch menu for the better. If you pull off a truly memorable event that everybody can be a part of and enjoy, then it is likely you will be making a big difference at your school for the better.

One way to raise money at your healthy fundraising event is by selling products. There are a range of different packages to suit your needs, whether you want to use brochures or fundraising scratch cards to make sales, or you just want the products themselves to sell in cases around the school.

Have you ever wondered where your donations and support goes?

The website, “GoodGoes.org” allows you to meet local health workers and the children they help to survive.

Each year, almost 9 million children in the developing world die of largely preventable and treatable illnesses before they reach the age of five – that equates to approximately 24,000 child deaths a day. However, every 4 seconds a child survives thanks to the basic health care provided by local health workers.

Save the Children and the Ad Council are working together to mobilize citizen action in the U.S. to help local health workers save more children worldwide.

When a friend or loved one gets sick and is facing huge medical bills, the quickest and easiest way to raise money for them is through an online fundraising website.

Sites like GiveForward, Fundbunch and GoFundMe allow individuals to create customized pages where friends and family from across the world can contribute to help a loved one pay for their medical bills and out-of-pocket expenses associated with getting sick.

When combined with the viral power of social media tools like Facebook, these types of fundraising pages can raise upwards of $10,000, $20,000, or even $80,000 in a matter of weeks. Before getting started, however with any of these websites, it’s critically important to come up with an organized fundraising plan.

Through my work at GiveForward, I’ve seen many people raise funds online and have gathered some ideas about what works and what doesn’t. Since many people raising money for their loved one’s medical expenses are fundraising for the first time, I’ve outlined a step-by-step plan that will make it super-easy for you to reach your goal. If you are about to start a fundraising page for a friend or loved one, please take the next 20 minutes to read through the plan — I promise, it will make a HUGE difference in the overall success of your fundraiser.

Step 1: Build a Fundraising Team to Help Spread the Word

If you are thinking of raising money for a loved one, before you get started ask a few of your mutual friends if they would be want to help in the efforts to spread the word. With the assistance of a few friends all sending emails and Facebook messages out to their different networks your team will be able to reach out to 4-5 times as many potential donors as you could by yourself.

As the team leader or team captain, you will, of course, still be responsible for drafting the emails and coordinating the efforts, but your team members will be able to help you in spreading the word to a wider group of people.

Note — If you cannot get a group of friends to help with the efforts, don’t worry about it. Creating a team of friends is definitely helpful, but is not absolutely necessary to be successful.

Step 2: Kick Off Your Online Fundraiser With a Donation From Yourself

If you can afford to do so, the first thing you are going to want to do is set the tone for your fundraiser by donating yourself. Donate as much as you can afford, as this will show people how important this effort is to you and will set the tone for the rest of the fundraiser — if you set the bar high by donating a large amount, others will do the same.

Step 3: Get the Ball Rolling With Big Donations From Your Inner Circle.

After you donate yourself, the next step is to notify a handful of your closest friends and family (your inner circle) and ask them to make large donations (e.g. $100-$500 each) to get the ball rolling. Getting off to a good start is the single greatest thing you can do to make sure you reach your goal.

The reason this is important is because of the law of monkey see, monkey do. (Yes, we know, it’s a very scientific name). Simply stated, when people visit your fundraising page, the first things they do after reading the description is check out the donor list to see who has given and what the average donation size is. Then, they donate a similar amount. If they see that their friends or colleagues are donating between $100 and $500 then they will likely donate between $100 and $500 as well.

On the other hand, if they check out your donor list and see that most people are donating between $10-$20, then they’ll probably donate between $10-$20 too. Seeding your fundraiser page with large donations from friends and family at the outset is probably the most important thing you can do to ensure a successful fundraiser, so we really want to stress how important this step is.

Once your friends and family in your innermost circle have donated, rinse and repeat by reaching out to your next closest group of friends (e.g. 5-10 college friends or high school friends). Do this until a large number of your close friends and family have donated. Then, and only then should you move on to step 4.

The fundraising team for Nicole Hobson, who needed funds for medical costs related to breast cancer treatment, got big donations from their inner circle first. By the time extended friends and family saw the fundraiser, the family had already raised close to $3000. This made the newcomers who were seeing it for the first time much more inclined to donate, as they could see that the fundraiser already had a lot of momentum. In total, the family raised over $25,000 in just one week.

Step 4. Reach out on Facebook

Almost all online fundraisers that raise $10,000+ do so because of Facebook. This is probably the second most important tip we can give you. Facebook is an amazing tool and just helps spread the word more quickly.

