— Running Without Music

A few weeks ago, our team had our annual OC to San Diego ride and I had an initial fundraising goal of $80 for that week, for the 80 miles biked. Donations came in throughout the day by my friends and family and eventually surpassed 80, so I thought, “What if the total donation amount can top the total number of miles trained that week?” Result? $106 fundraised but 103 miles trained. You won in that round.

The following week, I didn’t announce that same “challenge” to anyone, plus it was a crazy workweek then I had to go out of town. Result? $35 fundraised, but only 16 miles trained (oops! hey, I was busy!). You won again.

What now? Well, another week is upon us. Swam on Tuesday, busy these past few days, but a big weekend is coming up. With some warmup and tune up miles prior, Wildflower Long Course Triathlon is 1.2 miles, 56 bike, then 13.1 run. I’m estimating another 80 mile week.

So I challenge YOU… readers of my blog, friends, family, Twitter followers, everyone. Every week, now until my race at the end of August. Can your donations top the number of miles trained? Every week I’ll update with graphs and estimated mileage goals.

0-2 is my record, and if by the end of August, the number of Donation weeks won is more than Mileage weeks, then I’ll __________________. That hasn’t been determined yet, but suggestions only from donors accepted, then I’ll have the donors vote too. I just had to get this idea out before the big race this weekend.

So what are you waiting for? Please visit my fundraising page and donate now, or click Donate in the upper right column of this page. Thank you! All donations support LLS, so it’s a win-win!

Themed parties are always fun. Here’s an idea for an interesting one for the holidays. Do the usual donation at the door, discounted if you dress up. You can host it at your own house or apartment, or at a bar or club, depending on your budget. What should you have inside the party? A DJ of course, playing some dance tunes of the 80s and 90s keeping the theme fun. Maybe you could get someone to sponsor or donate a photobooth, which seem to be a very successful goodie at weddings or small dances. Have a silent auction to help boost donations, or opportunity drawings of even more prizes. You could even have ANOTHER ugly sweater as a prize to make it interesting. At the end of the night, announce an Ugly Sweater winner for the night, with some grand prize. Be sure to market that prize when you start promoting your event, too. If you end up throwing one of these, let me know how it goes!

A few days ago, I posted about auctioning yourself off. Last night, after a few hours of researching for my Web Captain position, I came across a participant from TNT’s blog. Her name is Kim and is training for the Disney World Half Marathon in Orlando, Florida.

Kim is selling pieces of herself. Yes, it sounds a little weird, but she explains herself. If you donate $100, she will write your name on that body part. Think of it as a sponsorship. What body parts?

Right Arm
Left Arm
Right leg
Left leg
Right Breast
Left Breast (sold not exclusive)
Right check
Left check
Belly
Back

I think this is a very interesting idea, and I think it might work especially with some close friends and relatives. Would you like to donate? You can help her out here.

I begin to wonder what IS the tipping point in which people will decide to donate or not. $1 (Erin’s The Dollar Project) is a good number because people pretty much give dollars away at parking meters, drop loose change in their cars and couches, and more. $2.62 (Jamie) took that idea to another level, and put a marathon theme to it (a marathon is 26.2 miles. get it?). My friend Channing took it to another level and brought it up to $5. What is $5 nowadays? It won’t even get your 2 gallons of gas, nor a bottle of beer (except Happy Hour) at a bar. She keeps it to a very affordable amount, and if everyone she tells donates, she will get to her goal pretty quickly.

There’s many factors to many people’s donation decisions such as personal connection to the cause, personal connection to the participant, external factors such as their own financial situation, and sometimes just by the way someone campaigns their marketing. This is where the themed campaigns work best. I mean, you could be in competition with the runner next to you, and by personal experience, a majority of people will not have a thought out campaign other than having a story of why they run, and who it’s for. Sometimes it IS that extra bit of creativity that will get someone to donate to you.

Visit my friend Channing’s Fundraising Page. She’s training for the Honolulu Marathon coming in a few weeks, so any help is much appreciated!

I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to fundraise for the Team. Jamie, a mentee of one of my friends still in Team in Training has an interesting twist in her marketing. She’s asking each person to donate $2.62, which is a mere $0.10 a mile. Remember back in elementary school when you would ask your parents and family to sponsor a lap? It’s pretty much the same concept. It’s like the Sponsor A Mile campaign from my friend Michelle, mixed with the affordability of the Dollar Project by Erin.

Go ahead and donate $2.62.