Fundraising Tool Kit We want our athletes to enjoy every step of their journey with us, and we realize for some, the biggest challenge is fundraising, not training. That s where we come in! We ve compiled some tips and tricks to help you get started and feel comfortable with this aspect of your Home Team experience. We re also here to help with any questions you have along the way. Enhance Your Message. Page 2 Strategize Your Ask.. Page 2 The Impact You Make. Page 3 Beyond Your Webpage. Page 3 Ten Tips for Successful Fundraising. Maximize Your Fundraising... Page 4 Page 5 Offline Gifts (we welcome those too!).. Page 6 Offline Gifts Tracking Chart Page 7
FUNDRAISING TIPS & TRICKS How to Enhance Your Message Think about your personal message and turn it into a story Ask yourself Why am I participating in this endurance event? How much effort have I put in? What has training been like? What keeps me going when I feel like I just can t go any further? Add photos or videos to your fundraising page to keep people coming back Know your cause. Read stories about our youth to motivate you and your donors. Strategize your message! Be fun! Be Creative! Make a call to action! Get Social. Post updates on your training, challenges you re facing, and thank you posts to those who donated! GET STARTED: go to www.firstgiving.com/runforyouth After your personal page is complete, share your page s link on Facebook and twitter Strategize Your Ask The 3 Ps to Perfecting Your Asks Personalize Promote Promptly Acknowledge Create a list of donors and approach them for support o This list could be coworkers, friend, family, local businesses o Think strategically; send personal emails around pay day o Consider suggesting a minimum amount to donate o Send fun reminder emails asking people to donate Update your page after the event to share with your supporters how impactful the experience was TELL EVERYONE! The person you don't tell is the person who won't donate! Provide an incentive to your top donor i.e. home cooked meal, gift card, etc. Make sure to thank people that gave with a card, shout them out on Facebook - make them feel good about giving! Try call to action posts like Who wants to donate the last 25 to put me over 1,500! 10 until I reach 5,000! Please help me reach my goal and support homeless youth! In less than 24 hours I have raised over 300! Keep it up and if you want to get in on the action, donate! If 50 people give 30 I will reach my goal of 1,500!
Every Dollar Counts Let people know the direct impact their donation would make 10 a week of baby diapers for 1 baby 20 a week of baby formula for 1 baby 20 shoes and socks for 2 kids 20 fill our outreach van with sandwiches 25 a week of baby diapers and wipes for 2 babies 50 fuel an outreach van for 3 nights 50 an emergency survival kit for 10 kids 50 professional suit or dress for an interview 100 one night in Crisis care 225 one day of mother/baby care 250 feed 10 kids for a whole week 300 sponsor a 5 week GED review class 500 a night in Crisis care for 5 kids 1,575 a week of mother/baby care 3,000 a month in Crisis care FUN TIP Tie your asks to the number of miles you ll be doing on race day. Ask donors for X dollars per mile. Running a marathon? Ask your donors for 26.20 or 262.00 or 2,620 (hey, you never know!) Taking on an Ironman? Ask for 14.06 or 140.60 or 1,406 Beyond Your Personal Webpage Bake Sale Hold a bake sale at your home, office, or anywhere with heavy foot traffic! Everyone loves a treat, especially when the money goes to a good cause. Casual Day Ask your office to allow employees a casual day in exchange for a donation. Church Announcement Ask to make an announcement at your church or another group meeting. Tell your story of why you are running and how donations would help support the youth at Covenant House. Old Fashioned Letters Send out hand written letters the old fashioned way. Often times, fundraising emails are lost among the junk mail/spam. Make sure your letter stands out and has your personal message. Think Outside of the Box You will do x (bake their favorite pie) if someone donates y (10 for every mile)! Bowling Party Reserve lanes at your local bowling alley and ask participants to make a donation. Restaurant Giving Ask a local restaurant to donate a portion of their sales from one night. Raffle Hold a 50/50 raffle where half the money raised goes towards your fundraising and the other half goes to the winner. Gift Cards Ask local businesses to donate gift card donations and use those in a drawing for those who donated towards your fundraising. Host a Party Have guests over and ask them to make a donation towards your fundraising goal Throw a Party with a Purpose! Wine Tasting Night Holiday theme Party Casino/Card Night Weekend Pancake Brunch
Ten Tips for Successful Fundraising Make a fundraising plan Start with your fundraising goal, create a timeline, and start breaking the plan down into small steps. I will raise 200 this weekend while visiting old college friends. Create a great fundraising page Make people excited about your cause with complete and compelling information. Also, offer multiple opportunities to participate; including joining you at a volunteer event or cheering you on at the race. People are more likely to donate if they feel a close connection to the charity/event. Be proactive Communicate early and often. It s very common for people to put things off. We all live busy lives. A little reminder nudge never hurt anyone. Plan an event that works for you What are you already doing? Build on your current hobbies, clubs and interests. Tie into seasonal themes, holidays and annual events that people already plan around. Join me for happy hour on Thursday! Donate 10 to enjoy all night drink specials. Send hand written letters first, not emails Email is faster and can return instant results, but good old-fashioned hand written letters show a personal