To spread the word on Facebook, you will want to set up a group for your friend or loved one. Invite all your friends to join the group and be sure to ask them to ask their friends to join the group as well. Ask some of your close friends to become administrators of the group and have them invite everyone they know to join the group and donate as well

Once you have the group set up you can use it to send people updates about your friend or loved one’s health status or simply include news about what is going on in their life. You can use these updates as an opportunity to ask for contributions by including a link to your online fundraising page in of all the messages.

Here is an example of Facebook group that worked really well for a fundraisier raising money for a child with Leukemia: The Miss Madison Facebook Fan Club

Step 5: Be Persistent

Once you have built a large enough Facebook group (and/or email list), continue to ask people to donate. The key is to be persistent! Not everyone will donate the first time you ask, but if you keep asking, most people will eventually come around.

Also, it’s important to remember that sending requests for donations is a two-way street. You want people to be eager to receive your email or Facebook message, not to delete it or dump it in the trash right when they get it.

A great way to keep your donor base engaged is to start your emails or Facebook messages with a “thank you” and then give updates about your friend’s health, progress, etc. whenever you are asking for donations. Another way to keep people engaged is to start off your emails with updates about the progress of the fundraiser (e.g. “WooHoo! We just hit 20% of our fundraising goal today! Thanks so much!!! You guys rock!!)

Step 6. Finish Your Fundraiser with a Bang.

To help maximize the amount of money you raise for your cause, you’ll want to make sure you reach out to all your procrastinating amigos and family members in the final days before your fundraiser ends. Here’s what we suggest you do to finish your fundraiser with a surge of donations:

(1) Three to four days before your fundraiser ends, send a mass email or a Facebook message to all your contacts, encouraging them to make one last push before the deadline.

(2) To spice it up a bit, if your fundraiser is ending on January 13, ask them to donate $13 on that day or if it is ending on February 5th, ask for $5 on the 5th. People will usually give more than the amount you ask for, so don’t worry if your fundraiser ends on the 2nd or 3rd of the month. If you want, however, you can ask for $20 instead of $2 or $30 instead of $3, or alternatively ask for donations ending in the number (e.g. $2, $12, $22, $52, $102)

(3) Lastly, make sure to send a friendly reminder email on the morning of the last day to remind them to donate.

Final thoughts

Okay, that’s it! One last note, before you get started – typically, the very first thing most people want to do after they create their online fundraising page is send out a mass email to all their friends and family. I know this seems like it would make the most sense, but it is actually the last thing you want to do.

Avoid the temptation to use this “shotgun” approach! Instead, stick to this step-by-step plan and I promise that you will raise WAY more money.

Also see Raising Money for Individuals with Health Conditions for offline fundraising ideas.

A few years ago, I was trying to drum up participation in our upcoming Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk by hosting a booth at a community fair. I had cheery, purple decorations (purple is the signature color of the Alzheimer’s cause), freebies such as pens and magnets, and lots of information about our walk to benefit Alzheimer’s research and treatment. We also had free informational guides on caregiver stress and brain health.

A lot of people stopped by to sign up for the event or to ask questions about Alzheimer’s warning signs. Others walked by, smiling, but declined to stop. This is typical, because a general audience is going to generate varied responses. But one woman’s reaction to my efforts caught me off guard.

The woman walked up to my booth without really knowing what I was promoting. As soon as I said “Alzheimer’s disease,” she immediately put her hand out in front of her as if to say, “STOP.” She quickly said, “Don’t talk to me about that. My mother had that, and I had to take care of her for 12 years – I don’t ever want to hear that ‘A’ word again.” Before I had a chance to respond, she was gone.

Since then, I’ve had others respond negatively to my fundraising efforts, and overwhelmingly, their reasons have to do with the fact that they don’t want to think about Alzheimer’s disease. It’s depressing to them, either because they’ve watched someone die of it or they’re afraid they will develop it themselves.

Luckily, these people are the exception instead of the norm. Most people are open to the cause because they desperately want to find a cure. Almost everyone knows someone who’s been affected by Alzheimer’s. Even though it’s not an easy topic to talk about or think about, for most people, the desire to put an end to the disease overrides any discomfort with it.

Still, I have a feeling that I’m not alone in this experience. Charity events that raise money to help those with AIDS/HIV or mental illness may face similar challenges. And because of ageism in our society, causes that focus on children may fare better than those that focus on older adults. I don’t have any hard data on this, but it’s just a hunch.

I’d love to see all charity events be successful, and all causes be embraced. But until stigma can be erased, we need to support each other in our diverse efforts. What do you think about how we can overcome stigmatizing barriers? Post a comment below.

Awareness bracelets are still going strong as a fundraising and advocacy item.  You can find bracelets in every color of the rainbow to represent various causes.

