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Running for a Cause: How to Raise Funds

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In nearly 20 years of running, one thing I’ve not done is running for a cause. Meaning raising big money to be part of a charity group. I prefer races that benefit a cause, but we’re talking taking that to the NEXT level.

Which is why I’m so thrilled to have Emily Rudow here, sharing her incredible journey to fundraising and tips that might help you!

Checkout more about her incredible story running 74 consecutive half marathons (21.1km/13.1 miles) while raising over $10,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society. (Be prepared to get sucked in, she has a lot of great content!)

Running for a cause

A Guide on Running for a Cause

Over the past few years, I’ve set numerous running challenges for myself on multiple platforms – with the ultimate goal of raising awareness and money for different organizations.

In 2015, my cousin was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

She had plans to travel across Europe, which unfortunately had to be canceled due to her treatment and because she was forced to take unpaid leave from work (as she was a supply teacher at the time). My cousin is an awesome human being; so generous and giving.

It broke my heart that she had to go endure all these treatments and miss out on a trip of a lifetime. I decided to set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for her to go on her trip after her treatments.

I chose to run the Toronto Marathon in her honor and ended up raising over $6,000 for her trip.why run for charity

Time to Take it to the Next Level

In 2017, I set a challenge to break a world record by running 70 consecutive half marathons (coined the ‘#RUN70 Half Marathon Challenge’). The prior record holder, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, had a strong showing at 61 consecutive half marathons. To make the challenge more meaningful and deeply personal to me, I set a goal of raising $10,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society.

When I was starting to figure out the campaigns for the first time, I made a lot of mistakes. I know it can be frustrating and these tips are designed to help you run for a charity with less stress!!

If you’re looking to set up a fundraiser for the first time or are trying to make an even bigger impact with a current campaign, then you’ve come to the right place.

Why do so many people run for charity?

The most common reasons:

  • To make a positive impact on the world.
  • To bring motivation to our training and even more drive to complete our goals.
  • To honor someone we care about.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be for a registered charity, however. Raising money for my cousin provided just as much motivation (even more perhaps) as the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS).

So when you start to think about how do you raise money by running a marathon, start reflecting on the bigger picture and you’ll find yourself far more motivated to do the work.how to run for charity

How Can I Raise Money to Run?

It’s important to choose a charity or a cause that’s meaningful to you.

If you’re able to share a personal story about how this has affected you or why it’s important, it will make your fundraising efforts much more impactful.

When you’re crafting your campaign, you want your story to be authentic and true to your experiences; a personal why. It’s important to share your stories since others may have gone through, or are currently going through, something similar. It provides a sense of collective encouragement and motivation – that you’re all in this together.

#1 Choose Your Fundraising Platform

First, you need to figure out what platform makes the most sense with your fundraising goals.

At the beginning of the #RUN70 Challenge, I set my campaign up on GoFundMe for the first few weeks. Some donations were provided, but I quickly realized that this platform wasn’t super conducive for donators, since I couldn’t issue charitable receipts.

After reaching out to the Canadian Cancer Society’s donor team, they warned me that GoFundMe takes fees on donations, meaning that the money wouldn’t all go directly to their organization. This is definitely a key detail I should have looked into from the outset of the campaign, so naturally I smacked myself over the head for being so oblivious.

I was disheartened to hear this but decided to put a pause on the GoFundMe page and import all the donations directly into the CCS platform (convio), which turned out to be rather seamless.

  • GoFundMe and similar crowdfunding platforms are better for raising money for individuals, family members, or friends rather than an established organization.
  • Most charitable organizations have their own way of collecting donations and can even help you set up your own fundraiser through their website.

Whatever platform feels like the right fit, it’s important to make sure you connect and collaborate with an organization on what’s the best way of collecting donations; and do your research to ensure that the platform will facilitate a seamless experience for the donor (issuing charitable receipts), and is the best platform for the organization.

Think you want to raise money with your running? Use these tips as a guide from someone who has done it repeatedly! #runchat Click To Tweet

#2 Swallow Your Discomfort

Let’s face it, sometimes asking for donations can be a bit awkward. You don’t want to pressure anyone into donating and you don’t want anyone to feel discouraged because of the amount they’re able to donate.

It’s important to reassure everyone that every little bit counts – every donation, whether it’s $100 or $1, signifies support for the organization and can cumulatively make a big impact.

run for charity

#3 Create a Plan of Action

The dollars won’t roll in just because you make one announcement. You’re going to need to map out a plan and continue to promote your efforts.

Remember to keep using STORIES in all of your efforts to create that connection.

