3 Day Walk...need help with fundraising ideas!

[kmk160]

This past October I was able to fulfill my life long goal and complete the Susan G Komen 3 Day, 60 mile breast cancer walk.
Aside from having my children, it was the most amazing and life changing time of my life.
I walked in honor of so many and I am at it again and signed up for 2009!
In order to walk, I am required (as I was last year) to raise $2300.00.
I am hoping you can all help me think of some great fundraisers. I raised it last year through family, friend, and business donations but am fearful with the economy that I need to think bigger.
Its alot of money to raise but I am believe in this cause!
Thanks for any input!

 

[hopesmommy]

THANK YOU for participating!!!

As you can see I am involved with the 3 Day also. I first walked in 2005 and then in 2006. In 2007 and 2008, I crewed. I am crewing again this year.

As for fundraising, go to a country club and ask if the golf/tennis pro would help. My BIL is a golf pro. He did a putting challenge. The members pledges money based on how many putts they thought he would get. The challenge was 60 ten-foot putts. He was expecting to get 20 or so. He ended up sinking 45! I raised over $3000 just from this event. They could do a special golfing/tennis event. The members would pay extra to be able to play that day. Maybe you could have businesses donate prizes.

If a country club is not close, ask businesses for prizes for a raffle. My team raised over $1200. We had gc's for restaurants, movies, Blockbuster, Borders, etc. Maybe friends could donate their special skills; baking, sewing, babysitting.

Sonic here lets teams work a shift for tips. You must have a certain number of people to work though. Also, some restaurants have special days where they will donate a % to a cause if the customer has a flyer about the event.

Good Luck!

 

[ryanshana]

I have no idea of any ideas of how to fundraise for the 3 day.

I just wanted to say thank you ...DM passed away from breast cancer and I miss her every day. I do the race for the cure and I hope to one day do the 3 day for her. Good luck raising the money.

I'd ask my mom's best friend (who does this) but I think she just asks all my mom's old friends, her friends, I think she does a garage sale and bake sale too. Hope this helps

 

[poohbear15]

Thank you so much. My mom is a breast cancer surviver. We have never done the 3 day walk but we have done many other in our area. We have a Tupperware fundraiser every year. I am a consulant so I also donate my profits to the cause.

 

[HeatherBelle614]

You are wonderful! I'm hoping to do this one day for my mom (two time survivor!)

The Sonic thing can be a great fundraiser; we did that in undergrad. But, as another poster said, you have to have a certain number of people. Find out if you can get a group together, and see if you can get that many people together.

I've heard garage sales can work great for this; I'd think that'd be even more true this year since people are budget shopping!

Some fast food areas around here let us use their water spouts for car washes; we did this for our undergrad charity, and normally earned around $500.00 each time we did it. Call around to local McDonald's; those were always great at helping us out. (We had to supply buckets and soap; they gave us the hoses.)

 

[ekball]

YAY 3-Day!!!!!! I'm a fellow 3-Day walker - I walked Philly in '07 and '08 and will be walking Boston with my husband this year. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the 3-Day....and all that is stands for.

The putting challenge is an interesting idea, especially if you have a friend/family member that is involved at a golf club. But be careful about what you tackle....my DH and I had a golf tournament last year as our main fundraiser and it was a TON of work. I mean weeks and weeks and hours upon hours of work! A ton of stress, and if everyone hadn't had so much fun that day I would never do it again. However, the day was fun, we raised a lot of money, and my DH especially loved doing it....so we're doing it again this year. Again though - tons of work.

I'd try hosting a home party like Pampered Chef or something like that where the hostess gives you $$ towards the walk instead of buying credits. Think about what your family & friends would buy and go with that.

I've also heard about a lot of walkers who have luck sitting outside Walmart or a grocery store 'selling' something for a donation. You know - give them a pink ribbon pin, or sticker for a donation of their choice. Also, I've heard of people getting restaurants to donate a portion of one nights sales to walkers. Garage sale?

Other than that, it's ask any and everyone. Send emails to everyone and ask them to forward it around for you as well. Ask businesses to sponsor you. Anything you can think of. You'll get there....you know what it takes and you'll make it happen.

