Photo by daveynin

Often the events surrounding a run/walk are just as much fun as the race itself. Whether it is a health fair, prize ceremony or after-party, these can keep your participants hanging around before and after the main event. This provides the perfect opportunity to raise even more funds for your charity. Silent auctions and raffles are a great way to do this.

You can make these events relate to your run/walk by keeping the items fitness-focused, personal and local. Just like the auctions and raffles you might see at a summer fair, what makes items unique is a personal touch. For example, at the auctions I’ve been to I’ve often seen a lot of beautiful quilts or crafts, things that are more talent-focused. When it comes to functional fitness and health-related products creating that same uniqueness can be a little more challenging.

 It is possible though.  Here are some ideas.

• Personal training sessions with a local certified trainer
• A pair of running or walking shoes with a proper fitting provided by a qualified professional
• A week of healthy meals prepared by a local private chef
• Consultation sessions with a sports nutritionist
• A 60 minute massage or spa treatment
• Month membership to take specialty fitness classes such as yoga, cultural dance or tai chi
• Short term membership to a local CSA (community supported agriculture) which allows the winner to get a box of fresh produce each month from a nearby farm
• Healthy, local, sustainable agricultural products such as cheeses and grass-fed beef

These things utilize the talents of those in your community. They provide a unique personal touch that goes beyond a piece of fitness gear from a name brand company. They promote health and wellbeing while featuring products and services located in your area.

These types of items will draw the attention of your participants and increase the chances of high bids or a higher number of raffle ticket sales. You’ll develop relationships with local businesses during the process of seeking items. In the end this will mean more money generated to benefit your charity and likely some very happy winners.

Photo by magerleagues

Recognition. For the most part, whether we admit it or not, we all seek it. Perhaps not in a loud and attention-getting way, but even the simplest thank you or good job is desired when we accomplish something significant.

When planning a race the prize ceremony is all about this recognition. Just how much attention you can draw to a person who places in their age category and the actual value of their prize is greatly dependent upon your sponsorship resources and budget.

For most of the races I’ve been involved in planning, many members of the committee felt that certificates of completion were necessary in those places and categories for which we did not have a tangible prize.

A certificate is simply a piece of paper (often cardstock) which has a place for the participants name, the gender, age category, placement and name of the event/logo. Then it is signed, often stamped by a high ranking individual in the organization. Because you don’t know who will place where, all of the certificate can be completed prior to the event except the name. This would be written in after the race.

Certificates are typically something used in smaller scale races to ensure recognition is given to those who deserve it. Some races provide medals, some provide certificates which are, let’s face it, very inexpensive.

So my question is, as a race planner or participant, how do you feel about certificates of completion? Are they valued by you or your participants, or is it just the same as not giving those persons anything (when you don’t have an adequate budget) and just verbally recognize them?

Note, I’m speaking of those 2^nd and/or 3^rd place winners in your age groups. I’d argue that some type of actual prize is appropriate for your 1^st place finishers whether taken out of your budget or donated.

Personally, I value a certificate about as much as a medal or trophy. Honestly, not that much. I’m just not the type of person who wants stuff to sit around especially for a smaller scale race such as a 5K. I guess a bigger event such as a half marathon would be different. However, someone may feel the same towards a 5K as I do a half marathon. Everyone’s abilities and goals are different. That being said, some individuals who might be first time participants may highly value a piece of paper stating they participated and finished.

What type of person are you? Should race planners be advised to include certificates or save the minor resources it takes to print them?

Photo by Stephen Korecky

A marathon, or even a half marathon, is a race distance that many people may have no desire to accomplish. It takes a special kind of person to take an interest in and complete these types of advanced running events. However, the action, and even the dream or idea of, completing one always brings about a sense of accomplishment. Believe it or not, there is a way to instill this sense of accomplishment in your participants without requiring that they run a marathon distance all at once.

I’m talking about a year long marathon. With this type of event you split up those 26.2 miles throughout the year encouraging participants to take part in each of the hosted events and raise funds for your organization in the process. In addition, your events will appeal to those people who are not likely to run a full marathon or half marathon at one time.

Now, before you think I want to you to plan over 5 – 5Ks in one year, let me explain. There are at least two ways that you can design such an event. The first is to focus on run/walks. This doesn’t mean you have to plan each one. You could simply plan the first one to kick off the year.

