Here's a 4 month "project plan" for organizing a professional caliber and sustainable Walk-athon fundraiser. Walks are fantastic fundraisers for a number of reasons. Anyone can participate. Young, old, people who are in top physical condition, and even people in wheelchairs can come and support your organization. It's so democratic and inclusive. Plus, more people means more people fundraising if you use a Walk-a-thon format, which I highly recommend. Walks can also be fun and are good exercise too.
This is the first part in a four part series that will lay out the steps in planning a first class fundraising Walk. Part One covers the things you need to do in the first month of planning. Good luck. Call or email if you need help.
(Alot of this can apply to a organizing a 5K or short road race too. But I will focus mostly on the Walk-athon.)
MONTH 1:
The Basics
1. Build Your Team: This is probably the most important step. Your team should include staff and volunteers. It's important to build a team with diverse skills. The most successful teams include people that:
- can successfully solicit companies for sponsorship money
- are comfortable talking to town halls and police for permits
- are able to secure in-kind donations for t-shirts and food
- have proven success as project managers
- pay great attention to detail.
2. Select of date, site, distance and time of Walk.
Legal Items
1. Obtain permits from Town Hall or Campus
2. Call the police department to set up police detail if that is necessary
3. Ask the town if a Certificate of Liability is required. If yes, call your insurance company to get one
Sponsorships
1. Develop a corporate sponsor packet.
2. Develop a cover letter for sponsor packet.
3. Create multiple sponsorship opportunities. Get creative. Create high level sponsors, mile sponsors, sign sponsors, etc...
4. Decide what you will offer sponsors in return for their sponsorship. For example, placement of logo on signage and web site. Maybe also a feature story in an e-newsletter.
5. Create list of sponsorship leads to approach.
6. Obtain logos from sponsors that you close (this is ongoing).
Outreach
1. Begin the process of recruiting media partners and celebrity chairperson. Often, a local newspaper or even radio station will run a story on your Walk. It probably won't drive thousands of people to your walk, but it is a nice feather in your cap that you can include in a sponsorship packet to add some credibility to your effort.
2. Develop and Send “Save-the-Date" mailings to your database.
3. Research local media and their requirements regarding the submission of press releases.
4. Write and submit a press release. Here's some help with press releases.
5. Set up online Walk-athon website. Don't spend too much! This is the first year. Cap your software spending at $3000-5000. With this amount you should be able to get something that allows you to get accept donations online, allow individuals to track progress on their own edittable profile pages, and provides staff with detailed reports and metrics on fundraising and usage that will come in handy this year and next!
6. Publicize on your website, facebook group, blog, upcoming.org, google calendar, and every other free site.
In-Kind Donations
1. Develop an In-kind request letter.
2. Get Breakfast food donated if necessary. Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts have always been good to us.
3. Get Lunch donated for everyone if necessary. Big supermarket chains are actually great for this. Just give your local supermarket a call. Red Bull is great for drink donations. They are awesome.
4. Find Raffle Items that you could use to raise a little more money
5. Try to get someone to donate Signage. If not, go online for the best deals. We've had good luck with victory store http://www.victorystore.com for lawn signs that are placed along the route.
6. Get T-Shirts. Don't break the bank if you can't get this donated but sending people home with something that they will likely use again is a good idea for future walks.
7. Free Printing if possible. If not, check out Vistaprint for some inexplicably good deals. www.vistaprint.com. (I don't know how this company makes money but hey, at least you can benefit from paying next to nothing for your printing)
8. Ask someone to bring their Grill so you can barbecue.
9. Do you need Port-o-pods at the start location and along the route? If your walk is in a more urban setting, ask a couple of businesses along the route if your walkers could use their restrooms in lieu of a sponsorship.
10. Entertainment at the start location. Walks are great family events. Get a moonwalk, recruit people to facepaint for the kids, or hire an entretainer to make do stuff balloons. Maybe a band or DJ if you know someone. You get the idea. Make it a fun outing with lots of stuff for everyone. People don't get out that often. Show them a good time and they'll come back next year.
Stay tuned for things you should be doing in the second month of planning. I'll try to post it next week. If I missed anything, please let me know with a comment. We have this entire plan in Excel or project email info@blueskycollaborative or call us if you want it.
