We're Famous!

(Cross-posted from the Relentless Optimism Team Blog)

This past week, we were incredibly honored when our hometown newspaper, the Cortland Standard, chose to run a long feature about our team for the Boston 3 Day for the Cure.  Our article, which was titled "Beating Breast Cancer in a Big Way", was written by Life and Living editor Katie Hall.  The feature took up almost a whole page of the paper and included two photos.  The first photo was taken by longtime Cortland Standard photographer Bob Ellis of our teammate Melissa Moreland Campos on one of her early morning training walks and the second photo was one of my photos that shows the four of us walkers at our 10 year high school reunion in 2008.

Unfortunately, there isn't a digital copy of the article available.  However, my mom (Karen Sager) was nice enough to scan the article for us so that we could share it with all of you.  Larger versions of each image are available by clicking on the photos.

Enjoy!

Melissa on her training walk in Homer, New York

 Our article!  Click to enlarge so you can read it!

We are incredibly thankful to Katie and the entire staff of the Cortland Standard for featuring our efforts.  While most of us have moved out the area now, we are all true Homer girls at heart.  Our hometown is small and tight nit and having this kind of publicity can really go a long way towards helping us to reach our fundraising goals.  As you can tell from this article, this is a cause that is very near and dear to our hearts.  Having the support of our community behind us as we take to the streets next week in Boston truly means the world to all of us!

If you have been moved by our story and would like to help us reach our fundraising goals, you can make a donation at our team fundraising page on the 3 Day website.  You can also reach each of our personal pages directly by clicking on our names in the right hand side bar. 

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Support Relentless Optimism by Shopping with Mary Kay!

As I've mentioned in my Week in Review posts, my team for the 3 Day, Relentless Optimism is currently hosting a Mary Kay sale to help raise money for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure!  Since there are only two days left in this sale, I figure it's about time that I posted about it here as well!

For those who don't know, Mary Kay is a health and beauty company that uses direct sales to bring their great products to people all over the country at an affordable price.  By purchasing make up, skin care and other assorted beauty products through our collaboration with Mary Kay, you will be helping our team reach our fundraising goals for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure.  Simply by shopping through the link below and noting that your purchase is for "Relentless Optimism" or the "Breast Cancer 3 Day", a portion of the proceeds will be directly credited to our team.  It's just another easy way for everyone to support our team!

Click here to purchase Mary Kay products in support of Relentless Optimism!

For this fundraiser, Relentless Optimism will be working with a wonderful teacher from Homer High School, Mme. Carol Agate.  Mme. Agate was Jen's French teacher all through high school and was a friend of Jen's mom Marcia before she passed away.  Mme. Agate is also a breast cancer survivor herself and feels very passionately about raising money to find a cure for this awful disease.  Mme. Agate actually contacted us about hosting this sale and has generously offered to donate her FULL commission from all of our Mary Kay sales to our team.  That means Relentless Optimism will receive 50% of the value of each purchase made through this sale!  This is incredibly generous of Mme. Agate and we cannot thank her enough for helping us out with this fundraiser!

Please note that this sale will end on June 30th, so please do your shopping early!

Thank you so much for continuing to support our team in our effort to raise $20,000 for breast cancer research!

As always, if you would prefer to support me or my teammates directly, you can do so by visiting the Relentless Optimism team page on the 3 Day website and clicking on the names of each of our teammates or by visiting my personal page here.

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Fundraising Letters - It's Simple, But it Works!

For most people, brainstorming about how to go about fundraising starts almost as soon as they register for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure.  Galas, parties, bake sales, garage sales, golf tournaments...  You name it, people are doing it.  Everyone wants to go big or go home with their fundraising events.  However, there is one fundraising technique that should not be overlooked - a letter writing campaign!

Everyone that participates in the 3 Day can and should take part in a letter writing campaign.  It's cheap and relatively easy compared to planning a big, over the top event.  You can do it totally on your own time or you and your teammates can make a night of it.  Plus, fundraising letters are an incredibly effective means of raising large amounts of money.  In both '07 and '08, I only did two things to raise money for the 3 Day:  I hosted a small party at my house for close friends each year and I wrote boatloads of letters (both email and snail mail).  On average, I made about $300 per party.  All the rest of the money that I raised (about $12,000 between the two events) came as a result of my letters.  So trust me when I say that writing fundraising letters should be a major part of your fundraising strategy!

To help everyone get the most of their fundraising letters, I thought I would go through each step of the process and share my advice based on what I've found works best.  As always, this is what has worked for me.  Feel free to share your tips as well!

Who should I send my letters to?

The first step in preparing your fundraising letters is to compile your list of potential donors.  The 3 Day handbook suggests shooting for at least 100 people on your contact list.  My potential donor list this year has 154 people on it and I'm still adding names to it every week.  That covers everyone from my childhood friends, my college friends, my grad school friends, my husband's college friends, my family and our family friends, my husband's family and their family friends, my work colleagues, my mom's work colleagues... truly anyone and everyone that you can think of.  I've found that the best place to start when compiling your list of potential donors is your Christmas Card list and/or your wedding guest list.  From there, just start adding people!

Once I have my basic list, I go through and designate each person to receive either an email letter, a snail mail letter or in some cases, I send both.  For most people, an email request is going to be the best option.  It is very easy to follow the links in an email to make a donation online and it doesn't cost you anything to send all those emails.  However, emails are also easily lost in the flurry of online communications that we each receive every day.  Also, potential donors of an older generation may not be as internet-savvy and would be more comfortable receiving a standard letter.  There are pros and cons to both options.  You just need to figure out what is best for each of your potential donors.