In particular, pink is instantly recognizable as the color for breast cancer.  Many nonprofits that advocate for those effected by breast cancer have a lot of publicity and events going on during October, which is breast cancer awareness month.  If you’re part of one of these groups you may be looking for some pink items to sell or distribute.

When your supporters wear pink bracelets, pins or buttons they are providing publicity for the cause and your organization in particular.  I’ve also found that many survivors and family members wear these items with pride.  Somehow these bracelets provide a bit of comfort and strength as they battle the disease.

You can find a wide variety of breast cancer fundraiser items at websites like FastTrack Fundraising.

Occasionally I hear from people who would like to fundraise to help someone who has financial needs because of a serious medical situation such as a cancer diagnosis or transplant.  Even with health insurance, facing the financial responsibility of paying for medical treatment can become overwhelming.

Here are seven guidelines to follow when raising funds for individuals:

1. Research all of your options

When a family is facing a financial hardship due to a serious medical situation, it is important to do some research before jumping into a fundraising effort. After exhausting health insurance options find out about other organizations that may be able to help:

1. Hospital assistance – Speak to social services at the hospital who may be aware of financial resources, foundations and sources of financial help.
2. Nonprofit health care – Is there a nonprofit hospital or clinic where the patient can get all or part of the care needed?  Speak to your physician about referrals to appropriate facilities.
3. Government agencies – Your contact at the hospital may be able to refer you to government agencies that can provide services.
4. Nonprofit organizations – Contact local charities and food banks that may offer “stop gap” assistance. There are some charities that are specifically set up to provide financial assistance for medical care. For example, The Chronic Disease Fund helps underinsured patients with chronic disease by providing funds to cover co-pays.  Heroes for Children is another organization that provides assistance to families within the state of Texas, with children (0-22 yrs of age) battling cancer.
5. Family stay – Find out if there is a Ronald McDonald House or other family stay facility near the hospital which has free or low cost accommodations.  This can ease the financial burden when our of town hospital stays are required.

2. Be aware of legal issues

Donations that are given to an individual and not a registered charity are not tax deductible. It is best to let people know upfront that their donation is going to an individual and therefore there is no tax benefit for them.

Friends, family, co-workers and extended acquaintances may be willing to give out of pocket just because they care about the person and not be as concerned about tax benefits. People who are not acquainted with the individuals involved may be reluctant to donate to someone who is not a registered non profit organization.

If possible, partner with a non profit organization that can receive designated funds for the individual. Then donations can be designated as tax deductible by those who make donations.  A good place to start is a community foundation that serves your area.  (If you are not aware of one near you, just do a websearch using the words community foundation plus your city name.)

The Transplant Fund helps transplant and catastrophic injury patients afford critical but uninsured medically related expenses through fundraising guidance, patient support and resources, as well as financial assistance.  The Children’s Organ Transplant Association is another organization that provides financial support for transplant patients. A local community foundation may also be able to help manage your fund account.  Just Google the words community foundation plus your city name to find one near you.

3. Understand what motivates donors

Many people will want to make sure that all of their donation goes directly to help the person in need. Donation request letters are especially good for this reason, as there are very little expenses unlike events and product sales.

Also realize that fundraising may not be appropriate in every situation. Medical expenses must be quite extensive to warrant fundraising. For example, asking for help when a child gets a cast for a broken arm will not likely motivate people to donate because the need is not as great as a life threatening illness.

4. Appeal to individuals, not businesses

When seeking donations for an event appeal to individuals rather than directly to businesses. Corporations are usually concerned with making sure their donation is going to an organization that has government oversight, as well as a group that has the tax deductible donation benefits.

Your circle of friends may be able to get donations from their place of business since they have influence with their employers that outsiders do not have.  So try to appeal to businesses through their employees.

5. Fundraising events rally the community

Fundraising events such spaghetti dinners can also be a good way to raise money.  As with all fundraising events it is important to get just about every thing donated, and even more so when fundraising for individuals – food, location, decorations, and prizes. Survey your extended circle of contacts and ask them to donate supplies and prizes.

6. Make it easy for people to donate

Finally, make it as easy for people to donate. Offer as many ways as possible for people to help the family that is in need of money for their medical expenses. Explain how donations can be made and include contact information on all materials.

• Set up a separate bank account just for donations
• In letter appeals give the name and address of the bank location(s) in case people want to make donations directly at the bank
• In letter requests include a pre-addressed envelope for those who would like to donate by mail
• Fundraising events offer multiple opportunities for people to donate anonymously such as donation boxes, raffles, and opportunities to “round up” ticket purchases.