touch. It is unlikely that your friends will toss your snail-mail before they read it. Even friends with the best intentions can easily lose or forget your email in the overcrowded inbox. Use email as a follow-up to those who didn t respond to your letter. Be more social Take advantage of social media and its multiplier effect to reach friends of friends. Try thanking your donors by name in a post or tweet to encourage others to donate. Thank you Sara! Your donation just put me over 500! Now, who will help me get to 600?!? Meet the press Contact the editor of your local paper, company newsletter or both! Ask them to interview you about what you have undertaken and why, and include a request for support. Be sure to include instructions in the story on how readers can make a donation to your page. Sign with a purpose Include a link to your fundraising page in your email signature. That way, every email you send raises awareness of your fundraising and attracts more donations. Team up You don t have to do this alone. It s more fun and much easier when you get a group of friends together to help. This applies to planning events, matching funds, or relay racing. Say Thank You! It s a simple thing to do, and also one of the most powerful. Make sure you thank everyone who supported your fundraising efforts as if they donated a million dollars! Send emails, write personal notes and thank them in person. Sources: JustGiving, Eventbrite, and Kintera
Maximize Your Fundraising and Stay Organized Many companies match their employees charitable gifts. Research your employer s matching gift program and also encourage your donors to do the same! You may also be able to help Covenant House apply for a grant or cyber grant from your company. Any gift we receive from your company s foundation counts toward your fundraising goal. Keep a running tab of your donors who secured matching gifts from their companies. We ll need the employee name, Company name and amount of gift to be matched to verify. See page 6 for a simple chart to help you keep track. Still have questions? We re here to help! Email hometeam@covenanthouse.org to learn more.
HOME TEAM OFFLINE FUNDRAISING PROCESS FOR CHECKS AND CASH Please read carefully! While most of our runners collect most of their funds through our online portal (firstgiving), we certainly don t discourage anyone from collecting checks and cash too. Please follow the simple instructions below to ensure ALL of the funds you collect are attributed toward your fundraising commitment. CHECKS & CASH *ASK YOUR SUPPORTERS TO GIVE THEIR OFFLINE GIFTS TO YOU DIRECTLY RATHER THAN MAIL TO US. 1) Use the enclosed offline tracking chart as a guide. 2) When you receive a check, write the donor s name, donation amount, check number, and address if it is not on the check, on the chart. 3) When you receive cash, write out a personal check in the amount of the cash received, then record on the chart the donor s name, address, and cash donation amount. 4) Send the checks and the original chart to us. Please ask the Covenant House representative who helped you register where you should send any checks you collect. 5) Retain a copy of the chart(s) for your records. 6) After a representative of Covenant House acknowledges receipt of your offline donations, you may enter the gifts as offline gifts on your firstgiving page so that your fundraising page s total reflects the combined amount. Send now or later? It s up to you! You can collect multiple offline donations and send all at once OR you can send donations as you receive them. If you choose the latter, please enclose a new chart each time even if just one donation is listed. THE MARVEL OF MATCHING GIFTS Matching gifts are indeed marvelous. They are also marvelously complicated to track! For this reason, please help us help you reach your goal with matching gifts by following these steps: 1) Encourage your supporters to submit for matching funds from their companies. What an easy way to double their gift! 2) Ask (ok, beg) them to tell you when they submitted to the company and if they can, to provide a copy of the matching paperwork to you which you can then provide to us. 3) Log the matching gifts of which you are aware in the tracking chart. 4) Out of good faith, you may enter the matching gifts of which you are aware on your firstgiving page. Enter the name as Corporate [FIRST] Match [LAST], gift amount, and a message of encouragement to yourself if you wish. You need not enter the address or company information. Why is this so complicated? Matching gifts are processed by companies and then sent to Covenant House often with little documentation explaining what the employee s original gift was for, let alone the employee s name. As you can imagine the documentation rarely relates back to the Home Team, and 99.9% of the time, will not reference you - the runner - as the gift is associated with your friend, the employee! In other circumstances, the company sends a cumulative check representing various matches they are making on behalf of their employees, and the documentation will not include any individual employee names. Covenant House (gladly and gratefully) deposits the check but has no way of tracking that it is connected to your fundraising efforts. This is where you come in. See above. QUESTIONS? SCRATCHING YOUR HEAD? No problem. We re here to help. Contact hometeam@covenanthouse.org for assistance. THANK YOU!
OFFLINE DONATION TRACKING CHART RUNNER S NAME: RACE NAME: RUNNER S EMAIL ADDRESS: *a confirmation of receipt of this package will be sent to the email address provided above Donor Name Donor Name Donor (Employee) Name Donation Amount Donation Amount Matching Amount CHECKS Check # Date of Check Donor Address (if not on check) Street Address 1 CASH Street Address 2 MATCHING GIFTS Company Name Date Match Submitted City, State, Zip Copy of submission paperwork available? Y/N