Westside LA Team In Training - Summer 2009 Marathon & Half Marathon Team

Posts Tagged ‘fundraising’

From now until Saturday June 6 (started on Monday), the West LA Pinkberry store has agreed to donate 15% of each Pinkberry yogurt sale to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!

Your hosts, John is done with his Marathon, which he completed last Sunday, and Marvin has his Alaska Marathon in a few weeks. They still have a few more dollars to fundraise, and they love Pinkberry, so why not?

If you’re around the area please print out the PDF

OR you could simply say that you’re there for the Team in Training fundraiser, then they will count it too!

The store is on the NW corner of Olympic and Sawtelle. It’s not very visible at all when driving, but it’s near a Zip Fusion, a sushi place, and a Conference Center. It is open from 10am – 11pm

view map

Feel free to invite all your friends & family!

Now here’s one unique fundraiser, by your teammate, Jean-Paul Jansen. It’s welcome to all, but open spots are very limited!

Come fly for a cure, Saturday May 23

Explore the magic of powerless flight and soar like an eagle

Take a 20 min. sailplane ride at the Crystalaire glider port, a beautiful scenic location at the San Gabriel mountain foothills, 20 miles east of Palmdale in Llano (1 ½ hrs from LA). Check out some pictures and more info on the website; http://www.soaringacademy.org/

Your certified pilot will give you the thrill of a lifetime. This unforgettable experience will cost USD 96,- with a percentage of the cost going towards the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (donations over USD 96,- are welcome and will go all to the LLS).

Maximum 20 people can fly that day, so act fast.

We will fly in 4 different time slots:

• The first rides will start at 9 am
• The second rides will start at 11 am
• The third rides will start at 1 pm
• The last rides will start at 3 pm

E-mail jeanpaul.jansen@gmail.com, subject “fly for a cure” with your name and phone number and the time slot you want to fly in and I will get back to you with the conformation and more details. You can pay at the airport after the flight…First come first serve.

GO FLY !!!!

I know we don’t have many rest stops here in Santa Monica or even neighboring cities, but here’s a unique fundraiser from last year by Katie and Renae from TNT Washington. They’ve documented what they did, and their results for you.

I love finding participant-created videos for their fundraising efforts on YouTube. It’s interesting to see all the different types – funny, serious, music videos, etc. This time, it’s an original song/video by Lady Southpaw, “Music To Run To”

I know it’s tough fundraising alone, so we recommend teaming up to help spread the word of your events and fundraisers. One place to start is your mentor group. Another is someone from your pace group. It doesn’t stop there.

It’s common to see fundraisers hosted by multiple teams within our Greater LA chapter of Team in Training. We’ve had large fundraisers with the Tri Team, and the Iron Man Team for the Bachelor Auction, Karaoke Nights, and Pub Crawls, but I just had a few thoughts while driving to work this morning. Hopefully it will spark up some new ideas for upcoming events.

How about joining forces with other teams and chapters? Do you know friends from the Valley, SGV, Long Beach, or Orange County Teams? Why not meet some over TNT forums and social sites? What kind of fundraisers are possible there? This way we’re not always marketing to ourselves, we can have a wider reach, and you get to meet other TNT participants from other areas.

How about having fundraisers with other non-profits? I think these type of events could get a lot more marketing coverage, and showing that Team in Training is willing to work with other organizations is a good thing. As far as donations go, just split it as you would working with another team member. Imagine a joint TNT and American Cancer Society event. The potential for this could be HUGE.

I think joining forces will ease your own stress. It’s beneficial because you can divide up your tasks to multiple people, and focus on things that you excel in. In brainstorm sessions you will see many different angles. The buzz for your event will be that much greater because you’ll cover many circles of friends that you normally wouldn’t get if you did all this alone.

Good luck and GO TEAM!

You’ve seen this jacket worn by your Leadership Team throughout the season. Did you know that it’s worn by Team in Training teammates across the nation? Our Mission Captain, Javier Rivera, is the man with the jackets, and it’s one of his ongoing fundraisers. It comes in Asphalt Grey and Kelley Green, and it’s made by American Apparel.

Buy Your Jacket Here (or you can approach him at practice)

It’s so AMAZING we have so many events lined up this early in the season! We’ll assume you’re already done with event logistical planning, and you need to get your event known to everyone. What do you do? Of course, the obvious is to tell all your friends and family. How? Is that enough? There’s never enough! We’ve compiled a list to the top places to go to post your event and get the buzz going!

