I recently got a good fundraising tip from Steve Mackel who runs MarathonTraining.TV and SoCalRunning.com and has been fundraising for charity for the past thirteen years.

Steve told me how important it is that people put up a good picture of themselves on their personal fundraising pages.  I couldn’t agree more.

The reason you want to do this is because it helps you make a personal connection with your donors so they’ll feel more engaged in your efforts and want to help you out by donating some big bucks to your fundraising efforts.

Any close-up of you showing off your pearly whites is good, but when possible, you should make your photo related to your fundraiser.  For instance, if you’re raising money for charity by growing a mustache, add a picture of yourself with mustache to make your donors chuckle.  Or, if you’re training for a marathon and you have a photo of yourself in all your high tech, dry-fit Super NIKE awesome jogging gear use that as your photo.  It will show your supporters that you are working your butt off to reach your goal (and if nothing else that you look good in a track suit).

Photo of yours truly growing a mustache for cancer research. Going for the 1970s Olympian Mark Spitz look.

Photo of Ben Kobren at GiveForward’s Run for a Reason 2008 (NYC)

This is a good example of a photo that would work.  If you are good at photoshop, just substitute your face in for Ben’s and tell people that it is you.

If you’re not good at photoshop….

Here’s how to add a Super-Awesome Photo of Yourself to Your Fundraising Page:

Step one: When you are logged in hit the button that says “Edit Fundraiser” (or “Start Fundraising” (if you don’t already have a fundraiser page).

Step two: Upload super-awesome photo of yourself from your computer.

Step three: Get lots of money from your donors.

Step four: Bask in the awesomeness of your photo.