Each year we will select two teams to be in our best practices section. If you would like to be considered for our best practices section please inform your Teams Liaison.
Best Practices:
Team El Paso
Team Cpt: Susan Gilbreath, Team Members: 20, Donations: $5,300, Donations to Members Ratio: $265
Kickoff breakfast Our team began our Race season with a breakfast that was free for El Paso employees. A member of our Affiliate’s Speaker’s Bureau gave a brief presentation during the breakfast. Our company President was there and he kicked things off, and then announced the speaker. This really helped in getting employees on board with the campaign. There was an educational materials table; with Komen lapel pins and pink bracelets for sale also. Tables were decorated with hot pink and silver table cloths, and we used centerpieces with hot pink helium balloons attached. The table cloths and centerpieces can be reused from year to year. We had a $350 budget for the breakfast (for 100 people), and the budget included three gift card door prizes ($15 each for Target, Barnes & Noble, and Dick’s)
Lapel (pink ribbon) pins and pink bracelets These were sold throughout the campaign. Komen provided the lapel pins for free, and we sold them for $1 each. The pink bracelets were purchased on E-bay (for about 20 cents each if bought in bulk), and then sold for $3. During the campaign, we made announcements that, if employees were spotted wearing their pins or bracelets, they may win a door prize. Several $15 gift cards were randomly given out as door prizes to employees wearing their pin or bracelet.
Design a Team T-shirt Our company designed its own team race t-shirt. This encouraged participation and we solicited ideas from employees on the design of the t-shirt. We gave our team t-shirt to all employees (and family members who participated on Team El Paso) who registered for the race. Cost of the t-shirts was about $8 each, and was part of our approved budget.
Educational materials Most of the educational materials used throughout the campaign is located on Komen National web site: [Understanding Breast Cancer]. But our affiliate office can also provide these materials at no cost. Contact Kelly at 930-8886.
Susan Gilbreath
Team El Paso Team Captain
2010 Race Co-Chair
Need some ideas on how to Fundraise? [Here some help]
Download 2010 Race for for the Cure Poster [Click Here]
Best Practices
Jefferson County Pink Crusaders
Team Cpt: Stacey Lange, Team Members: 33, Donations: $4,200, Donations to Members Ratio: $128
We have never done all of these in the same year, but we usually start in August and go through the end of October. Some of these will raise several hundred dollars in one event and others will raise small amounts consistently over the course of the entire event.
Good Ole Fashioned Bake Sale A good ole fashioned bake sale is easy to do and can net quite a profit. The trick is to have people bake really good treats and have a large variety. For example, I usually do one right around the time of the race. I go all out and make 20 – 40 caramel/chocolate and candied apples. These are in-demand items and people will pay as much as $5 for one of the caramel and chocolate apples. We also have a woman who makes wonderful pumpkin bread. She will bake several miniature loaves and we can get $3 per loaf. The key is to have people donate baked goods and set-up and advertise so that you will get to most foot traffic. Try a snack sale, or even a Pizza/Hot Dog sale!!!!
Penny Wars Departments compete with each other to fill their jar with pennies. You can get plastic jars from most dollar stores that are great for this event. Set the jars out for about 1 month. The goal is to get as many pennies as you can and as few silver change as possible. However, other departments can place silver change in competitor’s jars. To keep score at the end of the competitions, you count up how many pennies there are in each jar then subtract the amount in the same jar that was silver or paper money. The jar with the most wins. Also works with pocket change instead of just pennies.
Casual Dress Days Depending on the dress code in your office you can relax the rules for a nominal fee. Jeans and t-shirt days work well in an office that is typically business casual. All you do is designate a specific time period where employees can wear jeans to work, but they have to pay $1 (or more) to do so. An expansion on this is to allow people to where tasteful t-shirts with their jeans for an additional $1. Depending on your office, you can raise quite a bit of money all at a profit. My office does this for various things just about year round. We are allowed to wear jeans on Fridays now, but with pay-to-wear jean days there are some people in my office that pay to wear jeans Monday through Thursday as well.
Ribbon Walls Create your own Ribbon-shaped paper and designate a wall where people can buy a ribbon and place it on the wall with their name or a loved one’s name on it. Donation cards are available through the Komen Office.
Rummage/Yard Sale A rummage or yard sale is really easy to do and has very little in start-up costs. Basically all you need to do is collect unwanted items from team members and friends and hold one big sale. It works best if you have a nice variety of items as well as some larger items. A lot of people will do a drive by to see if your sale is worthy of stopping so do your best to get some key items to draw them in. All the money from the sale is pure profit. Depending on the items you have for sale, you can raise a large portion of your money in one day. When your sale is over you can donate any remaining items to a local charity.
Movies/T.V. Shows at Lunch Designate days where you will show a certain movie (or part of a movie), or T.V. show and everyone pays a fee ($1- $3) to participate. You can also sell snacks at the event to raise additional money.
T-shirt Sponsorships You would be surprised at how many coworkers have their own “side” business and are willing to donate $100 or so to have their company/business logo on the back of your teams’ t-shirt. I even asked my husband’s company if they were interested and another employee got their parent’s company to be our sponsor.
Stacey Lange
Jefferson County Pink Crusaders Team Captain
2007 & 2008 Race Planning Committee Volunteer Chair