Good luck!!! Have fun! Walk proud!!!

 

[mnasmom3]

I did bake sales a couple of times and I also had a donation jar. That jar raised quite a bit of money all by itself. A lot of ppl would buy something and let me keep the change for the jar. I rented the tables at craft fairs for those. It was a lot of work, but it did pay off.

My team did a big fundraiser where we had most everything donated. We went to grocery stored, bakeries, restaurants, etc., and asked dfor anything they were willing to give. Some gave something as small as a case of water and others loaded us up with trays of food. We also asked for donations to use as silent auction items. We had things like store gift cards, someone donated concert tickets, someone else donated frequent flyer miles, etc. We also had a couple of 50/50 raffles during the event. After all was said and done, we took out the money we had fronted and split the profit up between team members. Again, lot of work involved in this.

Get out your address book and mail a letter along with a self addressed stamped envelope to EVERYONE you have a address for. I was surprised to see who sent them back. People I though were a long shot or would never send did and those I thought probably would, didn't. That was an easy one and it was quite profitable.

I also sold candy. We have a local candy company here that sells "seconds" cheap (you know....the candies that aren't the perfect shape or size but taste just as good.) and I resold them for profit.

I did some beading....bookmarks, keychains, and bracelets. I designed a simple web page and passed it along to everyone and asked them to keep on passing. I used paypal for the online orders. I also sold those to anyone and everyone I could not using the webpage.

One of our teammates got a big bucket with a bunch of those rubbery bracelets from Oriental Trading and she sold those for profit.

I didn't do one, but I attended a bowling fundraiser and also a scrapbooking fundraiser.

Happy Fundraising and Good Luck!

 

[danneva]

I remembered when we just need to raise money (200 dollars) for our school within 1 week. We didn’t have any ideas on how to do it so we decided to baked cookies since some of my classmates knows and can bake cookies well. And we got more than the fund we needed in just 5 days.
One of the best reasons why cookie dough fundraisers are really successful would be the fact that people are avid fans of freshly baked cookies. What’s even better is that these fundraisers usually offer tubs containing frozen dough, which have made the task of baking cookies a really easy task especially for those who are not wizards in the kitchen but would still like to enjoy the pleasures of great tasting hot cookies.

 

[binab]

I've done two 3-day's myself and definitely the walking is the easy part.

My first 3-day I contacted a local Hooters and they did a carwash for me. I had close friends that were in a band and they allowed them to setup and play inside the restaurant. I made nearly $2000 that day alone.

I've also sold sponsorships to local businesses for $250. I just promised to wear their company logo on a specially designed shirt for one of the days I walked. After the event, I washed and then gave them the actual shirt with some picts of me in it on the walk.

I've also done where people could sign my shirt with their donation. That was more popular than you might think.

I have a very embarrassing photo taken at the last 3-day I did. When I decide to do my next one, I am going to somehow use that to raise funds.

Good luck!!!

 

[eliza61]

congratulations!! I wanted to do it this year but I have to admit the $2300 financial requirement really put it off for me.

Do you have a local pub that will host a beef and brew for you? For example, here in Philly a friend of mine did one. sold tickets to the event and the bar give up a % of the proceeds.

 

[mrp4352]

There are a couple of restaurants in Dallas that will do fundraising nights (On the Border, Spring Creek Barbecue and Cantina Larado come to mind). You find a mutually agreeable night (usually a Monday or Tuesday night) and for everyone that comes in and says they're eating there to support your cause that night they'll give a portion of the proceeds. Our church choir did the evening with Cantina Larado - their deal was 10% of tab was donated to the choir for up to 100 people that were there for the fundraiser. Once they hit 100 people, then the restaurant upped it to 10% of all tabs after 6pm that evening.

Good luck!!

 

[kldmom2000]

My mom's been battling Stage IV metastatic breast cancer for just over 2 years now..... this will be my 2nd year participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Last month our team hosted a "Zumba-thon" and we made $600. It was very successful, so we're planning on doing another one in April We rented a hall for $75 and knew a certified Zumba instructor who donated her time for 2 hours. We also had a bake sale going on during that time and sold bottles of water. There were also a couple of raffles set up as well....

