EddyFlower Vertical Fundraiser Donation Tips from #20 overall

I had a few people ask me how I managed to raise the money for First Descents through the EddyFlower Vertical Challenge, so I thought I'd share how I did it. In the end I raised around $500, enough to put me in the entire challenge's top 20 list for individual donations and send 1/2 of a cancer survivor to camp (or is that one cancer survivor to 1/2 a camp?).

Let me start by saying that I have never participated in any kind of fundraiser before in my life.

First, I had to overcome my own abhorrence to asking for anything. Being independent and strong willed I even hate asking for help when my wetsuit zipper gets stuck. But I had to remind myself that this wasn't asking anything for me, but for a cause, and a great one at that. I went to the vertical challenge web site and read, and read, and reread their advice on raising funds. They even have a sample letter, and I based mine off of that. My trepidation towards this effort made me procrastinate until the very end of May to get the lead out; I wished I'd started earlier.

I had two approaches; one for people I could contact in person through work, and the other for those who were long distance. I developed a list for each of those campaigns. My letter contained information on First Descents and where their donations would go, and a little about the vertical challenge and logging the descents. I also included the link to donate online. Each letter, though produced on the computer, was addressed to each individual, printed and signed with a pen. For the mailed letters for the long distance crew, I enclosed a self-addressed stamped return envelope. I sent out ten of these.

For coworkers, I also used the letter approach, all personalized, and delivered them to their offices in person with a quick explanation of what I was doing. (It does help to work in a medium sized organization (around 4,000 employees) with above average incomes.) I chose people with whom I have a good rapport and I know like me on some level. I'm a strong believer in targeting your most likely audience, rather than blitzing and hoping for a 2-3% return (that's so old-school). I left them with the letter to read at their leisure, but some gave me cash on the spot. One used her husband's matching funds donation program to double the contribution. A couple of donations I did get by sending email but their offices are not walking distance, and I've known these people for years; one an avid kayaker. I didn't do much follow up unless someone had expressed a strong interest in donating and I didn't hear anything for a couple weeks. For some of the managers I used good natured ribbing and peer pressure.

I also posted multiple times on Facebook about what I was up to asking for donations.

Results:
Mailed letter campaign: 3 responses (out of ten)
In person letter campaign: 9 responses (out of 15)
Email to coworkers: 2 responses (out of 2)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
52% response.

Facebook: 0 responses (I have over 200 friends, 195 of them not involved with EddyFlower.)

Was it a lot of time and effort to do this? Yes. Did it cost me some money to do this? Yes, between the mailed letters, the thank you notes (hand written on stationery), plus the double postage for the SASE in the mailed letters, and sending in the money - I spent around $10 and maybe 5 hours.
Will I try doing it again next year? Absolutely.

I hope that many of you are encouraged by this and will try next year as well.