Next you identify five or six others in your area throughout the year especially targeting those who are not yet specifically organized to support a charity. You can approach the coordinators about partnering with them to raise funds for your organization. There are still plenty of run/walk events out there that do not support a charity, but may be willing to do so.

Once you have your events identified you’ll want to promote them to your participants at your first kick-off event. Let them know that they will earn miles for each event they participate in with the ultimate goal of completing a full marathon (adding the mileage for each event) by the end of the year.

From that point you can decide how to honor those who do. You might want to distribute donated prizes, honor your highest fund raisers or hold a celebration at the end of the year.

The second way you can accomplish a year long marathon is to include different kinds of athletic events throughout the year. This approach may be easier if your organization prefers to host each event themselves.

Some examples of events you might choose to host include a 5K run/walk, a bike ride, a triathlon, a community sports tournament such as volleyball or basketball and a group exercise class. If these events don’t translate to specific miles then you can assign miles to the events yourself. For example, a high intensity group exercise class lasting two hours might translate to 9 to 12 miles considering that most runners would complete 3 miles in about 30 minutes.

All of these events would be under the umbrella of your year long marathon. You can host each of these events in honor of your charity and use registration funds and additional fund raising campaigns for support. At the end of the year you can honor those who completed the marathon via all these events, and those who raised the most money with a celebration and donated prizes.

Have you planned or participated in this type of year long event? If so, let us know about it in the comments.

This topic came to mind last week when I read an announcement for a Zumba Fitness Night for Charity hosted by the Miami HEAT. A $50 ticket includes a Zumba class, a Latin fusion dance exercise class, a basketball game and a donation to the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women program.

Now this is a big event, no doubt, and it was planned by some pretty large and well known organizations. However, just because you don’t have access to something quite this big doesn’t mean you couldn’t plan a similar event in your area. There are likely several organizations or companies that are more visible than you, or visible to a different audience, that can help you extend your reach.

Here are three ways you can make your event bigger and increase exposure the next time around.

Do you have high school or college sports in your area? Seek out a partnership with a school system. Consider mimicking the same type event as described above. Hold an exercise class or a run/walk before a game and donate the proceeds to charity.

Would a large medical network be willing to participate in and support an event? Perhaps it is a hospital or a medical school. Approach them about supporting your charity fitness event. If they become involved and advertise you can reach a large audience from all over your state as well as your local community.

Is there a well known local event that you could piggyback off of? Maybe it is a holiday parade or concert, or a local food and wine festival. Approach the coordinators and find out if you can arrange a way for your event to make it on the agenda. A charity fitness event can fit nicely with these types of community parties.

Photo by Lincolnian (Brian)

Many charity athletic events are for the serious runner or walker. Not to mention the fact that raising much needed funds for a charity is serious business as well. The problem is, focusing on the serious can cause the race coordinator (i.e., you) and the planning team more stress, and make you forget how fun planning a race can actually be.

Yes, some races out there should be reserved for serious athletes and raising large sums of money. However, if you are planning a community 5K run/walk, or a 1-mile fun run/walk, it’s okay to have a little fun. This is especially true this time of year. The holidays bring an opportunity to get creative and spice up the type of race you are planning.

I was reminded of this when I came across an article from Huddersfield, UK covering a local charity fundraising event. The Santa Run had over 300 participants and raised thousands of pounds (the monetary kind, for the US readers out there) for a local trust and hospice organization. And if you check out the link you’ll see this event was all about fun. Each participant was dressed as a Santa!

It’s this type of event that shows creating a relaxed atmosphere and reducing the focus on times, mileage and winning does have a place in race planning. You’re still going to raise funds with this type of event, so if it is more your style, go for it!

Here are a few ideas:

• Have participants sign up as teams of five to eight. One person should dress up as Santa, the rest as reindeer.
• Take it a step further and have all team members hold onto a long rope throughout the entire race, thus everyone must run or walk together. There is an event like this each December where I live.
• Switch it up and instead of Santas, encourage participants to dress up like snowmen.
• Have a winter hat contest among your participants; the wildest, prettiest or most colorful wins.
• Similar to Halloween hold a costume contest. Select the categories beforehand. Ornaments, Christmas trees, cookies/baked goods and stockings are examples of categories that can lead to some creative exercise outfits!

