9 Ways Nonprofits Can Use the Delaware Charity Challenge to Raise Money

With the Delaware Charity Challenge's "Race to Raise" Fundraising Challenge a month away, many nonprofits have been asking "How can we raise money with the Delaware Charity Challenge?" Here are nine suggestions.

If you haven't formed or joined a team yet, registration is open from now until April 17, 2015. Forming a team is as easy as going to the Delaware Charity Challenge registration page and creating one (or if one of your friends has already created a team, you can search for their team name and join it). If you are creating a team, you will be automatically sent to the Delaware Charity Challenge CrowdRise page after you register for the race. There, you can select the charity you want to raise money for and edit your team's fundraising page.

The team fundraising page is the centerpiece to the Race to Raise Challenge. Your team will have a custom URL, and you can share that page with your friends and through social media channels like Facebook. There will be a virtual leaderboard of all of the teams and charities in the race that will provide real-time updates on which team is in the fundraising lead. At the end of the "Race to Raise" fundraising challenge, the top three charities that have raised the most money will be awarded prize money from the prize pool.

The fundraising challenge runs from January 1 to May 1, 2015. There are many ways to raise money during this challenge period. Nine of them are listed below.

1. Ask. There is a saying that you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. One of the easiest ways to ask is by sharing your team page with your Facebook friends and followers. Tell them about the Delaware Charity Challenge and how you are trying to win it. Ask them to support your team and your charity by donating money to the team's fundraising page. Donations to the team fundraising page go directly to the nonprofit.
2. Challenge another friend or group of friends to create their own team and designate the same charity beneficiary. Two teams raising money for the same charity has the potential to raise more money than one team and can create friendly competition between teams.
3. Challenge a competing charity to form a team and see who can raise the most money from their supporters. A little competition between similar entities can drive supporters to donate to their favorite cause and both charities come out ahead.
4. Create a team fundraising goal. Don't be afraid to aim high. For example, we're suggesting to official nonprofit teams that they should set a goal of $5,000 to $10,000. If you are a team of friends looking to raise money for a nonprofit, you may want to set a goal of between $3,000 and $5,000. If your goal is $3,000, that can be done in several ways. If you had 30 friends each donate $10, you will be 10 percent of the way there. If a few of them donate $100, even better. If you have five teammates and each of them do the same thing, you will be surprised by how much you raise (also see #1).
5. Tell a story. People love stories. Why did you pick that charity? What does it mean to you? If you can give a good reason as to why you support the charity you are raising money for, and keep it short (maybe 50 to 100 words), many of your friends will be more willing to donate. That story can be added to your team's fundraising page.
6. See if your employer matches charitable donations. Many employers do, and employees simply do not think to ask or even realize it. Talk to your HR department and see what is required.
7. Create a challenge within the challenge. For example, you can tell your friends that you are racing in the Delaware Charity Challenge 5K and that you will run the race in a chicken costume, but only if you can raise $X by the deadline. If you succeed in whatever this goal is, be sure you are willing to deliver on whatever you promise, and more importantly, deliver.
8. Find a generous supporter who is willing to match donations to the charity. On occasion, donors will offer charities a challenge grant opportunity such that they will match dollar for dollar for whatever that the charity raises over a fixed amount of time. Often these challenge grants are large. The Delaware Charity Challenge is a great opportunity to maximize the amount of money your organization can raise for the match if you have one of these challenge grants in place. For individual teams supporting a charity, you may be able to do the same thing if you can find the right donor.
9. Find a sponsor for your team. Maybe you know a business owner or have a good friend that does. Nothing prevents you from going to one of your local businesses and getting them to support the charity by donating to your team.

These are just a few ideas to help build your fundraising team page and raise money for your charity. If you have others, please feel free to let us know by commenting below or contacting us.