Finally, a word of advice.  When compiling your list of potential donors, include everyone, even if you think that they are unlikely to donate, either due to lack of means or lack of interest.  You never know who has been touched by breast cancer and who hasn't.  Moreover, even if your contact can't donate themselves, they may still forward your information on to other people on your behalf.  If you never send a letter to them, they have nothing to send on.  Do not decide who can or cannot donate for them.  The only people who definitely won't donate are the people that you never ask.  So seriously - ask everyone!

My fundraising letter station

What should I include in my letter?

Your fundraising letter doesn't have to be that long.  In fact, the more succinct it is, the better.  I like to try to limit myself to the front of one page of paper, although this year my letter was slightly longer than that.  In terms of content, I generally break my fundraising letter down into 5 parts:

1.  A unique title (email only).  You want to be attention grabbing but also somewhat professional.  In addition, you may need to be a bit creative here in order to avoid your letter winding up in someone's spam filter.  Avoiding nondescript titles that directly suggest solicitation ("Donations needed!" "I need your help!") or that are heavily breast focused ("It's Boobie Time!") in order to avoid getting filtered out.  I like to include the actual name of the event in the title.  But just be warned that not every email will get through every spam filter, even with the most innocuous title.

2.  A hook.  I usually open with a statistic about breast cancer that I have found particularly striking or with a personal story.

3.  A brief explanation of what the event is.  Most people are not all that familiar with the 3 Day.  While you don't have to go into all the details about the pink tents and all that, you should emphasize the basics:  that it is a three day, 60 mile walk designed to raise money and awareness for breast health and breast cancer research.  You should also note that it benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure and that by signing up for the 3 Day, you are obligated to raise a fairly large chunk of money.

4.  A request for a donation and an explanation of how to go about making that donation, both via check (and therefore snail mail) or online.  

For snail mail letters, I include a self addressed, stamped letter that is addressed to my home address and ask that my donors use that to submit checks (made out to "Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure") directly to me.  I never include donation forms with my letters.  I prefer to fill out the forms and attach them to the checks myself so that I can better track each donation that I receive.  All of the information that you need to complete the donation form can generally be found in the address section of all personal checks.  If you would prefer that donors submit their checks directly to Komen for the Cure and the 3 Day, be sure to address your self addressed, stamped envelopes appropriately and to include a donation form as well.

For online donations, I simply list the URL for my personal donation page.  In an email, I make sure that this is a hotlink to make it really easy.  For snail mail, you will have to write out your URL.  That is where having a shortened, personalized URL for your donation page comes in really handy.  I talked about how to go about doing that in this post about setting up your personal page on the 3 Day website.

5.  Finally, I end with a brief paragraph or two elaborating on my personal reasons for getting involved in the fight against breast cancer and why I specifically chose the Breast Cancer 3 Day.  The most important thing to keep in mind is to make your story heartfelt.  There are a hundred reasons why people decide to take on the challenge of the 3 Day and all of them are legitimate.  Being honest and sincere about why this is an important cause for you will go a very long way!

And hey, if you're really stuck, there are samples of fundraising letters available on your Participant Center.  Just click "Fundraising" on the left hand menu and the link for the sample letters will appear as the third link in the list that pops up.

When should I send my letters?

The earlier, the better!  Ideally, you should aim to send your letters out at the beginning of your fundraising activities.  This is a great way to announce to your networks that you have accepted this great challenge.  I think it is a great goal to try to get your first round of letters in the mail before your 24 week training schedule kicks off so that you aren't trying to do both things at once.  Plus, the earlier you send your first letters, the more time you have to follow up with people who haven't donated yet.

Now, that being said, it is never too late to send out a fundraising letter!  In '08, I waited until about 10 weeks prior to the event to send my letters.  Likewise, I sent my letters out a bit later this year than I had intended as well.  If you wait, you won't have as much time for people to respond to your fundraising requests.  But it is always better to send your letters late than to not send them at all!

Where should I send my letters from?

For snail mail letters, this should be obvious.  You send your letters from the post office!

For digital letters, it's a bit more complicated.  For sending out emails, you actually have two options.

1.  You can send emails from your Participant Center on the 3 Day website.  Through your Participant Center, you have access to an online address book where you can upload all of your contacts.  This can be a bit time consuming, but once everything is there, it's there for good.  Your address book is even saved from event to event over multiple years provided that you register under the same name.  Taking the time to do this once can be a big advantage in the long run.  You can also upload and save a copy of your letter on Participant Center as well.  Then, when you are ready to send out your emails, simply click the "Email" box at the top of the page, select your letter and the people you want to send it to and click "send".  The advantage to using the Participant Center is that your letters will look very "official", with 3 Day email letterhead and full links to the 3 Day website.  On the downside, a lot of spam filters will block mass emailings from a public website, so your emails may not get to their intended recipient.

2.  You can send emails from your personal email address.  The advantage here is that you probably already have all of your contacts in your address book already.  Your personal emails are also more likely to get through a spam filter than an email sent from the 3 Day website.  However, the emails generated from your personal account are a bit less flashy.

Really, it all comes down to personal preference.  I generally use the Participant Center email functions to send out my fundraising letters.  My teammate Mel usually sends her letters from her personal account.  It's all about deciding what works best for you and doing it.

Oh, and don't forget about your social media!  Sending your letters to via Facebook Message and/or posting a copy of your letter as a note and tagging people can be a great way to increase your pool of potential donors!

My snail mail letters, all ready to go out to my potential donors!

How can I make my letters distinct?