The Thanksgiving holiday will be here in just a few days and with that comes a common theme – thankfulness. We should of course be grateful every day, but his time of year provides an especially good opportunity to show gratitude to those around us.

If you work with charity fundraising, specifically with race planning, there are likely many people in your professional life that you are incredibly thankful for. It might be those who donate the most funds, those who help promote your race or plan and implement it, or the companies who donate the money and items which allow you to hold such an event in the first place.

An unexpected note of thanks or a gesture showing your appreciation can be a pleasant surprise for those on the receiving end. Take some time around this special holiday to show your gratitude. Not only will this allow you to express your gratefulness, but it can also serve as a reminder for an upcoming event and you can invite them to participate again in the process.

Here are a few ideas:

Send letters to the businesses that sponsored your last event and remind them how valuable their contribution was to the success of the event.

Send a note to the captain of your top fundraising teams. Of course, it would be ideal to send it to all teams, but if you are pressed or time, let your top fundraisers know the difference their efforts made.

Verbally express your thanks to those you regularly work with in person. Catch them at your next meeting or stop them when you pass in the hall let them know you appreciated their help in planning the event.

Bring in an unexpected snack or meal for your team. It doesn’t have to be big or ruin anyone’s efforts to eat healthy. Grab a box of bagels on your way in to work or make a pot of chili to share at lunch.

Donate to an effort related to your charity in the name of those you appreciate. Sometimes this can be a more beneficial gesture than investing a lot of money in a party or in food as a thank you. Buy tickets for them for an upcoming raffle or to attend a fundraising event.

Call or send a note to those volunteers that kept you on your toes during the planning of the event and race day. Maybe it was someone who took on a task no one else wanted to, caught a detail you had previously missed, or came up with a great idea that stood out. Let them know how much they helped you out.

 Photo by bowena

Over the past few years, I’ve come across multiple individuals with the desire to plan a run/walk event in their communities. They all have a one question in common when taking on such a task. Where in the world do I start? I know that feeling well because I experienced it the first time I planned a race as a college student several years ago.

Maybe you’ve noticed the new ebook icon on the sidebar of the blog featuring The Ultimate Guide to Planning a 5K Run or Walk Fundraiser. If you haven’t, we invite you to take a look at this guide and all it has to offer for helping you plan your own charity athletic event.

When Carrie and I were approached to turn our experience and knowledge into a written guide for other race planners, I was thrilled with the idea! When you have the chance to help countless others with the knowledge for success you’ve gained through trial and error it is a rewarding opportunity.

Here at Charity Mile we blog a lot about the details of planning a race and successfully raising funds. Bits and pieces of guidance here and there can be of great help, but there is nothing quite like having a step- by -step guide in hand; a guide that shows you just how you should dive in and how to stay afloat with your planning once you do.  

The book is designed to help you plan a successful race while keeping fundraising and those you help through your charities and organizations as the main priority. The primary goal of this guide is to help you master the strategies of the event planning pros to host an exciting and profitable 5K run or walk event.

Topics covered include:

•  Proven marketing strategies
• Finding and supporting volunteers
• Decreasing expenses and maximizing revenue
• Garnering funds and donations
• Recruiting and motivating teams
• Race logistics for any budget

If you are ready for some help with planning your upcoming event the ebook is now available for purchase. Still trying to decide if it will give you the guidance you need? Download the first chapter for free and take a look for yourself. We are confident it is just what you are looking for!

Resource fairs put sponsors in direct contact with potential customers. As part of our sponsorship structure, we offered a table at the resource fair to any business that donated at the $500 level or higher. This gave sponsors the chance to display information about their products and services and meet potential customers face-to-face (I should note that sponsors did not actually sell products or services during the event). This benefit was often more enticing to sponsors than having their logo on our promotional materials because of the direct contact with a targeted population.

Resource fairs give participants something to do after they register. Have you ever arrived early at a charity event, only to zip through registration and then have nothing to do for the next 30-60 minutes until the event begins? We found that the resource fair was most crowded during the registration period because people liked to browse the tables while waiting for the walk to start.

