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Let the fundraising begin!

Written by on March 28, 2011 at 10:27 am

I was in Columbia, South Carolina, for the weekend as my family there hosted our team's annual fundraising golf tournament. It is always a beautiful time of year down there, and a great time is had out on the course. My deepest thanks and love go out to my family for continuing to support the National MS Society by organizing this fundraising tournament each year.

Our family's team fundraising campaign is kicked off each year with golf tournament, which raises a significant portion of the team's funds. We are fortunate for so many wonderful personal and corporate supporters.

Now that we have entered our fundraising season, I look forward to reaching out to friends, family and new co-workers (if done selectively) to ask them to support our family's team at the upcoming MS Challenge Walk. As I've been mentally (and manually) organizing my "ask", and starting to compile a list of people to solicit, I am eager to take advantage of the online tools in my Participant Center.

While its functionality (and ease) is great, I don't it to lull me into laziness in my solicitations. It would be easiest to import all the email addresses from my contact list into my Participant Center and shoot out a generic email to all, asking them for money. While there is a group of people to whom I will send such an email, I'll avoid this approach for just everyone. When you think about it, there are some people who should be sent an individualized email or letter. I mean, isn't the money they give valuable enough to take another moment to send them a special correspondence. I think it is.

The point is this: think about each person to whom you are soliciting. If someone falls into the category of receiving a more general email, that is fine. But if you come across someone who for whatever reason prompts your mind (or heart) to pause and suggest you send a personalized correspondence, follow your instincts and go that route. If you need help writing your letter, check out our advice and templates. The extra minute it will take to send them a personal solicitation may just turn out to be your biggest donor because of the attention and care you showed them. The money they give is worth your investment of time.

Todd is formerly the Director of Development for the Greater New England Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. In addition to reading his blog posts, you can also find Todd on Twitter.

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Fundraising Tip #13: Soliciting friends of friends

Written by on August 4, 2010 at 12:41 pm

Most of your fundraising solicitations are sent to first-degree contacts: your friends, your family, your co-workers. But many more people are affected by MS, and that which affects your loved ones affects their loved ones, too. Why not expand your network and reach out to these second-degree connections?

In my case, I walk for my mother, who was diagnosed with MS in 1990. My three older brothers are unavailable to join me in the MS Challenge Walk, but their motivation to fundraise is no less than mine. I wanted to ask them to send a solicitation letter to anyone they knew that I might not — but then I figured, I'm already sending more than a hundred letters myself, I'm set up for such a process, why not do it for them? I instead asked my brothers for names and addresses from their rolodex. I then prepared a different letter to those individuals. Instead of beginning with:

"I am writing regarding this September, which will mark my sixth participation in the MS Challenge Walk, a two-day, 30-mile event that raises money for and awareness of multiple sclerosis, which affects my mother."

I wrote:

"I am writing regarding this September, which will mark my brother Ken's sixth participation in the MS Challenge Walk, a two-day, 30-mile event that raises money for and awareness of multiple sclerosis, which affects our mother."

I continued to make these little changes throughout the letter, constantly referring to myself in the third person, and ended by signing by brother's name. After getting final approval of the letter from my bros, I mailed the letters with self-addressed stamped envelopes directed to me. Sure enough, a week later, those envelopes started coming back with checks in them: "I got your brother's letter and am happy to help you in your walk for your and his mom!" Now that I've made that initial contact, I can (and have) solicited these same people for future walks under my own name.

Note that I am not promoting identity theft or forgery. Pretending to be someone else requires a friend or relative's full permission and cooperation, and they should be kept abreast of who you are soliciting and how.

Online networks like Facebook and LinkedIn help us meet friends of friends, but "social networking" works in the real world, too. Ask your siblings, parents, co-workers, and friends to fundraise on your behalf, and leverage your connections to bring us that much closer to a world free from MS.

Ken, a Worcester resident, joined the MS Challenge Walk in 2005, more than a decade after his mother was diagnosed. After walking for three years and 150 miles, he switched to the support crew and now rides his bicycle along the trail, providing whatever encouragement (and snacks!) he can to the 600 walkers. He is also on the event's steering committee and is this site's webmaster.

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Donors' words of encouragement

Written by on June 11, 2010 at 11:13 am

Envelope

It's what's inside that counts.

As I wrote last week, I do almost all my fundraising via postal solicitation. A few people donate online, but more than half of my donations arrive as checks. When my self-addressed stamped envelopes come back to me, I eagerly rip them open and look not for the amount of the check, but to see what else they included. For me, the arrival of the SASE is a giveaway that they've donated at all. The amount is irrelevant; it's knowing that I have their support that matters. But what really lifts my spirit are the personal words of encouragement many donors choose to include with their checks. Sometimes it's on the back of my fundraising letter mailed back to me; sometimes it's on a sticky note; other times, they include their own cards. Whatever the medium, and whether they come from close friends or from those with whom my only communication is this fund drive, these notes let me know that what my teammate Kahm and I are doing is important.

Here are the reasons I'm walking so far this year:

Keep up the good work! Hope the MSchief Makers do well. Good luck to U & Kahm! Give your mom our best! Glad 2-B of some help…


Good luck with the walk!


Good luck in the MS Challenge Walk! I hope your team reaches its goal! Cheers!


Nice to see you'll be joined by Kahm, Ken! 