Admittedly, with email, it can be a bit hard to make your fundraising letter stand out.  Be careful with the title (as I said before) and do your best to come up with something to get people's attention.  

Now, for snail mail letters, you can make your letters stand out a bit from the avalanche of bills and mass mailings that we all get all the time.  Personally, I use hot pink gel pens to address all of my envelopes, including the self addressed stamped envelopes.  I also use breast cancer specific return address labels (that I received from Komen over the years) and breast cancer stamps when I can.  You can also affix 3 Day stickers to your envelopes if you want to really make your letters stand out.  In addition, I also print all of my letters on pale pink paper.  Again, just a little something so that someone looking for my letter later on can identify it easily.  I would recommend against hot pink paper, as it can be hard to read off of, but I think pale pink works well.

Why should I be doing all this?

Like I said, IT WORKS.  I raised $12,000 in two years via letters.  Potential donors might remember that you mentioned something about donating in passing if you just talk it up.  Business cards are great in a pinch but are easily lost.  Big events can take a lot of time and money to plan.  But fundraising letters are quick, easy and effective.  Plus, once someone has that letter in hand, they are more likely to forward it on to more people, thus increasing your pool of donors.  So set aside a night or two, write your letter, stuff those envelopes, and then wait for your donations to come in! 

To view a copy of the fundraising letter that I sent out to my potential donors, please see this post on our team fundraising blog.

For links to the fundraising letters that my teammates have composed, please see this post, again on our team fundraising blog.

To view my fundraising letters from previous years, please click the links below.

Click here to view my 2008 Fundraising Letter!

Click here to view my 2007 Fundraising Letter!

Good luck and happy fundraising!

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Success!

Because of the generosity of all of my friends, family and even complete strangers, I have now reached my fundraising minimum for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure this summer in Boston!  I absolutely could not have done it without my wonderful support system, so thank you to everyone who has donated to this point!

That said, I am not done with my fundraising just yet!  I still have a number of teammates on Relentless Optimism that have yet to reach their fundraising minimums and our team is still far short of our $20,000 team goal.  I will continue to work hard to support my team right up until the event in July.  If you would like to help our team reach our fundraising goal, you can do so in one of two ways:

1)  We are still running our team fundraiser with Tastefully Simple, but only until TOMORROW!  Make you purchases soon before it's too late!  You can find all of the details about that fundraiser on our team fundraising blog here.

2)  You can donate directly to one of my teammates through the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure website.  You can find links to their pages on the right hand sidebar of our team fundraising blog or by visiting our team page on the 3 Day website.  Please note that as crew members, Michelle, Doug and Tommy are not required to do any fundraising.  

Thank you so much for your continued support!  To end this post, I wanted to share with you the congratulations letter that I received from the 3 Day folks.  It is because of all of you that I was able to reach this milestone, so I would be remiss if I didn't share the congratulations with you as well!

Congratulations - you did it! You’ve reached your fundraising minimum for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure™. Thank you for your determination, selflessness and commitment to the fight against breast cancer. Your efforts are making a significant difference in the continuing effort to find a cure.

Net proceeds from the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure™ fund innovative global breast cancer research and local community programs supporting education, screening and treatment. Virtually every major advance in the fight against breast cancer in the last 27 years has been impacted by a Susan G. Komen for the Cure® grant.

Thanks to events like the Komen Race for the Cure® and the Komen 3-Day for the Cure, we have invested more than $1.3 billion to fulfill our promise, becoming the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world. Because of you, lives are being saved. Because of you, we are one step closer to our goal of a world without breast cancer.

We understand the kind of hard work it takes to get to this point, so let your efforts keep working for you and the cause. Don’t stop now! Give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back - and then set a new goal. Keep talking with people about the Komen 3-Day for the Cure, about your experience fundraising and training, and about breast cancer. You will continue to raise awareness and funds in the weeks to come.

Please extend our thanks to your donors. Every dollar makes a difference.

Sincerely,

Susan G. Komen for the Cure

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Flower Power Fundraising Reminder - Only one week left!!

Just a quick post to remind everyone about our ongoing team fundraiser for the Komen 3 Day for the Cure:  Flower Power Fundraising!

Spring has now sprung all around the country meaning it's time to get dirty and start planting your gardens!  If you or someone you know is a gardener, we strongly encourage you to please consider purchasing some or even all of your garden plants through our account with Flower Power Fundraising:

http://www.flowerpowerfundraising.com/campaign?campaign_id=1161

Through our collaboration with Flower Power Fundraising, 50% of all of the sales made through our team account will be donated to Relentless Optimism's fundraising efforts for the Komen 3 Day for the Cure.  What's really great about this fundraising program is that our partner, Flower Power Fundraising, is totally committed to our cause. They are putting out top-quality, best-selling flower bulbs and plants, ship directly to you and they're giving us a 100% satisfaction guarantee. You can't beat that!

To support our team and start shopping for your flowers, simply click on the link above (or the button below) and start shopping.  In addition, if you know anyone that you think might be interested in this fundraiser, please feel free to pass on this information.   Flowers can be purchased to support our team until Friday, April 23rd.

You can learn more about Flower Power Fundraising on their webpage and you can learn more about the Komen 3 Day for the Cure here.  

Thanks for all your support and happy gardening!

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Blogging for a Cure

So I wasn't going to do this.  I have committed myself to raising $2300 for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure and I'm still over $500 short of that goal.  As the captain of Relentless Optimism, I committed myself to helping get four other teammates to their fundraising minimums and to get our team to our goal of $16,600 before the end of July.  I've also signed up for the Dekalb-Adams Relay for Life, the Atlanta Race for the Cure and the Breast Cancer Network of Strength Walk to Empower and I haven't done a single thing to raise money for those deserving organizations.  But yet, here I am, dedicating this blog post to helping someone else raise money towards their own minimum for the Breast Cancer 3 Day.

