Fundraising

Run to Remember is serious about helping you meet your fundraising goals. If you are running a marathon, your commitment is to raise a minimum of $2,000. For a half marathon, your commitment is $1,500. We do not require anything other than your promise and commitment that you will raise the amount.

Once you have reached $1,000 toward your goal, Run to Remember will send you your race shirt with space for your loved one’s name on the back.

In that space, runners have put ribbons with their loved ones names; others have pinned pictures; still others have hand painted or spray painted names or used markers to write them. You can do whatever you can imagine. Whatever you decide, know that we will supply the shirt.

Help A Local Hospice As Part of Your Training and Fund Raising

While the National Hospice Foundation works on behalf of all hospice programs throughout the country, you may wish to direct the Foundation to share some of the donations you receive with a local hospice program of your choice or even your state’s hospice organization. If you do, The National Hospice Foundation will see that the hospice program you have chosen is mailed a check which constitutes a portion of what you raise.

If you do not designate a local hospice program, all of the funds you raise will go to the National Hospice Foundation. The decision is yours to make.

So, you can benefit hospice care both nationally as well as in your local community or state. You may select a local hospice as part of the registration process.

  

Online (Preferred Method)

Run to Remember, through its partnership with Active Giving, enables you to do all your fundraising online. Rather than writing a letter and mailing it to your supporters seeking donations, you can actually create your own web page—your online letter. When you are finished, just send the link to your friends and family. Ask them to send it along to even more people.

To proceed with creating your own personal fundraising page, read the following directions carefully. 1) Click on the "Register Now" button on the RTR website to sign up to the Run to Remember program. It is FREE to sign up!

2) Once you have registered you will receive an email confirming your enrollment in the Run to Remember program. The subject line for this e-mail is Registration Confirmation. Then you will receive a second email, confirming that you have established a user account with Active. Its subject line will be Welcome to Active.com. If you get these two e-mails, which you will, everything you need is set. You do not have do anything with either of them.

3) Then you will receive a third e-mail—THE IMPORTANT ONE. Its subject line will be Your Online Fundraising Page Has Been Created. Open this one and log into your personal fundraising page with the user name and password your selected when you registered.

4) Click on the link at the top of the page to customize your fundraising page. It’s easy and fun. When you are finished, save your page and be sure to note its URL. Send out this link to your page to friends and family members and ask them to make a contribution on this personal fundraising page.

There are two ways you can send out this link: 1) simply cut and paste or type out the link to the personal fundraising page into e-mails—whatever e-mail system you use (hotmail, yahoo, outlook, etc.) and send out the link that way, or 2) use the "Invite Others to Contribute" function. The Invite others to Contribute button appears on your personal fundraising page. So when you click on the "Invite others to Contribute", you fill in e-mail addresses in the spaces provided and the link to your fundraising page will automatically be included with the e-mails.

On ground

If you do not wish to use the digital tools to raise money on line, you will find everything you need here to raise money offline. It all starts with your solicitation letter.

Your Solicitation Letter.

The people to whom you send your letter should be drawn from family and friends, business associates, religious institutions, and school contacts. We have also found that thinking of people by categories helps in generating a list. Make a list of as many of these categories as you can and use the group to make lists of people you can mail to. The following categories may help you begin:

Family, friends, runners, hospice supporters, business owners, doctors, nurses, lawyers, realtors, co-workers, bankers, journalists, dentists, accountants, teachers, investment brokers, consultants, artists, advertising people, high school or college friends, anyone you have ever purchased services from...

Finally, think about senior citizens who may have had friends and families who benefited from hospice care. They know how it helped their friends and might consider supporting your effort.

You should vary the letter to make it fit you and your personal style, but it should contain the following key points:

  • Make sure your home address is prominently displayed.
  • Make the first paragraph issue a challenge to the reader.
  • Mention the date of your race and its name.
  • State that you are running in memory of a named person and to support the National Hospice Foundation.
  • Ask your donors to send you or e-mail you their home address and e-mails address.
  • Ask the recipient to write a check when they read the letter and to make it out to the National Hospice Foundation.
  • Take another opportunity to ask them to write the check
  • Say a heartfelt thank-you.

Mark each of the names on your list with the date the letter was sent

Send your solicitation letter in a business size envelope.

Together with your letter enclose a number 6 ¾ pre-addressed to the National Hospice Foundation, Dept. 6058, Washington, DC 20042-6058. Your donors will use this smaller envelope to send their donations to the Foundation. Finally, remember to stamp this envelope. When people see you have provided this stamped pre-addressed envelope, it increases the likelihood they will use it to send a contribution.

Give your donors who write checks instructions to send them to: the National Hospice Foundation, Dept. 6058, Washington, DC 20042-6058. In the memo section of their check, they should write your name and the name of the marathon or half marathon you are competing in.