Fundraising Tips WRITE IT DOWN A personalized letter is the most basic tool of fundraising, and that is because it works. Regardless of whatever else you do, write a letter first! Use it to explain the facts -- that you will be participating as a Runner in The Big Gay 10K and that you would like to offer them the opportunity to help the San Francisco AIDS Foundation prevent new HIV infections and promote health among those living with HIV. Include some facts about HIV/AIDS and the Foundation, and why this is important to you. Send your letter to everyone you have an address for, and then look for more addresses and send even more letters. Don't forget to include a donation form, and a pre-addressed return envelope. WORK THE NEIGHBORHOOD There are countless opportunities to raise money within a few miles of your home. Think about it: the coffee shop, gym, workplace, laundromat, car wash, supermarket, newsstand, dry cleaners, video store, dentist's office, bar, deli, parking lot, bike shop, and the pizza place. You patronize these businesses all of the time -- ask them to help you out with your fundraising effort. How? Just ask for the donation. Put a poster in the window, explaining what you are doing and how to help. Display a donation box and/or letters & donation forms on the counter. Ask the business to donate a portion of their proceeds on a given day. Offer to wear their name on your t-shirt in exchange for a donation. GET SOCIAL Making contact with as many people as possible will be key to your fundraising. Chances are, your friends and family will be more than happy to be a part of your fundraising campaign, but you will probably need to go beyond your inner circle. Throw a party!! Ask everyone who attends to write a check before they walk out the door. Host an event -- a film screening, boat cruise, or a band night in a local bar. Ask your friends to ask their friends for donations. Then ask their friends to ask their friends. BRING IT TO THE OFFICE Your place of work is another good source for donations. How can your business help: Just ask for money. Your company might be happy to donate to your >1 fundraising goal. Then, ask for more -- see if your company has a matching gift program. Send an e-mail to the entire company with a donation form attached. Set up a small display -- hang your >1 items or a poster in a prominent place. Approach clients, vendors, or anyone else that your company does business with (make sure it's OK with the boss!). Host a lunchtime meeting and do a presentation about the >1 Endurance Training Program and your commitment to the cause. GET CRAFTY Use your creativity, whatever it may be. Everyone has the ability to do something well; sell your product or skill to benefit your fundraising campaign. A few ideas: cookies, lapel pins, knit caps, poems, chili, short stories, tax preparation abilities, photographs, babysitting time, car washing, drawings, language tutoring, personal training, t-shirts, designated driving, dog-walking, errand-running, gardening.  Burn a CD of your favorite songs and use it as an incentive for a larger donation. SPECIAL EVENTS Birthday coming up? Ask for donations in lieu of presents. Have a holiday party and collect checks at the door. GARAGE SALE Time to get rid of all of those miscellaneous items in the garage and attic. Ask your friends to do the same. Put it in your front yard and sell, sell, sell! Make sure your signs let people know the proceeds are for charity. BAKE SALE Become Julia Child (and ask your friends to do the same) and host a bake sale. You can even have it in conjunction with your garage sale. ANSWERING MACHINE MESSAGE This will alert everyone who calls you at home that you are up to something special! Let them know that you need their support! INTERNET Post a message on an Internet chat room. You'd be amazed by how many people will be willing to help you. Don't forget to include the info in your online profile(s).  Lots of people are raising money on Facebook or MySpace; just make sure donors go thru the >1 Donation Page or you won't get credit for their contributions. FUNDRAISING DINNER AT YOUR LOCAL RESTAURANT Ask your favorite local restaurant to host a fundraising dinner for you. They supply the food and you supply the pledge forms!  Some restaurants will even program a register key for Donation; put an insert in the menus and encourage diners to add $5 to each meal.  Invite your friends for that night and fill the place! THEME PARTY/DINNER Hold a theme party for 10 (or more) of your friends. Donation: $50.00 per person. Spend no more than $20.00 per person on the food and you'll have $300.00 (or more) in donations by the end of the night. DELEGATE Give 10 of your friends 10 donation forms and ask them to help raise money for you. GREAT AUCTIONS Auctions at a party or event can be loads of fun and raise a lot of money.  Here are some ideas: Ticket donation - Ask your local movie house or theater to donate several tickets. Sell them and put the money towards your pledges. Creative Friends - Find a local artist or a creative friend to donate art or jewelry to be auctioned. Travel Agency - Do you always make your travel plans through the same agency? Ask them to donate a travel voucher. You can auction it off at one of your parties. Dates - Auction off your friends for dates. Let them strut their stuff and see who gets the biggest bid. COLOR DONATION FORMS Capture your recipients' attention. Send them in colored envelopes too. These will stand out among your friends' bills. SIGNING YOUR CORRESPONDENCE Get in the habit of signing your note cards and letters with your name and website address of  >1 (begreaterthanone.org). You will be surprised at how many people will ask you what that means. BUSINESS CARDS Print up some inexpensive business cards (you can even do it on your own computer). Have all of the pertinent information on the card including your name, participant number, name of the event, and your address (or PO Box #). Hand these out to everyone you meet! You can even design free or inexpensive business cards online! DOCTOR / THERAPIST / VETERINARIAN / INSURANCE AGENT / DENTIST / CHIROPRACTOR / YOGA INSTRUCTOR / MECHANIC Ask him/her to make a check out for you instead of the other way around! GYM OR SPINNING CLASS Ask your gym to place a Pledge Jar at the front desk! Leave a stack of pledge forms at the counter, too. HAIR SALON Ask your barber or hairdresser to donate $2.00 from every haircut they complete during the weekend. MOW-A-THON Get your kids involved in this weekend