Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…This Blog Post

Today is Earth Day, and in the spirit of the occasion, we’re recycling our Earth Day post from last year! Okay, maybe that’s not the kind of conservation that Earth Day promotes, but it is a good reminder from us to you about How the 3-Day Stays Green in a Pink World.

Spring Pinning

We’re adding fun, inspiring and informative pins to the Susan G. Komen 3-Day® Pinterest boards all the time. Below, see some highlights of what we’ve pinned so far this spring, and to see all of the tidbits we’ve collected from the far reaches of the internet, visit the Komen 3-Day Pinterest page at www.pinterest.com/the3day. On our Creative Fundraising board, we share ideas you can use to raise money for the 3-Day®. Silent auctions are a common fundraising strategy amongst 3-Dayers, and here, we found some terrific ideas for themed baskets you can auction or sell. We have an entire board with Portraits of Inspiration, images that we’ve found and we hope will inspire you too with their beauty. This shot of lovely pink fall leaves was, oddly enough, one of our favorite images from this spring. The Happy & Healthy board is where we pin the great health/wellness/fitness finds we discover, like this brilliant list of ways to incorporate more water into your daily nutritional regimen. If there’s one thing the internet loves, it’s quotes. Well, we love them too, so we pin regularly to our Quotable Quotes board. Pinterest is a great site for education, as well as inspiration, so we share facts and statistics we find on our Breast Cancer Facts board. This one definitely inspires. Remember to follow the 3-Day on Pinterest so you never miss the new and exciting morsels we pin every week.

How to Tell Your Story – A Guest Post by Coach Susan

Susan Wynne, the Participant Support Coach for the Atlanta 3-Day, joins us today to talk about the importance that your story has in your fundraising efforts.

“Tales told from the heart reach the heart.” – Steve Sanfield

Who doesn’t love a good story? A really great story can draw people in, transport them to new and different places and move them to act. Stories are what connect us to each other.

Your story is an important way for you to share your message with potential donors. Your story is what will help you achieve the goal that you set out to reach, which is to help create a world without breast cancer.

When participants register for the Komen 3-Day, one of the first things that we as coaches suggest they do is customize their personal 3-Day® webpage. This is the place where you will tell potential donors YOUR story. What brought you to the 3-Day? What made you decide to walk 60 miles and raise $2,300? What will your friends’ and family members’ donations mean to you and to the fight?

Below I’ve outlined a few tips to help you tell your story:

Make your story authentic. The people who are going to be supporting you will be drawn in because they know you, they want to support you, and they can empathize with your story. Don’t tell someone else’s story. Use your voice. Jot down a few thoughts about what you want to share: what made you decide to participate? Why is this cause important to you? Why did you choose the 3-Day? This will become the outline for your story.
Speak from the heart. For most of us, making the decision to participate in the 3-Day was emotional. Maybe you were driven to participate because you were diagnosed, maybe because you lost a loved one, maybe you might not have a personal connection, but were drawn to participate because you want to do something to make the world better. Whatever the reason, it must have been powerful to make you decide to do something that many other people wouldn’t do. Share your reason with your donors. It is the stories, not statistics, that will help connect people to your cause.
Remember that your story is powerful; share it with everyone! As the 3-Day gets closer, we have many participants who reach out to the coaches because they need some last-minute fundraising advice. As a coach, the first thing I do is go online and visit their personal fundraising page. I’m surprised by how often I discover that they had not personalized their page yet; they had not told their story. Many walkers make the mistake of thinking their story isn’t important, or thinking it won’t make an impact, so they don’t share it. But they couldn’t be more wrong! My first suggestion is to get that personal page updated, then share it with the world. It’s amazing the success that people have when they take this very important step.
Make sure to include your donors in your story. Your donors are helping you achieve your goal by supporting you. Their generosity goes so far beyond the monetary gifts they give, because together with you, they have helped make a difference in the fight to end breast cancer. Share how their donations are helping, and thank them publicly early and often.

Sometimes getting started is the hardest step, so if you need a little help with getting your story out there, call your 3-Day coach at 800-996-3DAY.