Example:

Your Support is Greatly Appreciated!

Three Ways to Help:

1. Make a deposit to the bank account set up especially to help defray medical costs. Go to National Bank, 1500 Travis Street, Anytown USA and let them know that you would like to make a deposit to the account of Jane Smith.

2. Mail your donation with check made out to Jane Smith to 7859 Oak Strett, Anytown USA

3. Attend our spaghetti dinner event on January 24, 2006. Tickets are $7 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under. Besides the dinner there will also be raffles, games and other fun activities for the whole family. If you have any questions about the fundraising efforts to help Jane Smith, please contact her friend Sally Johnson at 210-555-1234.

7. Online fundraising to reach out of town supporters

One way to make donating easy for those who want to help is to set up a way to accept donations online.  Then people who live near and far can donate securely online.  If you are working with a nonprofit to manage your fund then speak with them about this first.  They may have an online donation system already set up.  If they don’t then you’ll need to work with them to set one up.

While there are many online donation providers, many will only work with registered charities.  So this is a question you need to ask straight away when researching these options.  One provider that helps people raising funds for individuals is GiveForward.  This system will let you raise funds for any cause, including medical expenses.  One family’s efforts to raise funds online for a kidney transplant was recently featured in the Chicago Tribune.

Conclusion

When raising funds for individuals keep these factors in mind. Exhaust all usual financial aid services before going the fundraising route. Be mindful of legal and financial implications of fundraising, and plan fundraising activities have the lowest cost and most impact so that funds raised can go directly to those persons in need.

The Documentary category at the Oscars doesn’t often get much attention. However for me when I heard that the film, Smile Pinki: A real-world fairy tale, profiled international charity The Smile Train my ears perked up.

Smile Pinki tells the real-world fairy tale of one young life changed forever and takes you inside one of Smile Train’s incredible partner hospitals. This same magic happens every day for hundreds of children with cleft all over the world, thanks to your contributions and the 2,238 Smile Train doctors and nurses who give these children not just a new smile, but a second chance at life.

Congratulations to filmmaker Megan Mylan for winning Best Documentary Short and to The Smile Train for all the great work you do!

Dear Ms. Sims,

We just finished our second annual fund-raiser to benefit our medical/dental pediatric patients at Medical College of Georgia Children’s Medical Center in Augusta, GA. I am writing to you because your newsletter has been an invaluable tool to teach me how to be more successful in raising funds for this effort. I also have learned so much by trail and error. Some of which I wanted to share, just in case it might help some of your readers.

Helen Johnson and Miss Georgia Chasity Hardmon

We raised a total of $41,000 net for the children’s hospital. The event was pretty formal, we described the attire as “Business or Better”. I am a volunteer, however my son is a student at the dental school and my daughter is a Dr. at the Children’s hospital, so that is how I got involved.

I started trying to get the dinner and silent auction costs underwritten by corporate donations both years. Then I could tell everyone that donated items for the silent auction and those who bought tickets to attend the event, that ALL money raised at the event itself would go directly to the children’s hospital. I appealed to these corporations and businesses sense of doing good for the community that they live and work in. I also thought who would not want to give to a children’s hospital?

I did pretty well the first year, but in a conversation that I had with a friend who is a newspaper writer I was asked why he should give to my cause, rather than any of the several other causes that contacted him annually.  He said “what can you give me?”, I was shocked at first and thought, how rude, but he was asking a legitimate question. What could I offer to a business that would make them give their charity funds to me?

I started calling advertising companies and asking if they would be willing to give me free or very cheap advertising that I could then offer to the companies that would support my charity event. I found that our local Lamar billboard sign company offered 8 electronic signs for $1500.00 for a month of advertising. They could put several ads on each sign every day, the only stipulation was that somewhere on the ad, the fact that these businesses were sponsoring this event would have to be evident. Lamar Signs said that they have very low prices for public service or charity events. The more money a company donated, the larger their ad, small donations had their logo on our own ad which advertised the actual event.

The next thing is I found that Comcast has a similar policy, They agreed to give me 300 FREE public service announcements, which could include a company’s logo as being a sponsor of this charity event. I also got our local newspaper to do an editorial on this event with a story line that they found interesting (Our chair for this event was a Student at the dental school, and this was a great story about a local young man giving back to the community that he will soon be a dentist in. I am sure that all fund-raisers have someone associated with the event that would make a great story for the newspaper.

I was then able to go to these corporations and companies and offer free advertising for their support. I was amazed at how well this worked. I was told that supporting an event like ours usually only gets the attention of those individuals who attend the event, but ours put their name on billboards all over town. I also was able to trade services and goods for advertising. I got a local printer to print our invitations and programs in exchange for advertising on the above mentioned areas. I got our local Fresh Market to put all of the baskets together of the items which were donated for the silent auction, in a professional manner (they provided baskets and talent) in exchange for advertising.

