Fundraising Tips From the Pros (AKA other participants)!

Fundraising Tip #1

Let your friends know about your training regimen! Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare is so inspiring because it’s NO SMALL FEAT to swim 1.2 miles across Cayuga Lake. So, we train! We do laps in the pool, lift weights, and start swimming regularly in the lake in the months and weeks leading up to the big Saturday swim. Your friends and family will be impressed to learn how you’re getting ready. And they’ll get excited about sponsoring you!

Fundraising Tip #2

Make giving fun for your friends! Kerry Barnes, veteran Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare swimmer, has a tradition every year of letting her supporters vote on which crazy looking bathing suit she’ll have to wear for the swim. Other fun ideas: Offer incentive prizes to your 10th, 20th, or 100th donor—like a framed photo of you wearing a swim cap, or little cartoons sent to them on a postcard, or chocolate. Note: Making giving fun doesn’t have to mean adding lots of extra work for yourself. You can dream up simple, amusing twists that are easy to fulfil.

Fundraising Tip #3

Thank publicly. In addition to thanking your supporters by email and in person, also consider thanking them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and whatever other social media you use regularly. It can be as simple as using the comments thread in your main fundraising post to thank each new donor individually. Your friends/followers will see what’s going on and think about sponsoring your Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare or Go the Distance campaign too.

Fundraising Tip #4

Your Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare fundraising goal is SMART!
Specific
Measurable
Action-oriented
Realistic
Time-bound!

We think this is part of Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare is so successful: It’s definitely specific (I.e. sponsor my 1.2 miles swim!), measurable (in dollars), action-oriented (you have to ask for support to get it), realistic (most people can raise $300 or even $3,000 from friends and family in several month’s time), and time-bound: by Saturday, August 12!

Fundraising Tip #6

Celebrate every success along the way!

For example...

Reach 10 donations? Paint all 10 toenails or treat yourself to Sweet Melissa's softserve.
Get a gift from someone in a faraway land? Enjoy a special dish traditional to that country's cuisine—something you’ve never cooked before.
Reach your $300 fundraising minimum? Send a celebratory thanks to all the people who donated so far, letting them know! And raise your fundraising goal, especially if there's still more than a few days to go before your swim!
  
Fundraising Tip #7

Have FUN thanking your supporters! Some ideas to spark your creativity:

-Tell them where you were when the notification of their gift reached you. How did the news of their gift make you feel? (Donors get a lot of pleasure hearing about this effect of their generosity!)
-When you get a text from OneCause about a gift, reply THANK within an hour of the notification to have the system send a thank you email for you. This is your chance to customize a thanks too.
-Remind your supporters why their support matters to you: why do YOU care about Hospicare?
-Mail an old-fashioned thank you note through the postal service, complete with a little doodle by you of a swimmer, a bird, a tree, or anything fun...
-Thank your supporters in verse! My bathing suit is red/ Lake water’s blue/I’m doing this swim/all thanks to you! (Or another little poem of your own composition!)
-Thank your supporters online, in the comments thread of your latest post about Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare.
-Invite all your supporters to meet you out somewhere for a cold beer or lemonade on the Tuesday after the swim (you should be rested up by then). One of the event's longtime swimmers throws a big party at her house the week after the swim. 
-Send swim pics! Send your supporters a photo of you on Swim Day, whether you are in the lake or on shore with spectators cheering on the swimmers and boaters.