University of Wisconsin-Madison Relay for Life Fundraising Guide

University of Wisconsin-Madison Relay for Life Fundraising Guide

Individual Fundraising • Loose change in a jar • E-mails • Bake sale • Have a party with donations to Relay – Collect donations at the door for Relay For Life. Let your friends know where the money is going. Facebook/Myspace – Send 20 Facebook messages asking for $5 a piece. Have a Sponsor – Ask your parent or employers to become your sponsor. Ask them do match donations, for every dollar you raise ask them match. • • – Give each team member a water bottle with a Relay For Life sticker attached. Have participants collect dimes throughout the semester to place in the bottle. A full water bottle will contain almost $100! – Check out your Relay online participant web page for template e-mails requesting donations and send them to family and friends! – Bake some treats and sell them at various locations around campus for a small donation.

Team Fundraising • Car Wash • Spaghetti Dinner • Pie your House Fellow • Drag Show • Coin Drop • Restaurant proceeds • Matching funds • Work a sporting event • Finals care packages – Ask a local gas station if you could host a car wash in their parking lot with all donations going to Relay For Life. – Host a spaghetti dinner at your local community center or house. Have your team mates sell tickets to the event. Maybe even have a silent auction with donations you receive from local businesses. – Host a night in the Residential Halls where you can pie your house fellow. Charge a dollar per throw and see how many times your RA can get a pie in the face. – Find a place to have your show, find some willing people to dress up as the opposite sex, and charge a cover at the door to get in. – Find a few old water jugs or or buckets, decorate them, and go around collecting loose change at your office, residential hall, or school. – Ask local restaurants to donate a percent of their proceeds for a day to Relay For Life. Pass out flyers for advertisement. – Ask your employer, parents, etc. to match the funds that your raise. – Get in contact with the Kohl Center or Alliant Energy Center and see if you could do a fundraiser at a sporting event, helping with concessions, a silent auction, etc. – Send out letter that you have final care packages for sale. The parents will be willing to buy one to send to their hard working students. Fill baskets with fruit, a stress ball, and other goodies that will take away a little stress.

Team Fundraising • Fundraising Billboard • Dinner Dance • Fashion Show • Pancake Breakfast • Mardi Gras Fundraiser • Shop For The Cure – One unique idea is to put together a fundraising billboard in support of breast cancer research. People pay a reasonable fee, say $100, to add a name to a billboard list honoring those who are struggling with or have the lost the battle with cancer. – Put together a fun dinner dance with live music and good food. It could be a formal affair with catered food or a rocking good time accompanied by a pig roast. Use a one price covers all approach, then add a cash bar or wine tasting to raise extra funds. – Fashion shows are always fun and, if well promoted, can draw hundreds of women. Charge admission and offer lots of other fundraising activities. Add silent auctions for donated items or services such as spa treatments or private lunches with top designers. – A good location with lots of road signage can really pack them in for a pancake breakfast. Costs are low and opportunities to add-in extras are abundant. Offer raffle tickets, silent auction items, and sell ad space or sponsorships on your placemats. – Great parties like Mardi Gras events attract a fun-loving crowd. Book a good band line up some Cajun food for a buffet. Sell beads, glow necklaces, party hats, etc. Run a cash bar and auction off something big like a trip to New Orleans. – Another good idea is to work with local merchants to put together a special shopping experience aimed at women. Host in a convenient space like a convention center, church meeting hall, or even a shopping mall. Try to get as many items donated as possible while keeping things a win/win for your merchants. Don't forget to promote it to men also as a good place for gift buying.

Team Fundraising – Cow Chip Fundraiser – A country-style fundraising event involving raffling off chances for winning a $5, 000 cash prize. The fun catch is that the winner is determined by where a cow answers nature's call on a field marked off in squares. Add in live music, barbecue, and family fun activities and you've got the makings of a major success on your hands. – Casino Night – Put together a full-fledged casino where adults gamble with play money for a good cause or just make the main event a Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament. Either one will draw a big crowd where you can add extra moneymakers like a buffet dinner, a cash bar, a whiskey tasting, cigar tasting, etc. Look to local merchants for partnerships and publicity. – Krispy Kreme Donuts – This is a good fundraiser if your workplace will let you sell them there and even better if your team is made up of people from different jobs. Announce that the week before relay is Krispy Kreme week and that each day you’ll have donuts available for a $1 donation each.

Fundraising at Relay • Silent Auction • Suntan Lotion Massage • Bake Sale • Kissing booth • Line the track with quarters • Face Painting – Have a silent auction at the Relay For Life. Make sure to have good advertising, so that Relayer’s know what is available for purchase. – Have a massage table at the Relay. Use suntan lotion instead of oils for your massage. – Bake treats to sell at the Relay. Make sure to contact Relay logistics chair to organize space to sell goods outside of Shell track. – Having a Kissing booth at the Relay. Charge $1 per kiss. – Collect quarters and advertise to line the track with quarters! See how much money it takes to makes it’s way all the way around. – Fun for kids and college students alike! Glow in the dark sticks or necklaces are also good sellers.