FUNDRAISING 101
Rady Children's needs YOU in our efforts to enhance care for every child who turns to us. The following resources can help you raise awareness, increase your fundraising, and make a difference at the Rady Children’s.
Below are important tips and details, proven to work by other Rady Children's fundraisers, to help maximize your efforts and help us bring comfort and hope to local children and their families.
If you have success stories from your fundraising and recruitment efforts, we want to hear them! Please share them with our team via email at fundraise@rchsd.org. We are here to help you start or increase your fundraising efforts so you reach all of your goals this year.
SETTING UP YOUR PAGE
Set Your Personal Fundraising Goal
It is a great personal accomplishment to reach a fundraising goal! Choose a goal number that gives you a challenge and watch yourself be surprised. You’re far more capable than you think. The staff at Rady Children's Hospital Foundation is also here to help you reach your goal.
Make a Personal Donation
There’s no better way to kick off your fundraising than to make a personal donation. Donate to your page and show your friends and family how committed you are to supporting Rady Children’s. Seeing that funds have already rolled in also incentivizes prospective donors who want to help you reach your goal.
Create a List of Potential Donors
Make a list of everyone you can think of—family and friends, colleagues and associates. Include people like your hairdresser and mechanic, or acquaintances you talk to at church or your kids’ school. Let everyone know that you’re fundraising for Rady Children’s and you might be surprised at who steps up and gets involved with your cause. Remember, you’re providing others an opportunity to contribute to something meaningful.
Share Your Story
Stories are powerful and everyone has one. Personalize your campaign with the “Why” behind your fundraiser and donors will become more engaged with the mission and be more likely to give. Your passion for Rady Children’s will inspire others to support you! You may also use our honorary patient story as an example to give your contacts a deeper connection to your fundraiser.
Email is one of the easiest ways to ask for donations. Your participant center comes equipped with customizable template emails you can use to ask for donations and thank donors—or you can create your own message and share a personal story.
Pro Tip: 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 fundraising for Rady Children’s Hospital and links to your personal fundraising page. For example, you could add a signature that says “I’m turning adventure into hope for local kids through Rady Children’s Wild Walkabout. Please support my efforts by giving to my fundraising page [hyperlink to your personal fundraising page]."
FUNDRAISING IN THE WILD
Get Social
By sharing a link to your personalized fundraising page on your social platforms, you are likely to gain support from those you may not see regularly or may not realize are interested in the same things you are.
Sharing your fundraising page on your social platforms, and asking others to share it with their friends, is one of the top ways to fundraise.
Top Tips:
- Share your personal fundraising page periodically to promote awareness of your fundraiser and update people on your progress.
- Use pictures! Photos get more attention in feeds than text-only posts.
- Keep it short. Get to the point quickly so even the fastest scrollers have time to read your post.
- Post updates. These serve as inspiration to hesitant donors and reminders to those who simply forgot to make their gift.
- Encourage sharing. You are likely to gain support from those you may not see regularly or may not realize are interested in the same things you are.
- Create “Thank You” posts for each donation, tagging the individual.
Matching Gifts
Ask your HR or supervisor if your company matches charitable contributions from employees. If so, leverage this when asking coworkers to donate by reminding them that their donations will go even further with the company match.
Follow-up
When reaching out for donations, be sure to follow up to ensure your request wasn’t lost or overlooked. Make a phone call or send a follow-up email reminding them that you’d appreciate their support greatly. Be sure to emphasize that any amount, large or small, makes a difference.
Pro Tip: A ‘soft’ follow-up to donors you haven’t heard from yet is a great opportunity to provide a simple progress update. Those who haven’t yet acted on your invitation to give might find your progress inspiring (or just be reminded they wanted to support you!).
Say Thank You
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 and to patients and staff at Rady Children’s. This last step ensures donors feel secure that their money was received and that their generosity was noticed and meaningful. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at 858-966-8864.
Connect with us! Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. It’s an easy way to show you care about the work of Rady Children’s.