Because of my other commitments, I felt like advocating on behalf of someone else would be like turning my back on my own commitments.  And one thing I pride myself on is honoring my commitments.  But then, I read this amazing post by Cat of the Fat Girl Walkin' blog.  Cat's new to the 3 Day.  I've gotten to know her a little bit through her blog and through Twitter.  I actually sent her some blog love a few weeks ago to reassure her that we 3 Day walkers stick together to accomplish our goals.  And today, Cat reminded me of a very important lesson:  it's not a competition, even though it is a fight.  She could not be more right.  It isn't about who gets to their fundraising minimum first or who raises the most money.  It's about raising money for a very important cause.  In the end, all the money that is raised for through the 3 Day goes to the same place: Susan G. Komen for the Cure and their very important work funding breast cancer research and advocating on behalf of breast cancer patients around the world.  

Some time after I read Cat's post, I also read this phenomenal post on the 60 Mile Thoughts blog.  And that's when it really hit home for me.  In that post, what we're walking all these miles for and what we're raising all this money for was laid out for me in black and white.  We're doing this to save lives.  In that post, Lauri reminds us that someone in the United States loses their life to cancer every 68 seconds.  68 seconds.  Just over a minute.  That one life could be someone's grandmother.  Someone's friend.  Someone's sister.  That one life could be my mom, who is currently battling cancer for the second time, after her breast cancer was in remission for a year and a half.  That one life WAS Marcia, just a year ago this past week.

So today I am doing something that I wasn't planning to do:  I am asking you to donate to someone walking in the 3 Day that isn't me.  She isn't on my team and she isn't even walking in my event.  Her name is Jackie Reitz and she is a member of the Betties for Boobies team that will be walking in the Dallas/Fort Worth event.  This year, she has asked all of the members of the 3 Day blogging community to take the time today to dedicate just one post to her fundraising cause.  In addition, she is asking each blogger to donate $10 to her fundraising activities in the hopes of raising $6000 in 24 hours towards finding a cure for breast cancer.  So today, I'm asking you to match my $10 donation to Jackie.  You can find her fundraising page at:

www.the3day.org/goto/jackier

Please take some time today or in the next few days to really think about what we're trying to do here.  We get ourselves all dolled up in pink and hit the streets pledging to walk 5 miles, 10 miles, 60 miles...  We laugh, we make boobie jokes, we try not to complain too much about blisters.  But in the end, what we're really trying to do is find a cure for breast cancer once and for all.  This won't be easy.  Breast cancer can occur in many different forms.  No two cases are exactly alike.  Remissions in other tissues makes it even more difficult to treat.  But we can do this if we work together.  Even if our efforts only result in one life being lost every 136 seconds, we will be saving half of the lives that would otherwise be lost.  So please, donate to Jackie, donate to Cat, donate to Lauri, donate to one or more of my teammates, donate to me.  Donate to anyone and everyone that asks you if you can afford it.  All of those small $10 donations really can change the world.  I promise.

Buy a Roof, Get a Donation!

I was paying some bills today and I was surprised to find this particular coupon from Roof Works of Georgia in my Val-Pak:

All you have to do is buy a new roof from Roof Works and they'll make a $100 donation to the 3 Day on your behalf!  Too bad I live in a condo on the bottom floor of a three story building... 

Still, this just goes to show that fundraising opportunities truly are all around!

Two New, Free Ways to Support Relentless Optimism!

If you've visited the Relentless Optimism Fundraising blog over the last few days, you may have noticed a few changes to our sidebar in the form of ads.  After some discussion, we have decided to "monetize" our blog to help us raise money for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure by participating in the Amazon Associates program.  Rest assured, we are not trying to make any money off our team blog for ourselves.  Rather, it is our hope that through this partnership, we can give everyone an opportunity to support Relentless Optimism in the Boston 3 Day for the Cure without having to spend an extra dime of their own money.  To learn all the details, please read on!

Amazon Associates

Relentless Optimism has now formed a mutual partnership with Amazon.com as part of their Amazon Associates program.  Through this program, we agree to provide free advertising for Amazon and their products on our blog.  In exchange, every time someone accesses Amazon.com through a link on our blog, we get a small kickback from the sale of up to 15% of the sale total donated to our team for the 3 Day.  It's just as simple as that! 

To support Relentless Optimism in this way, anytime you are doing any shopping on Amazon.com, please visit either Kristen Walks or the Relentless Optimism fundraising blog first.  Then scroll down the right hand sidebar of either site until you see the Amazon search box under the heading "Support Relentless Optimism by Shopping with Amazon!".  Enter whatever it is you're looking for in the search box and you will be automatically redirected to the Amazon.com website to make your purchase just like you normally would.  Once you're there, you can add as many items to your shopping cart as you want.  You only have to click through our website when you first enter the Amazon website.  And that's it.  You don't have to add an additional donation to your total or enter a promotional code or anything!

Please note that regardless of which blog you access Amazon through, all of the funds generated through this program will be donated to Relentless Optimism as a team.

Oh, and one last point.  If you are using an ad-blocking program, you will not be able to view either the Amazon ads at the bottom of each post or the Amazon search box (although the "Support Us..." heading should still show up).  Simply turning off your ad blocker will make them visible.  Trust me, I learned this one the dumb way.

So now that we've made it so easy to support us, what are you waiting for?  Get shopping on Amazon today!

