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Rise to the Top

Now that you’ve joined the CanadaHelps Great Canadian Giving Challenge, it’s time to work at making your GivingPage rise to the top! Below you’ll find tips and ideas for raising funds and making the challenge more fun.

Tips

How to ask people to donate:

  • Set a goal for how much you would like to raise – people like to see a concrete target
  • Ask people to donate a specific amount – people often don’t give because they don’t know how much to give.
  • Tell people why you support your cause, let them know why you care – they’ll be more inspired to give.

Who to ask

  • Think of friends, colleagues, family members, clients, neighbours… everyone!
  • Don’t forget your online communities – ask your Facebook friends, blog readers, twitter followers and Linked In contacts to donate.

Getting the word out:

Because the CanadaHelps Great Canadian Giving Challenge is online, we encourage you to use online communications tools to reach your donors, including:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Blogs
  • Linked In

Turn it into a competition

Turn the CanadaHelps Great Canadian Giving Challenge into a personal competition with your friends or colleagues. A great way to make the challenge more personal is to compete against people you know to raise the most funds.

Here’s how:

  • Find a group of friends, colleagues, neighbours and let them know about the challenge
  • Everyone should join the challenge and set up their GivingPage (remember, everyone can raise funds for a different charity – it’s your choice)
  • Start raising funds
  • Decide what the winner will get: a dinner out, a gift certificate, or simply the glory of being the best fundraiser

Tips for Companies

Engage your employees this holiday season with a challenge! A giving challenge that benefits charities of their choice. It’s easy!

  1. Write an email describing the challenge (for a prepared one you can work from, click here.
  2. Send the email to ALL employees – everyone should be able to participate!
  3. Offer additional incentives – the employee or department in your company to raise the most funds or get the most number of people to donate will win a prize! Lunch with the boss, a gift certificate or maybe even a day off.
  4. If your company has an Intranet, ask employees to add the URL to their GivingPage to the site so everyone can be tracked in one place.
  5. Celebrate all participants by posting a notice in an upcoming newsletter or internal bulletin board, and/or make an announcement of the total amount raised from all GivingPages at your next staff meeting. Be sure to add it to your CSR report!

If you belong to a smaller company where setting up a challenge amongst individuals might be a challenge in itself, you can set up a company GivingPage and asking all your employees to get involved by spreading the word and working towards a team goal.

No matter how you choose to get involved, whether it’s to promote this within the company or to support others who are, being part of the Challenge is a great way to be giving back this season. Spread the word!

Email to Staff

SUBJECT LINE: The CanadaHelps Great Canadian Giving Challenge

Dear Employees,

So how networked are you? Do you have a lot of friends on Facebook? Are you a passionate fundraiser that believes in a good cause? Are you up for a challenge? A giving challenge?

This giving season is taking part in The CanadaHelps Great Canadian Giving Challenge – a challenge to get Canadians to use their social networks to raise money for their favourite charity – any charity in Canada! AND win cash prizes for their favourite charity too! The best part: it’s super easy to participate!

  1. Set up a CanadaHelps GivingPage no earlier than November 23rd (that’s when the challenge officially begins).
  2. Inform your network that you’re participating in the Challenge and that you need their support. Ask your friends, family and colleagues, and use all the tools you’ve got – email, Facebook, Twitter … and don’t forget about in person too! And be sure to tell them they could help your charity win up to $5,000 (not to mention get a tax receipt in the process)!
  3. Manage your ranking by watching how you’re doing compared to others on the In The Lead page. Then promote your page again and again over the four weeks to ensure you rise to the top. There are also incentive prizes every week for all participants no matter what their ranking – click here for more details.

We want to know how you’re doing so be sure to let us know if you’re participating. We’ll be sure to announce how many employees are taking part and the total dollars raised.

Thanks for taking part in the challenge whichever way you can, and good luck! We appreciate your support.

Sincerely,

Tips for Charities

How to get involved:

  • Tell your supporters that there is a new and unique way for them to help you achieve your mission
  • Challenge your supporters against one another to see who can raise the most funds for your organization
  • Give concrete examples to your supporters about how or what the cash prize will help you accomplish
  • Tell your story in a compelling way!

Promote the challenge to your network:

Think of all of the ways you communicate with your network and use those modes of communication to spread the message about the challenge. Advertise the challenge in your:

  • Emails and email signatures
  • E-newsletters
  • Blogs
  • Website
  • Facebook Page
  • Linked In

Timeline for communicating with supporters:

You want to highlight the impact that winning the prizes would have on your organization and the mission you serve, but don’t overdo it!

  • Send out a communication right away to tell people about the event and get them thinking about it
  • Send another on the November 23rd to let your supporters know the challenge has started
  • Send weekly updates to encourage supporters to keep up the good work
  • Thank donors in a timely fashion
  • Send out a message on December 18th or 19th calling for a push in last minute donations
  • Send a thank you message on December 20th for the support of everyone who raised funds for your organization

Office Challenge

Is your charity partnered with a company?

  • Get the company involved by having employees set up GivingPages for the challenge!
  • Encourage a friendly inter-office or inter-department competition to see who can raise the most money