We also managed to get amazingly good seats for the Kenny Chesney concert and are selling raffle tix

Some other ideas floating around were a scrapbooking crop day, breakfast with the Easter Bunny, etc....

Every year our team captain (she's been doing this for years) makes up amazing raffle baskets and we all donate to one of them. We sell tix for them prior to and during the event and it's always very successful.

Good luck to you and thank you for participating in such a meaningful event!

 

[jessicaerv]

I don't see where you live, but my co-worker contacted a local pro sports team and received a donation of a few tickets to a game that she is going to auction off on e-bay. You might have some luck in that regard if you have any local teams. Just be sure to advertise that ALL the proceeds go to the charity!

Best of luck, and THANK YOU!!!

 

[CarolAnnB]

One fundraiser that went around our area last year was "flocking". A woman put a bunch of plastic pink flamingos on your lawn at night and had sheets where you could "flock" someone else for $20 donation. She would come and pick them up that night, you did not have to donate anything to get them removed, but you could pass along the flocking to friends and neighbors. It was really funny to wake up in the morning with a lawn full of pink flamingos. It was really funny to do to people who are SOOO picky about their lawns too. Didn't cost much to do it, but it would take your time.

Good luck! My daughter is joining a Relay for Life team with her friend whose mom just passed away at 47.

 

[Carina]

My Husband is doing The Ride to Conquor Cancer this year for the 2nd time. (Biking from Vancouver to Seattle)
$2500 must be raised each time.

If you live in an area that has deposits on your beverage containers see if you can set up an account at the Bottle Depot. We get as many friends family and clients as we can to donate their bottles. 5c and 20c containers really add up! We have earned hundreds of dollars from this. (many people want us to pick up the bottles and do the work for them, which is fine)

We also (last time) had a hair salon do a cut-a-thon. They opened on a Sunday ( usually closed that day ) and all haircuts were by donation. It was great because it did not cost the salon anything the hairdressers all volunteered their time . We made over $700 in 5 hours, with very little prep needed!

My kids asked friends and family for junk laying around their houses and made $100 at a garage sale this fall. Once again easy and no money out of our pocket except the cost of the ad in the classifieds.

I lean away from anything that costs too much out of pocket, such as bake sales. Not because I don't think we should contribute, but because we have alot of expenses associated with this ride already. We live on Vancouver Island so we have the cost of taking his bike in our van over there and he must go the day before beacuse they leave so early so he needs to get a hotel room also and dinner that night. Were looking at about $300 out of our pocket for him to do this, which is a LOT of money.

 

[mickeymiller]

First of all, congrats on getting your fundraising started! Raising support for a worthy cause can be super rewarding.

One route you might want to consider is setting up a homepage for your group on a fundraising website.

Raising support online is much simpler and more tidy than raising funds via cash or check (most sites can link donations straight to your bank account through a merchant processor). And having a group page gives you a central place to post information, photos and let people know what you do - this helps you promote your cause to friends, family and whoever else you want.

There are plenty of sites these days that help groups meet their goals - here are some good options:

First Giving (firstgiving.com) is a solid one. They charge about 5% on donations raised and have a simple structure to set up your page (though you may have to be a certified non-profit to register with them).

If that's the case, another option is Empowered (empowered.org). They process about 3.5% on donations raised, offer lots of tools to help organize/fundraise, and I know they support all small groups, regardless of non-profit status.

And you could always try to send up your own PayPal account to link to you directly, but this is a little trickier and a bit inflexible.

Good luck getting your fundraising going, I hope this helps!

 

[LexiC123]

First of all, congrats on getting your fundraising started! Raising support for a worthy cause can be super rewarding.

One route you might want to consider is setting up a homepage for your group on a fundraising website.

Raising support online is much simpler and more tidy than raising funds via cash or check (most sites can link donations straight to your bank account through a merchant processor). And having a group page gives you a central place to post information, photos and let people know what you do - this helps you promote your cause to friends, family and whoever else you want.