activity. Check ahead of time with all your neighbors and ask them if you can mow their lawn for $50.00. NEIGHBOR Write to all your neighbors on your block (or in your building). Attach a letter stating what you're training for and ask them to make a donation. GARDEN TOUR Check with a local historical society to see if they would sponsor a garden tour of one or several homes in your area. Promote the event in local newspapers. MEET THE PRESS Does your company distribute a newsletter? Does your company have an intranet message board? Take advantage of these! It's a perfect way to get the word out. NEIGHBORHOOD CHORES Are you a Mr. or Ms. Fix-it? A lot of your neighbors would probably rather pay you than someone else. Place signs around your neighborhood advertising your services (i.e. watering gardens, cleaning roof gutters, sweeping the driveway, fixing an easy plumbing problem, painting a room, etc.) KARAOKE NIGHT Spend a Friday night at a Karaoke Bar and sing your guts out! Have the announcer tell the crowd that you're singing for pledges. Who cares if you can't carry a tune? Have the crowd pledge you to stop singing! TALENTED FRIENDS Is there a little piano bar in your neighborhood? Do you have a talented piano-playing friend? Ask the owner to let you host a cocktail/piano fundraiser. Charge anyone who attends and let them know that it's a benefit for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. EBAY.COM Remember the garage sale idea? Auction off the remaining items on Ebay.com. SELL SPOKES Sell each bicycle spoke for $20.00 each. IN MEMORY OF... If you are riding in memory of a loved one, include a picture of them on your pledge letter, on posters, etc. TV SEASON FINALE PARTY Remember when Chandler married Monica? Remember when Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer ended up in jail? How about when Niles and Daphne sped off in an RV on the "Frasier" finale? Gather a big group and friends and watch a series finale. Charge them at the door of course, and put the $$ toward your fundraising. GAME NIGHT Get out those board games and start playing! Break into teams and let the fun begin. HOST A POKER GAME Call your serious (or not so serious) card-playing friends and invite them over for poker night. BOWLING NIGHTS Plan a fun night of bowling at the local alley. Ask the owner to waive the fees and you can collect that money and apply it to your campaign. USED BOOK SALE Old books sitting in the attic collecting dust? Ask your friends, family and neighbors to donate whatever they have and host a book sale in your front yard. Wear your >1 t-shirt and put up some signs so people will know where the money is going. LOCAL STORES Ask a local store manager what the hot selling item is these days and whether or not they would be willing to donate a % of sales from that particular item to you. DRESS DOWN DAY Ask your company to allow an official >1 Dress Down Day. For the privilege of dressing down, employees pledge $20.00 toward the ride. COMPANY GRANTS Find out if your company offers grants to employees who volunteer their time for charitable causes. If so, you can volunteer your time at the >1/San Francisco AIDS Foundation office and get paid grant money for the work. You may need a letter from us stating that you'll be volunteering in the office and we'd be happy to make that happen. CHURCH BULLETIN Place an advertisement in your church bulletin letting the congregation know what you're up to! RED RIBBON DISTRIBUTION Create small red ribbons to bring awareness to our fight against HIV/AIDS. Sell them to your friends, family members, etc. IS THERE A TEACHER IN THE HOUSE? Get your students to help you fundraise. Kids are incredibly creative and cute, too! Have them put together those red ribbons for you! OTHER PARENTS If your kids play on soccer leagues or any other sports teams distribute your pledge forms to the other parents at the event. COMPUTER SCREEN SAVERS Create a >1 screen saver and send it to everyone in your company! A gentle reminder is a good reminder! ROCK ON! If you know any musicians, ask them to perform a benefit concert. Tell people that their admission ticket is a check made out to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. SHARE THE EXPERIENCE Tell your story. The more you talk about your upcoming adventure, the more people will share in that excitement and want to pledge to you.  Consider a blog or a newsletter. CHILDREN'S PARTY Throw on that Barney outfit and get out there! The kids will be having fun as their parents are writing you pledge checks! WINE AND CHEESE PARTY Couldn't get the local restaurant to devote the whole dinner to your fundraiser?  Ask the owner to donate wine and cheese for a party.  Time it early so your friends may stay for dinner and make it profitable for the restaurant.  Make it worthwhile for them to support your fundraisers! FRATERNITIES AND SORORITIES Contact the national chapter of your college fraternity or sorority and ask them to make a donation. ALUMNI ORGANIZATIONS Call your own college or university and ask them to place an ad in the alumni newsletter asking for donations. Do you have a favorite fundraising tip?  Send it to eventinfo@sfaf.org and we may publish it here.

Go Paperless The Internet and e-mail have significantly affected the fundraising world. Use them to your advantage: Build your homepage on our website. You can include your own text and photo, and even start a blog where people can learn about your commitment and donate money. Customize the web address of your homepage.   After accessing your >1 Participant Center, locate the Update personal URLs link (in the colored area on the right side of the page) and click it.  You can then include this link in the email signature of every email you send! Spread the word. Let people know that they can make donations on your behalf at www.greaterthanone.org Take advantage of our advanced email tools to manually enter email addresses of donors or upload them from another address book application, such as Yahoo Mail, Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, or AOL. You can then send email messages right from your Participant Center; each email you send will automatically contain a link back to your participant homepage on our website. Our email system even lets you monitor who has opened your emails, who has visited your homepage and who has donated. Remind Them. In case you didn't receive an answer the first time you asked whether by mail, email or phone, ask again! Your potential donor may need a little coaxing.