  • Week 1: Email friends
  • Weed 2: Facebook post to friends and family
  • Week 3: Social media post to everyone
  • Week 4: Following up with emails
  • Week 5: Status update on all your channels
  • Week 6: Maybe a giveaway for anyone who donates that week
  • Week 7: Status of your training update and why it means so much to you

Tips for Promoting Your Fundraiser

So you’ve laid out your challenge, connected with your cause or charity, and you have your fundraising page all set up and ready to go. Now what?

I’m going to put my marketing hat on for a second because just like promoting a product or service, there is a bit of skill, effort, and persistence on your part to hit your fundraising goal.

1. Close Contacts First

I always start by reaching out to immediate family and close friends to support the cause before announcing it publicly. I get anxious when I share my fundraisers for some reason. I’m like UGH what if no one donates or I’m really far off from my goal. You need to deal with those fears and just pull the trigger anyway.

For my cousin, I reached out to my whole family through email and Facebook.

When raising money for the #RUN70 Half Marathon Challenge, I followed a similar approach by asking for donations from my close family and friends by email.raise money for charity

2. Social Media Next

I then shared the campaign publicly. Here was my first announcement post:

In the fall I partnered with the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and ran a campaign on my social media to help them promote the Scotiabank Charity Challenge. Here’s an example of the first post I did on Instagram:

3. Maintain Top of Mind Awareness

Those are just a few examples of some ways to announce the challenge.

Once you announce the campaign, it’s also important to keep people posted on the progress of the campaign. You’re connecting with people and celebrating a charity collaboratively. Sure, the challenge is set up and completed by you – but donations function as a way of encouragement and support.

Running for a cause

What Happens if You Haven’t Hit Your Goal on Race Day?

If it’s any reassurance, I’ve never hit my goal on the designated last day of the campaign. Just because you’ve finished your running challenge, doesn’t mean that you will quit your fundraising efforts.

Let your audience know that there’s still time to donate and you’ll leave the campaign open another week or so you can reach the goal together!

I did this exact same thing with the #RUN70 challenge.

Although I was at around $9,900, I posted that I was going to continue after day 70 because we still had a goal to hit. After day 71, we surpassed the goal by $600. Granted, my cousin donated an additional $200 to tell me to STOP what I was doing to my body (lol), but I digress.

Don’t Let Fear Stop You

Setting up your first fundraising campaign can be overwhelming at first, but hopefully, these tips can help you get started. Setting a difficult goal for yourself can be that much more rewarding while raising money for a cause that’s deeply important to you.

Running for a cause can also bring more meaning into your training and be a driving factor to get you through those really tough training days.

If you have any questions regarding your campaign, feel free to email me at [email protected] and I’ll try to help you out as much as I can.

Emily Rudow is an avid long distance runner from Toronto, Ontario. She started her fitness journey back in 2008 and since then has run several marathons (including two world majors: the TSC NYC Marathon and the Boston Marathon), a 50-mile trail, race and a 100-mile race in 2019. In 2017, she broke a world record by running 74 consecutive half marathons (21.1km/13.1 miles) while raising over $10,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society. After finishing her 74th run, well, she just kept running. She’s now surpassed her 1,060th day of consecutive running and has no plans of stopping anytime soon.

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Posted by amanda Categories: running coach

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Busymomlab says

    June 10, 2020 at 3:39 am

    Wow .. This is a very informative .. We are raising funds for visit a hospital to help people who are unable to for hospital bills . thanks so much for sharing this