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My 3 Day Birthday Wish List!

Today is my birthday!  In honor of my birthday, I thought I would share with you guys the things that I'm hoping to get this year.

1.  A new camera

I've had a Canon Powershot S2 IS for the last few years and it's been a great camera.  It still is, actually.  The only problem with it is that it's pretty bulky.  It was also kind of expensive.  Because of that, I can't carry it with me for the 3 Day event, a prime picture taking event if there ever were one.  In fact, I don't even really like to carry it with me on training walks, although I love taking pictures as I walk.  So this year, I've got my eye on a new, smaller P & S camera that I can easily shove in my pack for 3 Day events and training walks.  I'm currently deciding between the Canon PowerShot SD1300 IS and the Nikon Coolpix S3000.  Thankfully, my loving husband is going to get me one for my birthday this year.  Thank you Michael!

Canon Powershot SD1300 IS (L) and the Nikon Coolpix S3000 (R)

2.  A 16G iPod Nano

Even though I've had other MP3 players in the past, I've never owned a real iPod.  In the past, I've always had Creative players that worked fine (minus an issue with the headphone jack).  However, when I switched to a MacBook over a year ago, I was suddenly unable to connect to my old, falling apart MP3 player.  I can listen to music on my Droid Eris phone while I train, but I would much prefer to get my hands on a hot pink iPod Nano.  That way, I can switch to the Nike + route tracking system as well!

I love pink electronics!

3.  New sneakers

Truth time:  I haven't bought new sneakers since before the 2008 Atlanta 3 Day.  In fact, despite all the walking miles and even running miles I've put on my trusty Asics GT-2130s (similar to these), I'm still wearing them.  I am long since due for new sneakers, and thanks to my wonderful parents, I'm finally getting them for my birthday this year.  I've been pretty loyal to Asics the last few years, so I'll probably stick with them again this time around.  I would love to get something flashy and hot pink, but I'm going to listen to the wise people at Phidippides running store when I go to get fitted this weekend.

 I would look seriously cool in these Asics Gel-NIMBUS 11s!

4.  Donations.  Lots and lots of donations.

What I want more than anything else for my birthday this year is donations to the 3 Day.  As of today, I am 30 years old.  If 30 people donated $30 to the 3 Day, I would only be $100 short of my minimum.  So if you're reading this and you can donate $30 (or more!), please do it!  It would make my day.  And if you can only spare $10 today, please think about entering either our March Madness or our Fug Madness tournaments.  Every dollar that we raise goes to support breast cancer research that will help save lives in the future.  And that's what I really want for this birthday and for every other birthday:  A world without breast cancer!

Click here to donate in support of my efforts for the 2010 Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure! 

       

All about our latest team fundraising contests!

Our team for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure is currently running our final two fundraising contests: March Madness and it's more fashionable cousin Fug Madness, courtesy of www.gofugyourself.com.  The basics of both contests are laid out here and more information is available at our team fundraising blog.

March Madness

This is the big one!  In the grand tradition of March Madness pools everywhere, we have set up a pool where everyone can submit their brackets predicting who will win the 2010 NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship tournament.  For those that don't know, the NCAA March Madness tournament features the top 64 men's college basketball teams.  The teams are divided into four brackets and the tournament is single elimination until only one team is remaining and is crowned National Champion.  

For our March Madness pool, we are using the brackets and tournament set up at www.ESPN.com.  The name for our league on ESPN is "Relentless Optimism" and the password to join our league is "Optimism".  In order to enter, you will be asked to sign up for a free ESPN.com account if you don't already have one.  From there, you will be asked to pick a winner for each game in the tournament.  Don't worry if you don't know anything about college basketball, you can just guess.  Who knows, you may pick a long shot that goes all the way!  Each correct pick will win you points, with the later rounds of the tournament being worth more points than the earlier rounds.  The person with the highest total points in our league at the conclusion of the final game on April 5th will win our cash prize.  Please note that there is a play in game on Tuesday, March 16th that we will not be scoring in our contest.

The NCAA tournament starts in the afternoon on Thursday, March 18th.  Our league will officially be closed to new entries when the first game starts, so be sure to get your brackets in early. 

Click here to visit the Relentless Optimism March Madness League page on ESPN.com

For more information about the March Madness fundraiser, please visit this page on the Relentless Optimism team blog.

Fug Madness

The second tournament-style contest that we will be running is called "Fug Madness".  If you prefer fashion to foul shots, this is the contest for you!  Fug Madness is run by the hilarious ladies at www.gofugyourself.com.  For those that don't know, Go Fug Yourself is a very funny blog written by two girls expressing their feelings on all of the wacky things that celebrities wear out in public.  Fug Madnessis their annual contest to determine who was the worst dressed celebrity of the previous year.  The "Fug Girls", as the authors are called, will be releasing their ranked list of the top 64 worst dressed celebrities, also broken down into four brackets.  Then, as with March Madness, each celebrity faces off head to head with their opponent, with the readers of Go Fug Yourself voting to determine the winner.  Celebs are eliminated one at a time until only one person is left standing.  To read more about how Fug Madness works, please visit the FAQ page.

 
To enter our contest, you will need to download a copy of the Fug Madness bracket and fill it in on your own, selecting which person you think will come out on top in each head to head match up.  A downloadable, fill in - able PDF version of the bracket can be found by clicking on the link below.  When you're done, email your completed brackets (with your name and email address) back to me at kscincotta@gmail.com and I will compile them.

 
Click here to get the downloadable Fug Madness Bracket!

