Fundraising Tips! How I Fundraised $10,581 for Multiple Sclerosis

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Happy Tuesday! I wanted to share with you some tips for how I ended up surpassing my fundraising goal for MS Run The US. I think it's so important to share with others regarding fundraising because when I first began my journey, I had NO idea how I could possibly raise this much money! I still am a bit shocked that I reached over $10,000 in my fundraising. I mean that is A LOT of MONEY! I'm on day 2 of my relay and hope to check in on Thursday or Friday with a post about how's it going so far!! I'm optimistic that I'll have a bunch of energy and freetime after running each day to write to you ; ) haha.. I guess we'll see! 

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OK so here are my TOPS TIPS for fundraising DO'S: 

  • DO make a list of 100 people and businesses you know. I did this right at the very beginning and while not everyone donated (and some people on the list were silly to write down...like my mom!), it helped me keep track of who I reached out to and if I had received a donation from them or not. 
  • DO reach out to your local grocery stores to do some tabling. This one really blew me away with how easy and effective it was! I think I raised almost a $1,000 just by sitting at a table outside our local grocery store for 3 hours on a few Saturdays!
  • DO reach out to local personal trainers/ fitness studios. This was where 2 of my fundraisers came from and while they weren't the best $ makers, I think both donation classes still ended up fundraising me over $500!
  • DO reach out to businesses more than once..twice...or three times! I think I *may* have received one donation from a business on the first attempt at asking, but most others it took me 3 or 4 TIMES of asking before I received a donation! I found that a lot of people just needed the reminder and wanted to donate, but forget to. I hated pestering them, but it really worked to my benefit. 
  • DO tell people your story. My biggest donation came from a donor who just happened to be at my work and I told him of my relay that I'm participating in and why. 
  • DO reach out to your local papers (AND hometown papers). My other biggest donations came from reaching out to my local (and hometown) papers. I actually had to reach out to my local paper FIVE TIMES before hearing back from someone. It was worth it. 
  • DO one fundraising event per month. Whether it was tabling, fitness donation classes, organizing a local 5k, giving Tuesday in November, these events helped me reach my goal and keep me on track. 
  • DO keep a monthly fundraiser goal tracker. Each month, I had my A, B, and C fundraising goals and worked my butt off with contacting/ reaching out to potential donors and keeping my friends/family informed with how my fundraising was going.
  • DO start a Facebook Fundraiser page and keep it up to date. $25 doesn't seem like a lot from one person, BUT I would update and post several times a week in my Facebook Fundraiser and that helped both current and future donors keep track of my progress. I would post training updates/ fundraising updates/ positives or negatives about a run I just did/ monthly mileage etc. It REALLY added up. I think I ended up getting over $2,000 just in Facebook donations!
  • DO update your supporters on social media channels regularly. This was a big one for people to keep track of my progress and have potential donors have a place to go to follow my journey! 
  • DO a garage sale. I had myself and my family put things on eBay that they wanted to get ride of and we made A KILLING! I think I received over $1,000 just by selling things that we didn't want anymore! Super easy and you get to clean out your junk as well : )

THINGS NOT TO DO:

  • DO NOT have a one and done mentality. I got over the fact that I was "bothering people" very early on because I realized that I wasn't really bothering them and that if they didn't want to donate, then they would let me know or just politely say 'thanks and we'll think about it' (then I'd follow up with them MULTIPLE times). 
  • DO NOT feel sorry for sharing your story. I had some people who gave me a fundraising tip of "sharing my story", which honestly seemed really vague to me. I've never been a big sharer of my life to strangers, but that's a big part of what fundraising is! SHARE your story and hone it in. 

How's your Tuesday going?!?

Any fundraising tips of your own?!?