There are plenty of sites these days that help groups meet their goals - here are some good options:

First Giving (firstgiving.com) is a solid one. They charge about 5% on donations raised and have a simple structure to set up your page (though you may have to be a certified non-profit to register with them).

If that's the case, another option is Empowered (empowered.org). They process about 3.5% on donations raised, offer lots of tools to help organize/fundraise, and I know they support all small groups, regardless of non-profit status.

And you could always try to send up your own PayPal account to link to you directly, but this is a little trickier and a bit inflexible.

Good luck getting your fundraising going, I hope this helps!

I think you're a little late...the OP started this thread in 2009.

 

[JamesMom]

Knowing this is a resurrected thread (on Easter, no less, lol), but I am curious about something. I thought the 3-day event was a fundraiser. Why are you having fundraisers, for a fundraiser? Why even bother with a walk and just donate the funds to begin with? I though it was like other walks where you get sponsers to donate x-dollaers for x-miles or whatnot but instead of just 1 mile (like the Autism walk or March of Dimes) you walk 60? Am I missing something?

 

[mward73]

I'm doing the walk for the first time this September. I have to agree to raise $2300. I think I have until 1 month after the walk to do this. If I don't, they charge my credit card the difference in what I've raised and $2300. I'm doing it with a group of friends (we each have to raise that much money).

As for asking for pledges based on miles walked, that won't necessarily work because people would have to pay immediately following the walk, which isn't always possible. It might also make the walker nervous (I know I'd be worried) that people would forget or back out after the walk and I'd have to pay the difference. We're asking friends, neighbors, etc for donations (there's a link they can donate online), having bake sales, a spaghetti dinner/silent auction with donations from various local establishments, etc. It's fun to get together and train for the walk. Fundraising is a bigger part than I'd like, but it's all for a good cause and worth it in the end.

 

[kelly1218]

Knowing this is a resurrected thread (on Easter, no less, lol), but I am curious about something. I thought the 3-day event was a fundraiser. Why are you having fundraisers, for a fundraiser? Why even bother with a walk and just donate the funds to begin with? I though it was like other walks where you get sponsers to donate x-dollaers for x-miles or whatnot but instead of just 1 mile (like the Autism walk or March of Dimes) you walk 60? Am I missing something?

It's sometimes hard to raise $2300 just by asking people for money. I did a few small fundraisers to help. People are more generous when they receive something for their donation.
We sold rubber ducks last year and did an avon fundraiser.... I got my work to match about $500 of the money that was collected through coworkers..... this year we are selling paper bead bracelets. Well, it's actually for our 2012 walk. My DD and I will agree to raise $4600 combined.
It was an amazing experience.....and worth every mile walked(training and during the walk) and every dime collected.
I'm so proud that my DD14 wants to participate next year.

I'm doing the walk for the first time this September. I have to agree to raise $2300. I think I have until 1 month after the walk to do this. If I don't, they charge my credit card the difference in what I've raised and $2300. I'm doing it with a group of friends (we each have to raise that much money).

As for asking for pledges based on miles walked, that won't necessarily work because people would have to pay immediately following the walk, which isn't always possible. It might also make the walker nervous (I know I'd be worried) that people would forget or back out after the walk and I'd have to pay the difference. We're asking friends, neighbors, etc for donations (there's a link they can donate online), having bake sales, a spaghetti dinner/silent auction with donations from various local establishments, etc. It's fun to get together and train for the walk. Fundraising is a bigger part than I'd like, but it's all for a good cause and worth it in the end.

You do have 30 days after the walk to collect all your funds... then they will charge your credit card. You can get those payments broken down into 4 monthly payments though.

I was only at $800 2 months before last years walk..... I went above and beyond my $2300 goal in the last month. (I think my total was $2800)
I was ready to panic when I thought I couldn't do the walk...but apparently my friends can't resist a challenge....I raised over $400 in one day....all because my Aunt posted on facebook that if my friends came up with $100....she would match it... but only if they did it before a certain time.

Do you know about the message boards? if you have any questions.... I can try to help. a few members of my team have done quite a few walks. This year will be my second 3day event....first time crew