Charitable Miles is a fundraising software solution specifically designed to help you organize walk a thon fundraising events. Our solution includes registration, online payment processing, online pledge collection, electronic merchandise sales and much more.
Raising money for charity is easier than ever with Fundraising Software for Walks from Charity Miles. With our free fundraising software, you can raise money online and offline by walking, running or biking. You can track your progress, create personal fundraising pages and share them with friends and family. Participating in a charity walk has never been so easy or so much fun!
How to Organize a Walkathon
Get Volunteers
Before you start doing anything else, look for people who are willing to help you. They could be friends and family or people affected by the cause you’re looking to support. Even be random people you meet through your child’s playgroup or a professional organization may be willing to volunteer. Just don’t try to do everything yourself.
Decide Where to Walk
There are all kinds of places where you can stage your walkathon: in a park, on a high school track, or even inside a mall. Pick a distance and a location. One mile, two mile and five mile walks are popular. Shorter distances are always less intimidating. Keep in mind that some locales require permits, and you’ll want an area where you can have a celebration when walkers finish their course. If you need to have streets closed off for walkers, talk to a representative of the local police department to see what you need to do to make it happen before moving forward with your plans.
Give Your Walk a Name
Coming up with a memorable name for the event is your best chance to let people know what your walkathon is about. If it’s in memory of a loved one, you can simply call it “Sally’s Walk” or “Walk for Sally,” for example. You can also mention the cause in the name; for example, calling it “Walk for the Planet.” It’s a good idea to put the distance of the walk in the name too.
Promote Your Event
You can’t exactly have a walkathon unless there are people willing to walk. You don’t have to spend a lot to get the word out, especially if you network. Create a page for your walk on Facebook and ask friends to spread the word. You can send press releases to the local paper and distribute flyers in places where people who enjoy walking spend time, such as at the gym or in the park. You can even contact local TV and radio stations, but be aware that this could boost your turnout to more than you can realistically handle the first time out. You may want to inform media outlets after registration is closed so that you can get some early buzz for next time.
Make Registration Forms
Now that you have people who’d like to register for the walkathon, you need to give them a way to do so. Create a paper form that you can have people return via mail or fax, or post a PDF or electronic form online. Make sure the form has all the logistical information, such as date, time and location. You may also want to include a liability waiver, stating the organizers are not responsible for any injuries sustained during the walk. You can have people submit registration fees when they register or give you all of their pledges on the day of the event. It’s best to encourage preregistration. That way you aren’t blindsided by a crowd on the day of the walk.
Find Sponsors
Have your volunteers help you pound the pavement to get support from local – and national – businesses. In exchange for their support, offer to put the company name and/or logo on the walk’s t-shirt, if you’re having one, or on signage along the course. Or, offer them a booth or a table in the celebration area. If your walk’s for a good cause, you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting sponsors. It is an easy tax deduction for them. They don’t have to donate money. They can donate other things, such as food, drinks, entertainment, door prizes or even the t-shirts themselves. Don’t be afraid to ask. The worst that can happen is you get a no.
Get Ready for the Big Day
This is the most stressful part of how to organize a walkathon for most; figuring out all of the logistics. You have to order any supplies you need that will not be contributed by sponsors. Luckily, you don’t need many for a small event; just some snacks and some water to satiate tired walkers. You’ll also want to have a cash box – or several – so you can collect donations, a table for the food and drink, and one for registration or money collection. Set everything up at least two hours before the walkers are due to show up, and be sure to station volunteers on the course so that no one gets lost.
After the event, take some time to go over what went well and what you can improve upon. You can’t expect your first walkathon to be perfect. Even the longest running events can still be better. Just look how many times the format of the Oscar ceremony has been changed.
Planning a 5K
Interested in planning a 5K for your organization? Here is our basic checklist for 5K success:
1. Research Other 5Ks
Like any fundraiser, you’ll want to start by researching similar events in your area. Are there any other charity 5Ks? How long have the races been taking place? What is their entry fee? Where is their course? Look at all of these things to help guide your decisions for your own race.
