What is Making Strides Against Breast Cancer? The American Cancer Society s signature fundraising event to fight breast cancer The largest network of breast cancer awareness events in the nation, uniting nearly 300 communities to honor breast cancer survivors, raise awareness, and fund the fight to end the disease forever through a noncompetitive 3- to 5-mile event A way to raise money to help the Society continue to do the most for people facing breast cancer, providing free information and services when and where they need it A journey to end breast cancer that starts with a single step 1
We can t end breast cancer without you and it s easy to get started! 1. Sign up. Visit MakingStridesWalk.org to find your local event and start your team. During the registration process, you will have the opportunity to name your team and set a team fundraising goal. We recommend you set a team fundraising goal of $5,000 or more. 2. Recruit your teammates. Invite friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors to join your team. You can send emails directly from your My Strides dashboard using one of our recruitment templates or by creating your own email message. 2
3. Fundraise. Create your team online fundraising page and personalize it with photos and stories to inspire others to donate or join your team. Encourage team members to personalize their own online fundraising pages and set a fundraising goal of at least $100. 4. Walk for a world without breast cancer! Just a few hours of your time will help bring a lifetime of change for people facing breast cancer. When you walk with us, you support cancer research, information and services, and access to mammograms for women who need them. Every dollar you raise and every step you take will help us finish the fight against breast cancer. 3
Helpful hints for building your team and reaching your fundraising goal Building a successful team Recruit people for the team friends, family, coworkers, fellow churchgoers, classmates, neighbors, etc. Include someone who has been directly impacted by cancer, either as a survivor or a caregiver. Seek out people with different backgrounds and talents to widen the circle of donors, connections, and fundraising ideas. Develop a plan or vision for the team: What are your goals? How are you going to fundraise? How are you going to communicate with one another? Motivate your team by making fundraising goals challenging but realistic. If you are a returning team, try to top last year s fundraising total. Promote participation among the team, and place each team member in a specific role. Encourage everyone on the team to set an individual goal of at least $100. Have fun! Fundraising tips Ask! The number one reason people do not donate is simply because they were never asked. Use Making Strides online. In 2012, Making Strides participants raised more than $25 million online! Online donors give an average of $118, while offline donors give an average of only $58. Use social networking. Visit the Making Strides Facebook page at facebook.com/strides to download profile pictures and timeline covers. Post status updates to your personal fundraising page asking your friends and family for donations and include a link to your personal fundraising page. And, don t forget to use Facebook to publicly recognize and thank your team fundraisers and donors. If someone says they cannot join your team, ask for a donation instead. Think of what you already do, and incorporate fundraising. The tips below can get you started. At Work Dress Casual Day: Ask every employee to contribute to your team, and in return they will be allowed to dress casual on a specified day at work. Bake sales: Hold your bake sale on a Friday so employees will have treats for the weekend. Car window washing: Get your team together to wash car windows during lunch for a fee. Ask your senior leaders to join in as an added bonus! Flower sale: Ask a local flower shop to donate pink carnations and ask for a $1 donation per stem to employees. You can even have employees send flower-grams to each other. Parking space raffle: Collect donations to win prime parking. You can also offer this as a prize for the person who raises the most money during a specific week or overall. Chili cookoff: Hold a contest to see who can cook the best chili. Individuals donate for the right to taste and vote. Brown bag or company picnic: Ask everyone to bring lunch and donate the money they would have spent eating out to your Making Strides Against Breast Cancer team. Ice cream social: Decorate a location as an oldfashioned ice cream parlor. Get senior leadership to scoop and collect donations! 4
At Home Yard/garage sales: Ask team members and friends to donate items for a yard or garage sale. Girls night in: Move your girls night out to one of your homes. Have everyone bring their favorite dish or beverage. Donate the money you would have spent on a night on the town to your team instead. Dinner parties: Have your team hold a theme dinner. Ask each team member to prepare part of the meal. Arrange entertainment and ask for an admission donation. Car wash: Find a local business to donate their parking lot and hold a car wash. Walls of Hope: Ask your local staff partner for Pink Ribbon donation cards and have local business owners create a Wall of Hope by collecting donations from their patrons in exchange for having their card hung up in honor or in memory of someone affected by breast cancer. Sports tournaments: Organize a softball, volleyball, flag football, or other tournament. Ask for an entry fee for teams and a ticket price for attendees. Zumba-thon: Hold a Zumba night at a local gym and ask for a donation to participate. Haircut-a-thon: Ask a local salon to open on a day they are normally closed, and invite clients to donate what they would usually spend on haircuts, pedicures, manicures, and other services. Bowl-a-thon: Participants get friends and family to pledge to sponsor them per pin and collect their donations after they tally their score. For additional materials and more fundraising ideas, contact your local office or visit MakingStridesWalk.org. Consider all of the different ways you can reach out to your circle of influence to request donations and recruit team members: 5
Your dollars in action! Thanks to our focus on saving lives, nearly 14 million cancer survivors (including more than 2.9 million breast cancer survivors) and countless others who have avoided the disease will celebrate another birthday this year. $20 Magazine Subscription Helps provide free information and support for someone facing cancer $50 Dinner for Two Helps provide seven rides to or from treatment $100 Basic Auto Detailing Package Helps guide two women facing cancer through every step of their journey $300 Smartphone Helps enroll four participants in Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3) $500 Gym Membership for a Year $1,000 Daily Latte for a Year Helps offer a cancer patient and their caregiver one week of free lodging Helps identify a cancer-causing gene in DNA, which could stop cancer in patients or prevent the cancer from occurring 6
Thank you for being a Team Leader! With your motivation and encouragement, we know that you and your team will help create a world with less breast cancer and more birthdays! Thanks to you, we can finish the fight against breast cancer. Coordinating a team and participating in the walk is going to be an amazing experience, and we have plenty of fun and helpful tools to get you started. The number one reason people don t get involved or donate is that they were never asked, so be sure to let others know what you are doing and how they can help. The most successful teams combine different types of fundraising efforts to meet their goals with both individual fundraising efforts (through emails, letters, and personal contacts), as well as with team fundraising activities and events. Thank you in advance for making strides to end breast cancer! Team Leader To Do List: Read your Team Leader Kit. Brainstorm a great team name: Register your team online. Lead by example and kick-start your team s fundraising efforts with a personal donation. Set a challenging personal fundraising goal: $ Recruit team members and make sure they all sign up online as part of your team. Work with your team to set a challenging team fundraising goal: $ Invite cancer survivors and caregivers to participate. Encourage your team to email, call, or write everyone they know to ask for a donation. Add the Making Strides Facebook app and start spreading the word about this year s walk. Plan fundraising events with your team. Proudly talk about the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer program and encourage others to get involved and donate. Walk to make strides and save lives! 7
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