thanking great strides donors

[izemmom]

Any one have any creative ways that they thank great strides donors or walkers? I'm looking for something beyond a note or e-mail that will not A. cost me a fortune or B. require me to make a huge effort to get the thank you's out in a timely manner.

How are fundraising campaigns foing for others out there? We've been very pleasantly surprised with our first-ever Great Strides campaign!

Tami

mom to Isabelle 3 yr. no cf
and Emily 4 1/2 months w/cf

 

[Jane]

Tami,

We usually take a team picture and send it out with thank-yous. Our site does a cook-out for families, but before that we had a post-walk cook-out at our house for the team. Another cute idea I've seen is for you to take a picture at the walk of your kids holding a sign that says "thank you".

My kids are too grown up to do cutesy stuff like that now, they come to the walk to hang with their friends but they don't want any attention. My 14 yr old designed new team shirts for us last year because he thought our traditional team logo was too babyish and he would be embarrassed in front of his friends.

We always do very well fundraising with a letter campaign. I've always added updated pictures and health info about the boys. As my kids grew older, they asked me to not be so specific about their illness in the letter so that their classmates won't ask too many questions. Once my son was reading over my shoulder when I was typing the letter and he said "Aw Mom, do you have to say MUCUS in it? that's just gross!". Now I always add ...for more information about cf, please go to the cff website... lol

Good luck!

Jane

 

[anonymous]

I write a letter saying how much money our team raised, total for the walk. Maybe indicate how many people or teams were there, what the weather was like -- first year we were the only walk in the region who had snow on that day. Then I paste a few photos thru out the letter. Picture of people walking, of family members with DS, the team with the GS banner. I fold the letter into thirds, slap on a clear address label and mail it out I've seen others either create post cards with a photo of the walk and others have just emailed the letter.

Liza

 

[Abby]

At our first walk three years ago, we bought t-shirts that had our team name on the front and the CF Great Strides logo on the back for all 60 walkers on our team. I'm lucky enough to know somebody with a screen printing business, he donated his time and the t-shirts and we paid for the ink he used. It was a pre-walk thank you gift that they've worn every year since. I also send out a newsletter-thank you after the walk telling them how Abby's been doing, total donations collected for team and walk site and a picture of Abby. I haven't thought of anything more creative than that for thank you's, so I'm interested in seeing what other people do as well.

Fundraising is going slow this year, I wasn't planning on getting as involved as I have in the past, but a few weeks ago, I was informed that they have nobody to organize this years walk and I said I would do it. So, just sent some letters out and need to get a few wraps planned.

Good luck!

 

[anonymous]

We sent out thank you cards with 2 pictures from the event printed on them along with the total amount we raised and how much we appreciated it. I just used inexpensive generic thank you cards from Walmart and printed them at home - it was easy. We also enclosed coupons for a free personal pizza that a local pizza place donated for each basic donation and then better coupons for the larger donations (like free movie tickets, gift certificates to restraunts, etc). Then we had a carry-in cookout for all of our walkers/fundraisers. We did that a month or so after the walk so it was nice bc things had slowed waaaay down by then.

HTh,
Kelli - mom of Sydney 2.5 wcf

 

[Seana30]

Tami

If you will give me your e-mail address I can send you what the CF Foundation e-mailed me.

It is a bunch of different appreciation certificates. We printed these out, signed them, went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of frames and framed the certificate.

Everyone really seemed to enjoy these!!

Seana

 

[anonymous]

We gave all of our walkers a shirt and I also had a party for them and had the kids design their own little foam visors to wear the day of the walk.

Afterwards, we took a team picture and printed them on postcards and mailed them to everyone that donated.

 

[Seana30]

Tami......tried to e-mail you the certificates but it kept getting returned.

Does you have another e-mail address I can use?

my e-mail is

jlofton@elp.rr.com

Seana

 

[vinsmom]

We make photo thank you cards....like the ones you send out at Xmas. You can buy them fairly cheap at Costco/Sam's club and do them online.