 

Scoring will be done exactly like in March Madness, with correct predictions in later rounds being worth more points than earlier round picks.  The first match ups kick off on Thursday, March 18th at which point we will no longer be accepting entries.  Please note that just like in March Madness, there is also a play in "game" for Fug Madness that will not be scored in our league.  Results will be updated here on the team fundraising blog throughout the tournament.  The person in our league with the most points following the championship game on April 5th will be declared the winner.  

 
For more information about the Fug Madness fundraiser, please visit this page on the Relentless Optimism team blog.

 
Important Notes

Please note that both contests are fundraisers for our team for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure.  For each entry that you submit to either contest, we are requesting a $10 donation to our 3 Day team.  Donations can be made using the Paypal "Donate" button at the top right hand side of our team fundraising blog, which can be found here.  Clicking the links to either bracket will take you away from this site, so please bookmark it so that you remember to make your donations.

The winner of each contest will receive a cash prize equal to half the money collected for that specific contest.  If a member of Relentless Optimism wins either contest, all of the money from that contest will be donated to our team for the 3 Day.  If there is a tie in either contest, a name will be chosen from a hat to determine the recipient of the cash prize for that contest.

Finally, word of mouth is the most effective tool we have to generate entries for these contests.  The more entries we get, the larger the cash prize for the winner and more importantly, the more money we can raise for a really great cause.  Even if you don't enter yourself, please pass on this information to anyone that you think might be interested. 

Conan, Twitter and the Breast Cancer 3 Day

On March 5th, Conan O'Brien wrote the following on his Twitter page:

"I've decided to follow someone at random. She likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. Sarah Killen, your life is about to change."

What he didn't know was that, in a way, a lot of people's lives were about to change because of one little Tweet.  That's because Sarah Killen (or @LovelyButton) is walking in the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure in Michigan this year.

As you are probably aware, Conan is the former host of The Tonight Show on NBC.  After a rather spectacular series of shows earlier this year, Conan's gig abruptly ended, with Jay Leno returning to host The Tonight Show in his place.  With no show left to host, Conan had a lot of time on his hands.  And as we are all wont to do these days, he spent his free time on the internet.  On February 24th, Conan made his way to Twitter, quickly gaining what is now 662,876 followers.  Clearly, the public missed Conan in his absence.

A few days later, Conan posted the tweet that I wrote above.  Sarah Killen was chosen at random from the zillions of folks on Twitter to be the one and still only person that Conan is following on Twitter.  And, as predicted, her life has changed since then, going from just three followers pre-Conan to 27,870 followers now.  She's also made a slew of media appearances and received countless gifts to help her plan and pay for her upcoming wedding.

So what does one do with overnight internet fame?  Well, if you're Sarah Killen, you use your fame to do something AWESOME.  Just 8 hours after Conan's tweet about her, Sarah posted a link to her fundraising page for the 2010 Michigan Breast Cancer 3 Day. In the nine days since then, Sarah has already raised $3085, with many of the donations coming from Conan's loyal fans.  (Seriously, you should check out her Fundraising Honor Roll on her page!).  Sarah's mother, who can be found on Twitter as @Sarahkmom, is also signed up for the Michigan 3 Day on Sarah's team, which is fittingly called "LovelyButton" after her now famous Twitter account.

I don't know if Sarah was planning to do the 3 Day or not before Conan changed her life.  She only had her Twitter account for a few days before that and hadn't mentioned it before.  In the end, that doesn't matter.  What is so awesome about this story is how one person is using her fame to do something big that will literally change the lives of breast cancer patients everywhere.  That $3085 that she's raised so far, the significantly more money that she'll almost definitely raise in the coming months and the $2300+ that her mother will raise will help women and men everywhere by funding important breast cancer research.  And that's worth praising, I think.

Well played, Conan.  You picked a great girl to follow!

The "Magic Trick" to Fundraising

One of my teammates was recently feeling a bit stressed about her fundraising.  Despite the walk still being months away, she was concerned about making her minimum.  Specifically, she wanted to know what the "magic trick" was to generating donations and raising money.  I wanted to share what I wrote back to her because I think it's a good reminder for everyone trying to do this seemingly impossible task that is raising money for the 3 Day.

To my teammates (and now to anyone doing the 3 Day),

The answer is there is no magic trick.  Fundraising takes a long time and the best way to succeed at it is to just keep going.  Don't give up because you haven't seen any early action.  The donations will absolutely come when the time comes!

In my experience, some people will reply to a request right when you send it, but they tend to be in the minority.  More often, people will save your email, bookmark your page, and/or just make a mental note to remember to donate in the future.  Sometimes people are waiting for a paycheck to turn over or for a month where they have less bills to pay.  I suspect a lot of people are waiting for tax returns (note to self - make a donation push on April 16th!).  And I know that donations always pick up about a month before the event.  Even with our fundraising contests, we've been getting 3/4 of the entries in the last three days or so before the contest.  Right now, people are thinking they have months to get their donations in.  When it gets down to crunch time, people will step up!

Also, I've found the hardest thing to get past is worrying about people saying no.  Don't decide for people whether they will give or not.  Ask absolutely everyone.  If they can't donate, they can't.  You aren't going to make anyone angry just by asking.  And if people can't donate, ask them to ask five other people for you instead.

Last thing - the more reminders you can give people, the better.  I was worried that I was starting to overwhelm people with all these contests and things, but this week I've gotten a couple responses saying "Keep the emails coming!  Let me know about everything!".  People like reminders and the more reminders they get, the more likely the are to follow through with a donation.  Again, no one is going to get mad at you for asking for donations to such a worthy cause.

