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

Posts Tagged ‘tips’

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

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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

Let me tell you about my experience last summer season using Twitter. First, if you don’t know what Twitter is please watch this video first

I started a Twitter account about a year ago because too many interesting things were happening in my life that I wanted to document instantly. Twitter allowed me to do so because there were so many ways to update it, via text message, online through my phone, my laptop, and through various websites. Since I was starting my 3rd TNT season, I thought it would be a good way to let my friends & family know what’s going on with my training, and also my life. So I sent everyone my Twitter address (http://www.twitter.com/sketch678) so they could follow what’s up.

Throughout the season they would see my updates, from “We just ran 12 miles!”, “We’re eating a good breakfast at The Firehouse with my new teammates”, “Please donate to my page [link]“, “We’re having a fundraiser tonight! Come out!” to “7am is sooo early! I’m barely half awake!”. It was a fun way for my friends to see what I was going through. I also had Twitter followers whom I haven’t met in person, but were very encouraging throughout the season.

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1. Sell TNT purple bracelets. Buy a bag of 80 for $32.00 and sell them for whatever price you deem reasonable. Whatever profit you make can go to your fundraising.
2. Place a bucket with a TNT sign on it at your local laundromat, pizza joint, lunchroom at work, etc. Stop by and pick up the $ weekly.
3. A list of people you may have forgotten to hit up for $25 each: your dentist, dry cleaner, hairdresser, pharmacist, doctor, real estate agent, accountant, veterinarian, attorney, sorority/fraternity/band alumni, mechanic, financial advisor, all the other soccer moms on your kid’s team, insurance agent, lawn service company, your shrink, professors, home owners association members, the employees of other companies in your office building (put up a sign in their lunchroom!), people in your aerobics class, etc.
4. Ask Diddy Riese Cookies (or your local cookie place) to donate a box of cookies to you. Bring the cookies around your office or school and sell them for a $1 each or any suggested donation.
5. Restaurant programs: (we know Applebee’s, Coldstone Creamery, Islands and BJ’s Pizzeria have programs too…but they don’t have it on their websites).
   • They will give you 10-25% of the night’s profits if you help publicize.
   • Ruby’s diner: www.rubysdiner.com/diners/fun_raiser.html
   • Baja Fresh: www.bajafresh.com go to “Live Fresh" and click on "fundraising."
   • Souplantation: http://www.souplantation.com/Community/
6. Paramount TV show tapings: Take 35 people to a TV show taping.. Paramount will write you a check for $500

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