University of Georgia football players A.J. Green, Darrell Gamble, Sanders Commings, David Elrod-Chair of the event, and Dr. Sarah Shelton, Mistress of Ceremony

I invited the University of Georgia Football players to our event, never knowing if they would consider coming. They are in Athens, GA, which is about an hour and a half from Augusta. Several players did come, which was a selling point not only for advertisers, because the local media wanted to cover the event with the football players attending, but it was easy to sell tickets to this event.

We also invited and had in attendance, Miss Georgia, Miss Augusta, Miss Teen USA. I never knew if they would come, but they all did! We had a band for the event that agreed to perform at half price because it was a charity event. Miss Georgia and Miss Teen USA also sang as part of the entertainment.

I had the silent auction guide and it was well worth the money I spent for it. The best thing was that the silent auction was very organized, and ran so smoothly. We made about $28,000 for the silent auction portion of the fundraiser, and as your guide suggested, I made up baskets rather than just have gift certificates sitting on a clipboard, and I combined several smaller items in many cases to make beautiful baskets. I also saw from your information that we got about what was expected for the $40,000 in value of the items we had for the auction.

I found that the local merchants were more willing to give to the silent auction then the stores in the malls. Local well known artists also supported this event. All the local golf clubs gave free golf outing which included the cart for their play.

A local design company to donated their time and talent to design our theme, our invitations and our advertising logos. The only thing they asked was to be recognized at the event for two years. This was their second year, and they offered to get more involved next year for free. They said they could set up a website for our fundraiser to bring more attention to it, and people could go to the web-site to see what would be available at the silent auction, or just to donate, or to buy tickets to the event.

I did have the help of four volunteers, which was plenty.  We started early enough that we were not rushed to do anything, including picking up the auction items. I found that several area merchants hold monthly meetings to discuss things like advertising, security etc, and so I asked if I could address these meetings, and so I was able to ask several merchants at one time if they could donate something for the silent auction, I brought a sheet with each merchant listed, and passed it around so that they could each let me know if they would donate. This made it a lot easier than “cold calling” each one of them.

I guess you can tell that I am excited about everything that I learned this year, and am already planning to learn more for next years event. I really feel that I would never have been as successful without the help of your web site. I learned a lot! I hope some of what I learned will help your readers.

Kind Regards,
Helen Johnson

Last night, I tuned in to watch the second Presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Before the event got underway, the Newschannel I was watching cut away to a live shot of the White House.

It was late enough where the sun had gone down, and the executive mansion was all lit up. However, it wasn’t the usual bright white light that we normally see. Rather, from 7:00pm to 11:00pm, the White House was bathed in a stunningly vibrant pink.

Before the reporter had a chance to explain, I immediately thought it was a red state-blue state kind of trick. (I think I’ve been watching too much CNN.) But then the reporter explained that the White House allowed itself to be turned pink for the evening in support of Breast Cancer awareness.

My mood instantly changed from political suspicion to professional admiration. I’ll admit, my own fundraising efforts have always been on a much smaller scale than national breast cancer research, but I still gotta think that getting the White House staff to agree to let one of the most famous buildings in the world be turned pink for an entire evening was no small accomplishment.

I don’t know if that kind of a thing has ever been done before, but I am very impressed by the vision and the gumption of the breast cancer fundraising /marketing team. (I also think their “Save the Tatas” campaign is brilliant) I can just imagine a group of people sitting around a table, brainstorming ways to get their message out there. I’m sure the person who came up with turning the White House into the “Pink House” was stared at curiously for a few minutes. But now, I’m sure this man or woman is hailed as a hero in the movement.

The grandeur of this move got me wondering. Are we, at the local fundraising level, thinking too small? Are we so trapped in the school carnival to cookie dough to golf outing to auction treadmill that we have stopped looking over the horizon for something really big and impactful? Granted, I don’t think we’d be successful in changing the White House into our school colors, but maybe there’s a local landmark we could put our stamp on. Who knows what it is? The goal is just to think about the unbelievable, the impossible and go for it.

I challenge you to take a few minutes and start day dreaming. Let your mind really go. Have fun in how crazy your ideas can get.

In your local community, what would really make a huge impact? What would make people stop on the street and say “Wow, I never would have thought that would be possible.” What would get the local televsion crews out in full force to capture the moment of awe?

If you are able to do something on that scale, your organization will definitely reap the benefits.
So, go and think up something pink!