Your personal Fundhub fundraising page is where donors will go to give to you online. Make sure it's ready for visitors. You'll need to include a:
Love, Sweat and Gears has no registration fee. Instead, riders are strongly encouraged to self-donate to their own campaign to show they're serious and get some early momentum. (You'll get a tax receipt for your donation!)
And of course, you'll need to think about your ask. Take few minutes and write the email that you'll send to each donor personally the first time you ask.
This email doesn't have to win any literary awards, but it does have to be inspiring. You can be serious about the cause, incredulous that you are actually riding across the country, or maybe even both at the same time.
Once your email is done, take a few minutes to make a list of potential donors you will ask. Here's a quick list to help you brainstorm below:
Family | Friends | Neighbours | Work |
Ask your spouse, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, and sisters. | Ask your #BFF, the friend you walk to the gym with, and the dude who sits behind you in lunch. We bet you know lots of friends to ask. | Ask the nice couple who live beside you, your yoga instructor, bus driver, piano teacher, or life coach. They are all good potential people to ask. | Ask your friends at work. Bring it up at lightening rounds. Change your zoom background. Talk to suppliers, vendors and other work-related stakeholders that you know personally. |
Don't send a mass email! Resist the urge to fire off emails to a big group - they almost never work. Take the time to carefully write your email and edit each one personally, even if it's just adjusting something you copy-and-paste. That way, your friends will know you are serious, and will likely respond by giving seriously to you too.
Make sure you say thank you, whether by email, text, or phone. It's more than good manners - it lets them know that you noticed their generosity and are thankful for their help. It rewards your donors with your gratitude, and may even help them say yes next year when you ask them again!