GiveForward

I met Heather two years ago. About 5 months after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, at 29 years of age. We became fast friends in an instant, and though she was sick, and fighting for her life, our friendship was never about the cancer. 5 months ago Heather woke up paralyzed on her left side. What the doctors thought was a stroke turned out to be a brain tumor. Another day, another battle. Heather simply stepped up to the plate to do what she needed. Brain surgery, intense physical therapy to get the left side if her body working again, radiation, more chemo. And not one complaint. And like many friends and family members of loved ones who are very ill, I felt helpless.

I live 2000 miles away and have an extremely crazy and unpredictable job where I am constantly traveling. I wanted to do something, and the only thing I could think of doing was to call upon my circle of friends to donate money to help ease the burden of the fact that Heather would be out of work for quite some time.

So I sent out an email to a bunch of friends back home in KC. Problem was that I was in Houston- so I had to ask people to either mail checks to my home, or to my hotel, or to drop it off on the desk of a friend back home. Lil’ complicated. That is when one of my friends sent me information on setting up a giving site on GiveForward.org. Genius! read more…

Each year thousands of people either shave their heads or donate their hair to support cancer research and provide wigs for children battling cancer or alopecia.  The most well-known, of course, is Locks of Love. A new group called Buzzing4Change is taking up this mission, as well, encouraging college students (who rarely cut their hair anyway to join the effort in one-day buzz-athons on campuses around the country.

Drastically changing your appearance for a good cause is without a doubt a great gift.  It can take months of growing your hair to the required 10 inches, and often means foregoing harsh chemical treatments (although Locks of Love does accept permed and color-treated hair). Then, with one trip to the salon, it’s all over.

Usually, hair donors get praise and support from their friends and family who admire their generosity and devotion to a wonderful cause.  Who doesn’t care about children with cancer?! But rarely do donors attempt to fundraise for the organization whose work is just beginning when they receive a hair donation.

Did you know that is costs Locks of Love over $1,000 to create the wig and hair prosthetic for a child?  read more…

February 4th was National Girls and Women in Sports Day. In recognition of all the girl and women athletes around the world who are using sports to create change, GiveForward.org interviewed Julie Lewis, a woman athlete, whose selfless actions have inspired us.

read more…

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.

The single most important thing you can do to ensure a successful online fundraising campaign is to make sure your first five donors all give big-money donations.

Why is this so critical to your fundraising success? Well, it has to do with something I call the law of monkey see, monkey do.

When people visit your fundraising page, one of the first things they do 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 most people they know are donating between $50-$100, then they will likely donate between $50-$100 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.

To ensure that your first five donors all give nice big donations, make a list of the top five people you expect will be the most generous donors (e.g. Mom and Dad, Grandma and Gramps, maybe your spouse, a godparent or a close family friend).

Once you pick your “fave five,” ask them in person, call them, or send them an email asking them to donate X amount.  Tell them that you need their help to get the ball rolling and explain to them that if they donate X amount, subsequent donors will be more likely to donate X amount as well.

After your “fave five” have all donated, should you begin contacting your next closest group of friends and family and asking them to donate.  After the people in group # 2 have donated, you can start asking people in your next closest group of friends to donate, and so on and so forth…

Once you have a good number of donations on your page, you can then send the mass email to everyone in your contact book.  By this point, you’ll have a lot of momentum and people will be more inclined to donate.

My sister recently ran a half-marathon and used this exact fundraising strategy to raise $2500 for cancer research.  Before she sent out a single email, she personally asked some of her closest friends and family members to donate $100 each.  After they had all donated, she sent an email out to a second group of friends, but didn’t ask them to donate any specific amount.  Nevertheless, a good majority of them donated $100 as well because everyone else prior to them had already given that amount.  Within a week, and without ever sending out a mass email to everyone in her contact book, she had raised over $1000.  The strategy works really well.  You just have to be a little patient.

I hope this first tip is helpful. Until next week, happy fundraising!