So moral of the story:  just keep doing it.  Don't assume that people have decided not to give at all just because they haven't donated yet.  We can and we will all do this!!

Good luck team!
K

Fundraising Update - Halfway to $2300!

It's little early for my weekly recap, but I wanted to share some good news:  I'm officially halfway to my fundraising minimum for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure event in Boston!  I was really excited to find this letter from the 3 Day folks in my inbox this morning and I thought I would pass it on.  I also wanted to thank everyone that has donated so far - I couldn't do it without you!  Now, onward to $2300...

Congratulations! You have reached a huge milestone in your Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure™ journey: reaching half of the $2,300 fundraising minimum. You are so close to experiencing the event of a lifetime. You can do it!

Your fundraising efforts are invaluable. The dollars raised by dedicated women and men like you are making immense developments in the breast cancer movement.

Did you know that virtually every major advance in the fight against breast cancer has been touched by Susan G. Komen for the Cure®? That we've helped train more than 400 breast cancer researchers and funded more than 1,800 research projects over the past 27 years? That we've provided more money for breast cancer research and community health programs than any entity besides the U.S. government? Komen for the Cure's goal is to "energize science to find the cures.” We are proud of our contribution to some real victories:

More early detection - nearly 75 percent of women over 40 years old now receive regular mammograms, the single most effective tool for detecting breast cancer early (in 1982, less than 30 percent received a clinical exam).

More hope - the five-year survival rate for breast cancer, when caught early before it spreads beyond the breast, is now 98 percent (compared to 74 percent in 1982).

More research - the federal government now devotes more than $900 million each year to breast cancer research, treatment and prevention (compared to $30 million in 1982).

More survivors - America’s 2.5 million breast cancers survivors, the largest group of cancer survivors in the U.S., are a living testament to the power of society and science to save lives.

Thank you for your help in eradicating breast cancer. We couldn’t do it without you and applaud your efforts this far. We know you can meet your goal so we can reach our goal of a world without breast cancer. Keep up the great work!

If you need any help getting to the next step, call the Komen 3-Day for the Cure coaches at 800-996-3DAY for advice.

Breast Cancer Fact: Breast cancer knows no boundaries—be it age, gender, socio-economic status or geographic location.

What the heck is a Widget?

It's time to talk about widgets!  Widgets, for those who don't know, are small snippets of HTML code that you can embed in all kinds of places around the web.  Once the code is translated, they show up as small images and/or links.   For our 3 Day purposes, widgets allow us to tell the wide world of the internet all about the 3 Day and our fundraising efforts.  There are two types of widgets that are available for us 3 Dayers and I'm going to talk all about both of them here.

The Facebook Widget

The 3 Day Facebook widget has been the topic of much discussion over on the 3 Day message boards.  It was a new application last year and people were clamoring to get their hands on the new widget for this year.  Last week, their wishes were granted and the new 3 Day Facebook App was released.  This widget isn't really a widget at all.  It's actually an application that was designed by the 3 Day folks to work seamlessly with Facebook to help track fundraising.  This application does two things:

1.  It adds an interactive box to your Facebook Profile page directly underneath your profile picture.  This box has a fundraising thermometer of sorts to show how close you are to your fundraising goals for the 3 Day.  It also has a "donate" button that links directly to your personal page on the 3 Day website to make it really easy for your Facebook friends to make their donations.  This box looks like this:

 

 2.  It posts a notice on your wall and in your "Friend Feed" everytime you get another donation.  None of the specifics of the donation show up, it's just a short notice to your friends.  There is also a link back to your personal page on the 3 Day website in this post.  Notices look like this:

If you prefer to only have the profile box and not the notices, there is an option to turn the notices off.  I think you can select this during installation of the application (we'll get there in a minute).  If you can't or if you've since changed your mind and don't want the notices, it is very easy to turn them off.  Simply click on "Account" (top right hand corner of any Facebook page) and select "Application Settings" from the drop down menu.  That will bring you to a list of your current Facebook Apps.  Find "Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure" and click "Edit Settings".  From there you can edit the App however you want.  The box will look like this:

To turn off the notices, simply click on the "Additional Permissions" tab and deselect "Publish to streams". 

Now here's my advice:  Don't turn off the notices!  The more that you can remind people about the 3 Day and all the effort you're putting into it, the better.  If people don't want to see the notices, they can always hide them themselves.  But you deserve credit for all your hard work - show off your successes and be proud of yourself!

So how do you get the Facebook Application?  Again, the 3 Day folks have made this really simple.  First, sign in to your Participant Center.  Right there on the front page, you will see some notes titled "Next Steps".  At the bottom of the list, you'll see the information about installing the Facebook Application.  It'll look something like this:

From there, you just click the blue box and do what it says.  It will ask you to log in to Facebook and give the application permission to access your account.  All of this is standard for Facebook apps.  Once you finish, you're all set.  You don't have to do anything else - the application does all the work for you!

A few short notes on the Facebook App.  If you decide you don't like it, you can always uninstall it at anytime.  Unfortunately, only walkers and crew can install this application, so your husband or Mom or best friend can't add it to their pages.  And finally, if you are participating in more than one event, you can only use the Facebook App to fundraise for one event at a time.  Once you reach your goal for your first event, you will need to uninstall the first app and reinstall the app for your second event.  Kind of a pain in the butt, but if you're already putting in the work for multiple events, I'm guessing you're okay with it!

So that's the Facebook Application.  Install it, use it, love it!