2. Assemble Your Team
You can’t plan an event on your own! Decide who will help you plan and execute the event. You’ll need people to help with publicity/marketing, event planning, and day-of management. If your team is small or stretched too thin to help, enlist some of your volunteers.
3. Pick A Theme, Entry Fee, and Decide What Proceeds Will go Toward
Since you’re planning this 5K on behalf of your nonprofit, your organization will probably be your theme. Along with this, you’ll want to decide what the entry fee will be and what proceeds from the race will go toward. Will the money be donated to your overall organization or will it go toward a specific project or aspect of your nonprofit? Make this clear in your promotional materials and race literature so people know what their participation means.
4. Choose a race name
Now that you have your theme, it’s time to choose your race name! This process will be much like naming a business. Check locally and even nationally to see which race names are taken and consider what the name conveys about the race itself. Since the race will benefit a good cause, a light, feel-good name like “City of Oaks 5K” is more appropriate than something serious like “Raleigh’s Toughest 5K.”
5. Choose a Location and Date
Decide when and where you’d like your race to take place. Is your course going to be a loop or out-and-back where runners will end at the same place they started? Or will it be a point-to-point race where runners start at point A and end at point B? The type of course makes a difference in the race experience so think about the scenery and what your runners would enjoy most. In addition, you’ll need to contact city officials to confirm availability and complete any necessary permits.
6. Build a Budget
Once you have some of the basics of your race out of the way, build a budget for your event. Since one of the goals is to raise funds for your organization, you want to set a budget and keep careful track of it so you know what the race is costing you as planning progresses. The last thing you want to do is get to post-race stage and learn that the race has cost your nonprofit money.
7. Set SMART goals
Like any fundraiser, you want to have SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely) goals to help guide your efforts. Examples of good SMART goals for your race: a certain number of registrants, a certain amount of money raised, and a certain number of post-race surveys
8. Create a Race Website or Webpage
It’s important to have a race website or, at the very least, a page on your organization’s site with race information. This lends credibility to your event and allows prospective registrants to easily find all the information about your race. Include essential information like date, start time, entry fee & registration, course information, where proceeds go, and any other information someone might need to help them sign up for your race.
9. Look for Sponsors
Sponsors can help offset the cost of the event by donating money, or they may donate items like snacks, drinks, or swag that increase the quality of your event. Look for companies that align with your organization. For instance, if the race will benefit your animal shelter a local pet supply store or dog groomer would be a great sponsor.
10. Open Registration
Choose a race registration service that makes your registration process as simple as possible for you and your entrants. When should you open registration? Most races open registration for the next year immediately after the current year’s event to give people an entire year to register. For a charity 5K, this probably isn’t necessary but it can’t hurt to leave registration open for that long! If you don’t want to leave registration open for an entire year, six months should be plenty of time.
11. Promote Your Event
People can’t run your race if they don’t know about it! Promote your 5K via social media, your email newsletter, and posters/flyers at running stores. It’s also a great idea to target people who may be interested in your nonprofit. To use the example of a race raising money for an animal shelter, putting up flyers at dog parks, pet supply stores, or groomers is a great way to reach people who would be interested in helping animals but aren’t in running circles. Just be sure to ask permission before putting up flyers!
12. Decide How You’ll Time Your Race
Even though the purpose of your race is to raise money for and awareness of your organization, it is still a race and you’ll need a way to time your contestants. It’s best to hire a professional race timer for this. The timer will likely be the largest part of your budget but for many runners, it’s all about the time so make sure you choose a competent, experienced timer.
13. Design & Order Bibs, Shirts, and Medals/Awards
While you can order simple, generic race bibs online for a relatively low cost, keep in mind that many runner collect their race bibs and enjoy adding unique ones to their collection. A generic bib may discourage people from running your race again in the future. Your race timer may be able to recommend a company for custom race bibs, or you can find one with a quick internet search.
Not every race gives all participants medals so you’ll need to decide if each participant will get a medal or if only the top 3 will receive one. People do expect a race shirt in their race packet, though! Many races provide athletic shirts made of polyester or other tech fabric but for a smaller or inaugural race, cotton is perfectly acceptable.
14. Get Race Signs Printed
You’ll need mile-marker and directional signs for the course, as well as signs for parking, registration tables, first aid tents, and anything else you want participants to be able to find easily. Invest in quality signs and you can use them for years to come!