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Amanda Brooks : Run Coach
A NEW PLAN DOESN’T FIX EVERYTHING. You might alr A NEW PLAN DOESN’T FIX EVERYTHING. You might already know what’s best for you, but aren’t doing it consistently. That’s the only way we really make changes.
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A PLAN can help, but I often don’t think that’s step one to making lasting change.
//
HABITS AND ROUTINES✴️
-Eliminate the need to make decisions.
-Which reduces brain fatigue.
-Which increases your chance of success.
//
TINY HABITS✴️
This is the smallest step you can take towards your goal. Often so small it seems insignificant, but is easy to make it a habit.
🌟
That leads you to another tiny habit, then another and suddenly it’s just your lifestyle.
👆👆👆
When people ask how I easily kept off 35lbs for over 15 years, while enjoying pizza, taking rest days and not obsessing about food.
👇👇👇👇
When people ask how I stay motivated to run year round and rarely race. Tiny habits.
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Day one isn’t eat perfect or run for an hour.
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Day one IS drink a glass of water when I wake up. Put on my running clothes.
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Day 30 is then more like after I drink my glass of water, I do 5 push ups. After I put on my running clothes, I do a 5 minute warm up.
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SLOW PROGRESS IS BETTER THAN NO PROGRESS, it builds momentum and is sustainable.
❔❔❔
Have you ever practiced creating tiny habits???
1️⃣ WORD TO DESCRIBE YOUR RUNNING THIS YEAR? M 1️⃣ WORD TO DESCRIBE YOUR RUNNING THIS YEAR?
Mine... satisfying.
😊
1900 miles blows away previous years.
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(swipe to see...because yes I love tracking.) Unfortunately I’m not positive what it was 2001-2007 because I wrote it on calendars.
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SATISFYING
🥰I needed the long miles early on to process my business being thrown for a loop. Bye bye book tour and partnerships.
😊I needed it after that to get away from the news and pretend I wasn’t spending all day alone. Then as my business shifted again to keep ideas flowing.
🌲I loved the time outside to think, get lost in a comedy podcast or audiobook. Otherwise I’m at home working!
🤩Without a single race, I still checked a big goal off my list of running an ultra distance (solo was very interesting!).
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I’ve seen some posts that make it seem like we’re wrong for talking about what we achieved this year.
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It was a HARD FCKIN year for everyone, but guess what lots of years are. And not every year is great even without a pandemic.
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For all the lows this year, I also worked my ass off to make some really good things happen. And I’m extra proud of that.
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So let’s hear your word for fitness in 2020??
⬇️
Hard, easy, strong, powerful, consistent, cleansing, relaxing, nature, grace, grit, grind, triumph, building...
HAIR EMOJI POLL!!! Seriously hair...it’s a lot r HAIR EMOJI POLL!!! Seriously hair...it’s a lot right?! Figuring out what to do with it, color it don’t color it, keep it healthy, breakage from ponytails, long, short. And yet a good hair day😃 🔥 🌟
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POLL:
🥰Love your hair
🤪Frustrated with your hair
1️⃣Natural curls
2️⃣Stick straight
👇👇👇
Curly friends: share your favorite tips!!
Long hair friends: what helps you keep it healthy?
👆👆👆
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At 7 I could sit in my hair it was so long.
At 10 we started perms.
At 16 I had a full mane of hair I loved.
At 20 I learned I have naturally curly hair 😂after years of perms as a kid.
At 25 I was going blonde blonde blonde.
At 29 I began losing hair and it got so brittle I had to chop it off, due to the hormone issues.😭
At 35 my hair started to recover (as did my body), but never like that mane I loved as a teen.
At 39 I got my first curly haircut! I’m still figuring it out, but was amazed at how it looked.
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I don’t wear much make up, but I do admit to really caring about my hair and it was a tough time when it felt so unhealthy.
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I’m still struggling to figure out this new curly style 😂but keep hearing from other curly girls ya just gotta stick it out. So we’ll see.
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#curlygirlmethod #hairtalk
ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO RUN? Why don’t you just ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO RUN? Why don’t you just enjoy a day off? Don’t you feel guilty about the time apart?
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Yes.
It makes me happy.
No, if I’m happy our time together is better.
👇👇👇
MY VIEW IS THIS...
❌If you aren’t working out because of food guilt
❌If you aren’t missing big moments because you must workout
✅If you enjoy it and it improves your day
✅THEN GO FORTH and don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for improving your mental and physical health.
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❓Do you have guilt or get guilted about workouts for n holidays?❓
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This has been my lifestyle so long that our families just know to expect that I’m gonna sweat. And of course, I’m lucky David wants this lifestyle too.
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BUTTTTT I remember those first trips to David’s family, where it really threw them for a loop. They still find it weird, but I sneak out before everyone gets up or have gotten them to do family things like the rec center.
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My best advice when asked has always been to try and calmly explain why it matters to you and then just go. They get over it or used to it.
🎁 🎄🕎
TAKE ANOTHER LITTLE PIZZA MY HEART 😂a reminder TAKE ANOTHER LITTLE PIZZA MY HEART 😂a reminder this holiday season that we all need to be loved differently...and pizza transcends all.
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🍕Do you have a favorite local pizza place?🍕🍕
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Yes, I knead to know for when we can travel again.
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Here we fell in love in love with @saucyspizza and I wouldn’t be sad if I got it as a gift 😆
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#pizzamemes #eatlocal #denvercolorado #ilovepizza #lovememes #pizzagram #digiorno #papajohns #foodisfuel #longrun #womenwhoeat #carbsarelife
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