The 3 Day Widget

So what if you don't use Facebook but still want to show off your fundraising around the web?  Well, there's a second widget just for that purpose!  This widget truly is a widget.  That is, using your personal fundraising goal, the 3 Day website will generate a short string of HTML code that you can then copy and paste anywhere you want that uses HTML.  You can use it in on your websites blogs (as I've done over there in the right hand sidebar), you can use it in email signatures or you can even embed it on your Facebook page if you prefer.  The possibilities really are endless. 

To get the widget from the 3 Day website, you first need to click over to the Widget page on your Participant Center.  You can find that link in the left hand menu on the top of your Participant Center main page.  It looks like this:

The link for the Widget page is second to last.  At the top of the page is the information about installing the Facebook Application.  Below that is all the information you need to generate to your HTML snippet.  Just follow the instructions that are listed there and you're set.  Very straightforward!

So now that you've got your snippet, how do you use it?  If you want to embed it in your email signature, you can find the information about doing that right there on that page.  Since it's all laid out there, I won't go into that.  If you want to add it to a Blogger blog like this one, start by clicking on the link to "Customize" your blog layout.  Then click "Add Gadget" and search for the HTML box.  Paste your HTML snippet in the box and click "Save".  From there, you just need to position it where you want on the page and save your changes.  Again, pretty easy.

What about Facebook?  Well, honestly, if you want something on Facebook, I recommend the Facebook Application.  However, you can use this widget on Facebook as well.  Since this widget seems to be available even when the Facebook App isn't, it might be worthwhile to walk through how I did this.  Since it's a little involved, I'm going to go step by step here.

Step 1: Install the "Profile HTML" application on Facebook.  You can find it by searching through the applications.  Don't confuse it with "Profile Box", that's something similar but different.

Step 2:  During installation of that application, paste your HTML snippet into the box.  You can adjust the size of the widget if you need to.  I think I made it slightly smaller, but I can't remember.

Step 3:  Publish as a "Profile Box".

Step 4:  On your main page, click on the "Account" menu (again,top right hand side) and select "Application Settings".  Find "Profile HTML" on the list of applications and select "Edit Settings".

Step 5:  Add "Box".  This will publish the widget to your "Boxes" tab.

Step 6:  Click back to your Profile page and select the Boxes tab to view the widget.  If you chose, you can relocate this box to your main profile page, under your profile picture.  To do this, click on the small "edit" pencil in the upper right hand corner of the widget box.  From there, select "Move to Wall Tab".  It'll look something like this (click to enlarge):

And that's it!  It should now be on your main profile page.  This widget isn't quite as informative as the box generated by the 3 Day Facebook App.  This box only lists your fundraising goal, not how much money you've raised to date.  There is a donate button though which your Facebook friends can use to make donations, which is the most important part.  The final box will look like this:

So now you know everything I know about using the 3 Day widgets.  I tried to be as thorough as I could be because I think when these widgets are used well, they can be incredibly useful fundraising tools.  I also think people tend to get intimidated when you start talking about HTML and things like that.  So that's my take away message here.  The 3 Day folks made these widgets as user friendly as possible.  Don't be afraid to take advantage of them and good luck!

Last Call for our Fantasy Winter Olympics League!

I just wanted to remind everyone that entries for our Fantasy Winter Olympics League are due by 8pm tonight to be eligible to win our cash prize!

For our Fantasy Winter Olympics League, each participant will be asked to select 12 countries to comprise their team.  Over the course of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, we'll be tracking how many medals each country wins.  In the end, the team whose countries have won the most medals will be crowned champion of our league and will win a cash prize equal to half the money raised for this contest. As always, we are only asking for a $10 donation to our team per entry and you can enter as many times as you like.  The more times you enter, the better your chance to win!

All of the details about our Fantasy Olympics League, including instructions about how to enter, can be found in the official contest blog post.  

 

(Cross-posted from the Relentless Optimism Fundraising Blog)

The Super Bowl Contest - RESULTS!

The results are in for the Relentless Optimism Super Bowl contest!  

You can see all of the details about the contest and find out who won over on our team fundraising blog.  While you're there, you can also read about all of ongoing fundraising efforts, including our Fantasy Winter Olympics League which is taking entries until 8pm on Thursday, February 11th.  Get your entries in today so you don't miss out!

Reminder!

We are currently accepting entries for two fundraising contests over at the Relentless Optimism team blog!

First and foremost, we are only accepting entries for our Super Bowl fundraiser until 8pm tomorrow night.  We've had a good number of entries thus far with more sure to come in tomorrow, meaning our cash prize just keeps growing.  If you strongly believe in the Power of Peyton or the Brilliance of Brees, put your money where your mouth is and enter our contest.  If you have no idea what that means, you should still enter the contest.  In the end, it's really all about who makes the best guesses anyways.  Besides, even if you lose, the money we raise is going to a great cause!  Just don't hesitate -  get your entries in before it's too late!

Second, we opened up "registration" for our Fantasy Winter Olympics League on Monday morning.  Each participant in our league will be asked to select 12 countries to comprise their team.  Over the course of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, we'll be tracking how many medals each country wins.  In the end, the team whose countries have won the most medals will be crowned champion of our league and will win a cash prize equal to half the money raised for this contest.  Opening Ceremonies are in a little over a week, so register your team today!

As always, we are only asking for a $10 donation per entry per contest to be entered to win the cash prize.  Enter as many times as you want, there's no limit.  Finally, the more people that enter, the larger the cash prize and the more money we can raise for our Breast Cancer 3 Day team so please help us get the word out to anyone that you know that might be interested!

To learn more about the Super Bowl Contest, please click here.  To learn more about the Fantasy Winter Olympics League, please click here.