9th Annual Rady Children's Hospital Family Walk
Fundraising Tips
Set Your Personal Fundraising Goal
Set a personal fundraising goal that would be a truly big accomplishment for you. Many participants choose $500 as their personal fundraising goal or you can choose a higher amount - $1,000, $2,000 or more. You may have never raised that much money before, but rest assured that the staff at Rady Children's Hospital Foundation is here to help you.
Make a Personal Donation
After you register, make a donation to yourself. It gets the ball rolling and shows your friends and family how committed you are to the Hospital.
Create a List of Potential Donors
Make a list of everyone you can think of - family and friends, colleagues and associates. You can include everybody you do business with, like your hairdresser and auto mechanic, and everyone you talk to at your church or your children's school. Don't censor your list. Let everyone know what you're doing. You're not selling anything. You're just asking them to help you raise money for a worthy cause.
Share Your Story
Your participant center can include a personal story and photos – sharing your story with others helps boost fundraising. Or you can use one of our honorary patient’s stories. When donors go to your page, they can read about your fundraising efforts and donate right there online. Your participant center also automatically tracks your fundraising balance, so you and your donors can watch your progress.
Email is one of the easiest ways to promote the Walk and ask for donations. Your participant center comes equipped with customizable emails you can use to ask for donations and thank donors – or you can create your own message and share a personal story. Also, most email programs allow you to create a custom signature line that will be included in all of your emails. Consider setting one up on your personal email that shares that you are walking and links to your personal fundraising page. For example, you could add a signature that says “I’m walking in the 9th Annual Rady Children’s Hospital Family Walk on Sunday, October 4, 2015. Please support me at (insert link to your personal fundraising page)."
Get Social
On Facebook, share a link to your participant center on your profile/timeline and ask others to share it with their friends on your behalf. Or, whenever you receive a donation from a friend who's on Facebook or Twitter, post a friendly thank-you message and tag the person who has given. The post will show up on your page and on the tagged donor's page—it’s an easy way to encourage others to give! For more social media tips, click here.
Matching Gifts
Find out if your company matches charitable contributions from employees. When you ask co-workers to donate, remind them that their donations will go even further with the company match.
Follow-up
If you don't receive a response from your request, be sure to follow up. Make a phone call or send a follow-up email to make sure that they haven't forgotten. Keep your donors and potential donors informed of your fundraising progress and let them know that any gift, large or small, will make a difference!
Say Thank You
Be sure to send a thank you message to each and every supporter to let them know that his or her contribution - whatever the amount - is important to you.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at 858-966-5988.
© 2015 Rady Children’s Hospital