First e-mail our Fundraising Captain, Erin Shulsinger, so your event could be added to her weekly HOT EVENTS e-mail to our internal team. Try not to conflict event dates unless your target audiences are completely different.

Event Invite Systems

• Evite.com
• Facebook Events
• MySpace Events

More Event Listings
The following are good supplemental event systems to get many people outside of your circle aware of the event. People might run into your event on several sites and become constantly reminded of it.

• Going.com
• Upcoming.com
• The Scene
• My Modern Met
• Experience LA
• Eventful
• Culture Mob

(more…)

E-mails and letters are a great way to start off your fundraisers, but if you want to go that extra step, you should get creative.

Campaign Names
You must differentiate yourself from your teammates. Sure, it’s not a competition, and we’re all in it for the same goal, but creating campaign names will make your fundraising fun, and also more compelling to your potential donors. Create a catchy name so that you can refer to your fundraising later if they didn’t donate to you after your first e-mail push. For example, Jacque Wing’s Sponsor A Mile, or Rebecca Cohan’s Do You Want a Piece of Me?.

Creative Event Names
Some successful events have a memorable name attached to it. I’m not talking only TNT events, but events and parties in general. Would you rather go to Karaoke Night, or Karaoke for a Cause ?

Team Up
Soon mentor groups will have their own fundraising events and campaigns, but you’re not limited to just your mentor group. Coach Chris, Lori Jomski, and Javier Rivera has Madness For a Cure. My friends and I are throwing America’s Best Pub Crawl this coming weekend. You can go by the power by numbers approach, and divide from there.

Fundraising Tools
When you have your campaign name set, think about how you will market your fundraising. There are many online tools, in which I will only touch the surface on this post. If you have the resources, create a unique logo and/or online flyer for distribution. If not, you can go viral with using Facebook tools such as Groups and Events, Evites, MySpace Bulletins, forums, and Twitter. For the more advanced, you can buy your own domain name, and create a standalone website.

Coming Soon
In the coming weeks, I will also feature creative fundraising ideas by your teammates and other TNT participants from across the country. It could be a special strategy on your TNT pages, it could be a specific event, or it could be a supplemental website. In this post, I’ll discuss some of the basic starting points on some of the most creative TNT fundraising I’ve seen.

Did you know that there’s a search tool to find companies that offer matching gifts? Some of your friends and family may not realize that the company they work for does such a thing. Send them the following website

Matching Gifts

That website is amazing. Search a company name, you’ll get some search results, and if the company offers a match, it will tell you the proper procedures (most of the time) for that company.

One helpful tip is to research some of your contacts before you send them that e-mail (at this stage it should be your REMINDER e-mail, right?). If you have a LinkedIn account, you can easily find your contacts’ employers. If you plan to message some of your work contacts, go through your stack of business cards.

Your approach will be key though, because you don’t want them to think you are using them for their match, or don’t make them feel they are forced to donate now because their donation is potentially 2x greater. Take a friendly approach, reminding them that you’re fundraising for the Luekemia & Lymphoma Society and you noticed that their employer would give a matching donation. Add some of your personal touch to it. Ask them to fill out their employer’s matching gift form and send the payment to you. Also, you should only approach the people you personally know on LinkedIn. It will be difficult otherwise.

If you receive a donation from someone who works for a company that matches, please read the following:
Matching Gifts Procedure Page

You know how long it took me to search and find everyone’s fundraising pages? A long time! The wait is over, and if you visit the participant roster page, you can view your teammates pages by clicking on their first name! If you’re name is not highlighted, BUSTED! Just kidding, your name didn’t show up on the search results, so if I there was an error, let me know!

I’ve skimmed through most of your pages, and I’d like to say that you guys are doing an awesome job! I see some of you picked up the selling a piece of your body campaign, or a sponsor a mile campaign! I see some original photos, and some very interesting and inspiring stories and updates. I invite you to do the same… browse through everyone’s pages, and get some ideas! Share the knowledge. If you find that some other teammates already made their minimum, ask them at Sunday practice! Brainstorm some ideas. Keep up the good work everyone!

In the next week or so I will have posts on fundraising strategies and campaigns so come back daily for updates!

That reminds me… I still need to take some of your photos! I will be out of town this Sunday, but look for me the following Sunday.