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Innovative ideas for Teams

Gary Petker’s Story

Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario
July 7, 2016

Linda's Hope has been a top fundraising team for 2 years. Raising such a huge sum takes planning, but more importantly, creativity. Team Captain, Gary Petker, shares 5 innovative ideas for Teams to consider.

1. Choosing a Team Name: Does “Jane's Girls” or “The Speed Queens” trigger the necessary emotional response in the potential donor?  Especially when we are talking about a deadly disease? Our Team name, “Linda's Hope”, told our donors that there was an important personal story and to look deeper.

2. Sending Emails: All invitations sent to potential donors and Walkers told Linda's story (what she had been through, the chances of survival and what her hopes were.) It was sincere, simple and credible. It made it personal.

3. Team Page: The Team page is where we seal the deal. If it is visited, the donor has likely made the decision to donate to your Team, but for how much? I personalized our Team’s fundraising page to make it our own. Linda is afraid of the risk of dying. She wants to live. She wants to feel supported, and to tell her story. So that’s exactly what we did.

4. Timing of Donations: If someone asks me to support their cause, I go to their donation page and base my donation on what those before me have donated.  If the first donation shown on sponsor page is $10, that sets the expectation. Try to get first donations as high as possible - at least $250 or $500 to set your expectation.

5. Become or find a Matching Donor: When a donor knew that their $100 was actually worth $200 because someone was matching their donation, they were more likely to donate.

For Linda's Hope, raising such a huge sum was mostly good luck, good timing, and perhaps, just a touch of good execution.

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