Thank you for taking the challenge and participating in Wheel to Survive.

Let’s face it – asking your friends, family and coworkers to open their hearts (and wallets) to ovarian cancer research can be intimidating. In this section, you will find fundraising tips and resources to help make the ask easier. People want to support your efforts!

General fundraising tips:

• Create your personalized fundraising page with your personal story as to why you ride – people want to know your story. Why is this cause important to you?
• Use your Facebook page as a fundraising tool. Alert your friends list to your participation in the event. Be sure to thank your donors on your  Facebook page so others will want to join in. Post when you reach certain goals. Like us on Facebook, and ask your friends to do the same!
• Send personalized letters/emails. Include a challenge in your letter to come ride with you,  and/or a challenge to match their donations.
• Ask donors if their employers have matching gift programs.
• Follow up with e-mail, written notes and telephone calls.
• Partner with local restaurants or your favorite retail stores to donate a percentage of their sales for a day or evening to your team. Let us know about it, and we will post on our Facebook and put in our newsletter too!
• Remind your friends and family that donations to Be The Difference Foundation’s Wheel to Survive make great holiday, anniversary and birthday gifts!

Social media fundraising tips:

#1 Share the News!

A great approach in using Facebook is to issue regular fundraising progress updates through your social media accounts. When you pair this approach with internal fundraising goals, you can really start to improve your social fundraising results.

Set a goal for the day or the week. For example, “I want to raise $100 by the end of the day. Will you help me get there?” Include the link to your fundraising page. By creating these sub goals, you can add a sense of urgency to your updates. A series of fundraising progress updates might look like this:

(They don’t have to be tweets, they can be facebook posts!)

This is why it works:

When people tune into your regular progress updates, on some level they begin to follow your “fundraising story.” They become more interested in your success or failure. Instead of repeatedly asking them for money, you are documenting your progress for those involved in your life to see. Framing things this way helps people feel connected to your efforts and can lead people who wouldn’t otherwise contribute to get involved.

#2 Tag and Thank

The “Tag and Thank” method is one of the most effective social fundraising approaches we’ve seen. The fundraiser starts out using direct e-mail appeals to get some donations coming in; then, as the donations begin to roll in, the fundraiser tags and thanks each new donor through their social media accounts.  You can use a general reference to donors if you do not want to tag someone specifically.

It looks something like this:

Why it works:

The Tag and Thank approach is great because it lets you reap the benefits of another common psychological phenomenon – social influence.

Whether we like it or not, we all have a deep drive to conform to the reactions of our peers. When you use the Tag and Thank approach, you are starting out by letting everyone know that people are already donating to your page! By presenting things in this positive way, you are able to use social influence to your advantage.

As your friends see you recognizing more and more donors (people that they likely also know) they will be pushed more and more to get involved.  If I see my best friend, or that girl I admire, making a donation to your fundraising page, I’m going to be more likely to make my own contribution.

#3 The Gift Grab Bag

Most people like gifts, no big surprise there. Incorporating gifts into your social fundraising approach, can really help you build a broader base of support. These gifts do not have to cost money. Offer dinner at your house, or dog-sitting! This works especially well when the gifts are personal to the fundraiser. Gifts that require the fundraiser’s particular skills or services tend to inspire more donations because they demonstrate the participant’s commitment to the cause. An example of the Gift Grab Bag approach might look something like this:

Combining the Tag and Thank approach with the Update approach and the Gift Grab Bag approach can really supercharge your social fundraising. While each technique works well in isolation, they work even better in combination. Whether you’re an individual fundraiser or a nonprofit, give them a try in your next social fundraising campaign. We think you’ll be happy with the results!