Thanks so much for doing this every year, Ken — you rock! Best wishes for a great walk and for an end to MS!


Good luck, Ken & Kahm! We wish you the best with your walk!


Good luck Kenny!


Keep walking for my cousin! He continues to battle & win his fight but would of course love a cure for all!


Good luck and have fun! 


Thank you for all you do and for letting me again be part of your walk. Happy walking!


Good luck Ken! 


Good luck with your fund drive. "Hi" to your parents. Hope they & you are doing well.


Good luck!


We are ever proud of all the wonderful things you do! Keep it up! Good luck with the walk and with fighting MS.

Seeing all this support in one place… I'm a bit choked up to know that what we do does make a difference.

Ken, a Worcester resident, joined the MS Challenge Walk in 2005, more than a decade after his mother was diagnosed. After walking for three years and 150 miles, he switched to the support crew and now rides his bicycle along the trail, providing whatever encouragement (and snacks!) he can to the 600 walkers. He is also on the event's steering committee and is this site's webmaster.

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Writing your solicitation letter

Written by on June 4, 2010 at 10:56 am

On May 12th, I mailed 106 solicitation letters with self-addressed stamped envelopes. Other than follow-up emails, this is my one and only method of fundraising. As with the last five MS Challenge Walks in which I've participated, it's proven effective: thanks to 41 generous donors, I'm currently more than halfway to my $5,000 goal.

Writing a solicitation letter is hard — especially if this isn't your first Challenge Walk, as you don't want to simply reuse the same letter last year. The more effort you put into crafting your plea, the more inclined your potential donors will be to read it and respond. This part gets harder for me each year as I try to find an approach I've never used before. Fortunately, I've found many successful themes.

I've tried being thankful: "I am grateful to be able to walk across Cape Cod for those who cannot."

I've been sarcastic: "Walking 50 miles is not something one does for fun. But the money raised in this walk goes to fund research for MS, and the sooner we find a cure, millions of people all over the world will suffer less from the effects of this disease … and then we will be able to stop walking!"

I've described some of the people who have inspired me on the trail: "I'm walking for Jeannie, who trained for last year's Challenge Walk so vigorously that she was able to stand up out of her wheelchair and walk the first two miles by herself. I'm walking for Marianne, who stands for endless hours along the walk route, hugging every walker who is fighting to find her a cure."

And this year, I've related one story from the trail in detail, as you can read on my Participant Center page.

Writing

Follow these guidelines to help you put pen to paper.

Whatever your tone, there are several essential facts to include in a good fundraising letter:

  • A brief description of multiple sclerosis. Not everyone knows what this disease is, who it affects, or how it manifests itself.
  • Your connection to MS. If you have a personal motivation, your donors will understand they're supporting not just a cause, but you.
  • A description of the MS Challenge Walk: where, how long, and your fundraising goal.
  • Instructions on how to donate, both by check and by credit card. The easier you make it for your donors to take action, the more likely it is they will.

Not everyone is a wordsmith, but not everyone needs to be. You can find two sample fundraising letters online in Microsoft Word format. To those, I would like to offer my own template:
Click to continue »

Ken, a Worcester resident, joined the MS Challenge Walk in 2005, more than a decade after his mother was diagnosed. After walking for three years and 150 miles, he switched to the support crew and now rides his bicycle along the trail, providing whatever encouragement (and snacks!) he can to the 600 walkers. He is also on the event's steering committee and is this site's webmaster.

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Gratitude is best expressed

Written by on September 21, 2009 at 2:34 pm

The MS Challenge Walk is a week behind us, and the donations continue to trickle in. At some point, you'll have received your last donation — but even after it's submitted, your work isn't done! You may've earned the accolades by walking 50 miles to cross that finish line, but what about all your friends and family who supported you with their donations? Don't they deserve some thanks, too?

Sending your supporters a thank-you email or letter is a great way to end the fundraising year. They'll appreciate hearing a post-event summary of your experiences and also knowing how much you appreciated their help. Best of all, you'll be maintaining communication with future potential donors, keeping the MS Challenge Walk in their minds more than once a year. Should you need their support again in the future, they'll remember that their check is going to someone who appreciates it.

To make this process easier, your Participant Center has a button for "Follow-Ups". From here, you can choose all those who "have donated on your behalf for this event" then "Send Email to Selected". If you're not feeling particularly eloquent, there is a "Thank You for Sponsoring Me" template you can use to thank your donors — or you can choose to "Create Your Own Message". If you need ideas of what to write, you might want to mention some of the ways the National MS Society is using their funds, or relate stories of the people you met along the walk. Including a list of all the supporters is nice, too, as it gives them street cred among their fellow philanthropists. (I do this but do not segregate donors by donation sizes; everyone is equal in my eyes, whether they donated $5 or $500.)

I sent postal thank-you letters to my 78 donors last Friday. Already I received an email confirmation: "Thanks for the nice thank you letter. Anyone who reads it will know how impassioned you are." Let your supporters see your passion, too, and send them a thank-you note. You'd appreciate receiving one, and so will they.

Ken, a Worcester resident, joined the MS Challenge Walk in 2005, more than a decade after his mother was diagnosed. After walking for three years and 150 miles, he switched to the support crew and now rides his bicycle along the trail, providing whatever encouragement (and snacks!) he can to the 600 walkers. He is also on the event's steering committee and is this site's webmaster.

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