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

in ,

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?!?

MS Mondays- My Second Fundraiser Recap!

in ,

I hope you had a great weekend and are ready for the week ahead! I had my second tabling at City Market on Saturday from 10-2 (but only stayed until 1 because it was 15* out and snowing/ super windy!) and spent Sunday meal prepping/ doing a 3 mile cross country ski/ teaching skating. I'm really excited for next weekend because I have two full days off from teaching skiing at the mountain (I had to go in on Sunday for a bit).

We also made this amazing 'fresh market slaw' from a recipe in the Runners World Cookbook. It was super healthy (contained apple cider vinegar/ sesame oil/ white wine vinegar/ sesame seeds/mustard/ chives/green & purple cabbage) and soo tasty! I'll try to post the recipe of it over on my recipes section later this week! We paired it with barbeque 'sloppy joes' (also homemade and pretty healthy)! Perfect Saturday evening meal (while also catching up on House of Cards- we're on season 3). 

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While we were only tabling at City Market from 10:15-12:45pm because it was so chilly out, I ended up raising $323 for my MS Run The US fundraiser! I honestly couldn't believe how successful it was and will be adding in a few more tabling sessions this next month because it really is a great way to raise awareness of the relay and MS, while also meeting some great people who have also been affected by the disease. 

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So far, with my two tabling fundraisers at City Market I've raised $567! I have another tabling session scheduled for this coming Saturday from 10-2 and it should be nice weather, so hoping to stay for the entire four hours and maybe even surpass this past weeks earnings!

Have you ever tried tabling outside of a grocery store for a fundraiser? How'd it go?

How was your weekend?

How's your training going? <--I spent way too many days last week on the treadmill and looking forward to warmer temps this week and hopefully all my runs can be done outside! I need some fresh air!!!

MS Mondays- ALL ABOUT my FIRST Fundraiser!

in ,

Monday...Monday...it's here wayyy too soon! Am I right?!? Is this how people who love their job also feel or is just the rest of us who haven't quite exactly figured things out yet? Either way, our weekend freedom is done and gone and now we've got 5 more days until we get it again! I hope you had a GREAT weekend. We got outside for a bit on Saturday and managed to get ALL the chores done on Friday night, so a weekend of fun (..or well just a Saturday of fun for me as I had to teach both skiing & skating on Sunday) it was. 

I wanted to share with you today all about my first fundraiser that I had for MS Run The US! I did some tabling at City Market (local grocery store) and honestly had NO IDEA what to expect. I either thought it would be slightly successful or a total flop (yeah..not very high expectations at all)! I created a few posters that had what I was doing and why I was doing it in SUPER simple wording, so that it was easier to read and those that were interested could ask me about it or just simply walk on by. 

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I think that having the posters really visible next to my table helped immensely because we (Alex helped me out for most of the 3.5 hours..) even had someone drive by and hand out us some money to put in my donation jar!

It was super windy out, so we taped everything down extremely well and had just a few fliers out on the table (one about my yoga fundraiser and one explaining the run) and then some MS Run The US brochures. I only had a few people who actually took the fliers or brochures, but most were just interested in learning about what I was doing and why I was doing it!

I had a goal of getting ~$100-150 from the day (especially since it was so cold) and ended up getting $272!!! I couldn't believe how successful I was and also how many others I spoke with who either had a connection with Multiple Sclerosis or Running! Gosh...I really love my little community when events like this go so well.

I have another tabling in 2 weeks and can't WAIT to get it going! I'm also starting to brainstorm a few other fundraisers I could put together before my relay...so hopefully something will come together soon for them!

How was your weekend?

Any experience with fundraisers?! Any advice??

Long run this weekend- yay or nay?

PS The Olympics must really stress me out because we've nearly eaten an entire bag of sour candy that I got on THURSDAY. Gosh I just love all the Olympic coverage sooo much! What's your favorite event?