Resource fairs draw people to your event who might not have otherwise attended. If you advertise the resource fair alongside the charity event, you could attract people who come specifically for the resource fair but end up participating in the event and/or donating to your cause. At Memory Walk, most of the sponsors were long-term care facilities, home health care agencies, hospice agencies, and other organizations that provided services to older families. Some of the sponsors offered free blood pressure checks or similar services, and all of them provided valuable materials about health and healthcare issues. This was a huge draw for retirees, many of whom ended up joining us for the walk even though that wasn’t their original reason for coming.

Resource fairs educate the community about your cause. Don’t forget to set up your own table with materials that raise awareness about your cause and offer additional ways to get involved in the organization year-round. I recruited many new volunteers this way, which helped make the following year all the more successful.

I highly recommend adding a resource fair to your event if you don’t already offer one. I’d also love to hear your ideas about organizing resource fairs, including what’s worked well for you. Post a comment to this blog, or start a new discussion in the forum.

We talk a lot about event planning for timed 5Ks and 10Ks and we’ve even discussed one-mile fun runs, but often the benefits and potential of a non-competitive walk get overlooked. There are many reasons why this could be the best choice for you, especially if this happens to be your first year planning a charity fitness event.

There is something relaxed and fun about non-competitive walks that appeal to both participants and planners. While it’s not to say they are less work, the planning itself can be less stressful as well as utilizing fewer players in the actual process. Also, with so many run/walk events out there today as a non-competitive walk, yours may end up being just the thing some participants are looking for.

One of the main reasons this event can be easier to plan is that there is no need for fancy finish-lines. Non-competitive also means non-timed because you won’t not need to classify your participants based on their finishing times in order to award prizes. During planning this means you won’t need to hire a company to run the finish line or rent equipment if your organization does not already have it.

You still want to have a finish line set up to welcome your participants at the end, but you have much more flexibility in how you design this. Not having to hire a company or rent equipment means cost savings for your organization. In addition, you’ll have the option of putting together an event more quickly because you won’t have to work around the availability of such assistance.

This leads to the need for less people around your planning table. While it is good to have lots of minds at work to generate ideas, less people to organize or contact can work in your favor. In addition to not needing an outside company, you also may need fewer volunteers to pull off the event especially if a significant portion of them were assigned to the start and finish. Less of your energy can be placed on medical assistance as well. You still need access when hosting a walk, but the nature of the event is less intense so you can usually get by with only minor assistance.

Along with a simplified planning process, the event itself will appeal to a different population in your community. You can pull in new exercisers by advertising it as a beginner event, attract families or promote the event to corporate teams. What participant numbers you miss out on with competitive athletes you will likely gain and even exceed with casual exercisers.

The idea of a non-competitive walk is all about fun while supporting a cause so be sure not to strip the fun away as you cut costs and reduce your planning committee. Still plan on having refreshments, games, t-shirts and consider giving away your prizes through a raffle in which all participants have a chance to win.

Photo by Trailnet

After reading yesterday’s post about about planning a charity fitness class maybe an example of this type of fundraising event would be helpful. The Charity Pumpkin Bootcamp offered by Yun Fitness Boot Camps in Columbus, OH is a class for a cause which also incorporates the Halloween season.

The class takes place on Saturday, October 17^th, 2009 from 9:15 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. at Dexter Falls Park in Columbus, OH. Participants can register online and the cost is a $15 donation per person. All of the proceeds go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Greater Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana– Central Ohio Region.

Oh yeah, you will need to bring along a pumpkin. The fun twist on this event is that the class will take you through an 8 to 10 station circuit utilizing your pumpkin during the workout! In addition, participants are welcome to dress up in their Halloween costumes.

This class is being cross promoted through Boot Camps with a Purpose. The BCWAP began in May 2007 through Elite Personal Training in Exton, PA. Now fitness centers and studios around the country (and even a few international locations) participate by hosting their own charity boot camp classes. The organizer of the event selects the charity of choice and 100% of the proceeds go to support that charity.

 You can submit your event online by including your contact information and details about your upcoming class along with information on your selected charity. If accepted into the BCWAP system you will be given a full webpage devoted to the promotion of your specific class. You will also have the option to seek sponsorship for the opportunity to order BCWAP t-shirts for your event.

 If you are looking for a new way to raise funds for your organization creating your own boot camp, such as the Charity Pumpkin Bootcamp, is a great way to do it, and organizations like the BCWAP can help support your efforts along the way.

 Photo by mikebaird