15. Plan Aid Stations, Portable Restrooms, and Trash Cans
To keep runners hydrated, plan to have at least one aid station with water and/or electrolyte drinks about halfway through the course. You should also have portable restrooms at the starting/finish lines and halfway through the course. The number of restrooms you’ll need will depend on the number of participants you have. Place trash cans at the starting/finish lines and near the aid stations so people have places to put their water cups once they’re done with them.
16. Recruit Volunteers for Race Day
Race day will be an all-hands-on-deck day and you’ll need volunteers to help you and your team make sure everything runs smoothly. Check with local high schools, colleges, businesses, and youth groups to find volunteers looking to fulfill community service hour requirements.
17. Coordinate Security/Police Presence and Medical Professionals for Race Day
Police and security help keep runners safe by controlling the flow of traffic and keeping the crowds under control. When you check for course availability and fill out your permits, city officials will be able to tell you what kind of police presence or security you should have at the event. If not, ask them and they should be able to point you in the right direction.
Most 5Ks don’t require a lot of medical professionals so it’s a good idea to contact a local sports medicine professional to see what similar events have had in the way of first aid. Still, plan on having a first-aid tent with a basic first-aid kit.
18. Clean up the Course
Once the race is over, you and your volunteers will need to make sure the course is clean. If you leave it better than you found it, your city will be happy to host your event again. If you leave a mess, you risk being banned, which is no good for your organization!
19. Thank Participants and Send Out Surveys
During the week after the race, email to all of your participants thanking them for taking part in your event, inviting them back next year, and letting them know when registration will be open. You should also include a link to a post-run survey to get feedback about what they liked, disliked, and what they’d like to see done differently. This feedback is crucial, especially for a new race!
Create your virtual journey
Creating a virtual journey is an effective and easy way to keep your team focused and motivated on the challenge. You’ll be amazed how far you can walk by adding your team’s steps together and plotting them on a map. Here’s our guide to creating a virtual journey.
- Decide how far you’re going to walk. You’ll need to work out a realistic target for the 8 weeks. Use your pedometer to work out roughly how far your team walks in a day (remember you can also include weekends). To do this, record your step counts over 3 days. Add the 3 numbers up and divide by 3 and round up to the nearest 500. For example, if I walked 3,578 steps on Thursday, 4,527 on Friday and 9,872 on Saturday my total would be 17,977 making my average daily step count 5,992 and rounded up to the nearest 500 this would be 6,000. For the purposes of the challenge we’re saying that 1 mile is around 2,000 steps, give or take. Working on the average of 6,000 steps a day I’d be walking approximately 3 miles each day. Using this information you should be able to work out how many miles each team member could cover over the 8 weeks. You might want to increase the target slightly to motivate you to find ways of walking more, but keep it realistic!
- “To infinity, and beyond!” The destination is up to you. It might be work related, if your company is national you may want to work out a route that stops off at a number of office locations. You might want to go international and visit some tourist hotspots. You might want to have a topical theme linking with a national event like the Commonwealth Games back in 2014. Last year, our office walked some of Scotland’s famous long distance trails including the West Highland Way and Great Glen Way.
- Map Your Route. There are a number of websites you can use to work out distances such as Google Maps, BikeHike and WalkIt
- Chart Your Progress. Think about how you could chart your progress. You could pin a route map to the office notice board or send your team a short email update each week. This is a good way to keep staff motivated and to spur them on to keep walking. We stuck a map of Scotland to our notice board and photographed it for our weekly updates. We also shared our step counts, which created a bit of healthy competition!
- Celebrate Milestones. Celebrate reaching significant milestones, like reaching 100 miles, or a particular destination. You could buy some little prizes, or perhaps have a nice lunch. You could write something for your staff newsletter or even send an article in to your local paper
Conclusion
The Fundraising Software for Walks empowers your walk leaders to do what they do best. Fundraising Software for Walks allows you to manage, raise money and sell sponsorships online. It is an online walk fundraising platform where you can market, sell sponsorships, create and manage event pages, send newsletters, update participants via social media and accept donations online!