An Update from Chrissy Mathews at Komen

Both at the Komen Impact Forums and here on the blog, I promised regular updates on the 3-Day program and our work at Komen. Here’s what’s new:

IMPACT FORUMS

We finished up our first ever Komen 3-Day Impact Forums in February. Over the course of four weeks we visited our seven 3-Day cities as well as three former cities (Washington, D.C., Tampa and Phoenix). The forums were hosted by me, other leaders within Komen and our local Affiliates when available. Overall, feedback was very positive. The consistent requests we heard from you across all cities were:

More time for Q&A with Komen
More information to help your fundraising efforts
Regular updates and stories on those served by Komen’s mission

As a result, some of the efforts you will see coming to your inbox over the next few months are:

More infographics—These will be focused on local fundraising impact and insights to aid your fundraising efforts. We want to give you hard data on what your donations can fund, for example: $2,300 can provide…, etc.
Komen’s annual report—Komen’s fiscal year ends March 31. We are currently finishing up our annual report which we will share with you along with a few quick takeaways to help you better understand where your dollars are going and what progress we have made.
Fundraising App—we have started developing a fundraising app for the 3-Day. This app will sync in real time with your 3-Day Participant Center making it easier to fundraise, recruit team members, send thank you notes, update your personal or team page, HALLELUJAH! You’ll be able to easily use your mobile phone to send emails, texts and more to boost your fundraising or build your team.
Regular mission updates and insights—We are working closely with our Mission team at the Komen national office to gather regular updates on mission projects (e.g., “the boob spa,” targeted therapies and metastatic research projects as we mentioned at the Impact Forums). These will also include personal commentary and stories from some of our researchers, grantees and staff. Our goal is to make this a monthly communication. More to come…

ADVISORY COUNCIL

Great news! We have formed our first ever Komen 3-Day Participant Advisory Council. The purpose of this group is to provide a collective “voice” of our 3-Day community to provide feedback and insights as we develop plans to enhance on-event experience, participant support, etc. An invitation to apply for the council was sent to everyone who attended an Impact Forum. From there, we reviewed all applications and chose 1–2 people from each 3-Day city. We purposely looked for participants with varying experiences with the 3-Day (walker, crew, new, veteran, big teams, individual participant, etc.) to ensure we had as many perspectives at the table as possible. This council will be hugely instrumental for us to ensure we are addressing your needs, prioritizing appropriately, making the right changes and communicating as effectively as possible for you. Council members will also be a great resource for you to share your insights and needs, knowing those will be brought to the strategy discussions each month.

So, without further ado, I’d like to introduce our 2016 Participant Advisory Council Members:

Anthony Anderson, Arizona 3-Day Crew, 10-year participant
Gary Bertolini, Michigan 3-Day Crew, Team Ropa Sucia, 8-year participant
Maureen Budach, Twin Cities 3-Day Walker, Team Mickey’s Hope, 10+-year participant
Kerry Calaiaro, Philadelphia 3-Day Walker, Team Best Bosom Buddies, 1-year participant
Sylvia Campbell, Tampa Bay 3-Day Walker, Team 211, 10-year participant
Dottie Cornelius, Seattle 3-Day Walker, Team Island Girls, 7-year participant
Beth Heyer, Atlanta 3-Day Walker, Team Tits & Giggles, 1-year participant
Melissa Loder, Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day Walker/Crew, Team Independent, 10+-year participant
Marianne Masterson, San Diego 3-Day Walker, Team STRIDE, 7-year participant
Charles McCollum, Atlanta 3-Day Crew, Team Badges for Boobies, 5-year participant
Tina McDonough, Seattle 3-Day Walker, Team Valley Girls & Guys, 15-year participant
Beth Northman, Michigan 3-Day Walker, Team BC Babes, 10+-year participant
Rainy Reinbold, San Diego 3-Day Crew, 10+-year participant
Thomas Riggs, Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day Walker, Team Presbytittyans, 3-year participant
Kim Williams, Twin Cities 3-Day Crew, Team Kindred Spirits, 8-year participant
Carol Zimmer, Philadelphia 3-Day Walker, Team Girls Gone Walking, 9-year participant

As an example of one the things the council will be involved in: Last week we had the opportunity to visit Seattle to reevaluate routes for this year’s walk. Tina and Dottie were kind enough to join us and share key insights and feedback for each section of the routes on Days 1, 2 and 3. Their insights from a participant perspective were exactly what we needed. We are all very excited about changes to come— we will keep you all informed!

2016 REGISTRATION RESULTS TO DATE

As you know, we launched with two targeted growth strategies for the 3-Day this year: our Reunion for former participants and the Bring Your Besties travel program for new walkers. Both provide a free plane ticket for eligible registrants, as long as the participants meet their $2,300 fundraising requirement.

Overall, we have slightly more participants registered than we did at this time last year. However, we are not done. We need to register another 3,000 people between now and May in order to improve on 2015.
- The Bring your Besties travel offer closes on March 24, so please keep asking your friends and family to register. We want to introduce as many new walkers to the 3-Day as we can. So far, we are bringing more new walkers to the 3-Day than we have in more than three years, so let’s keep going!
We still have work to do. I encourage you to continue recruiting and building your teams. If you’ve recruited 1 person that’s AWESOME… now try to get 3-4 people. J My team is growing… Komen staff at the national office and affiliate offices are growing teams too!

At the Impact Forum (and here on the blog), I made the commitment to add a 3-Day city in 2017 if we significantly raise participation in all 3-Day cities. As we stand today, we still have a lot of work to do these next two months, bringing in even more walkers, if we want to add a city next year.

I will have another update for you in the upcoming weeks. Thank you for all you are doing. Together we are making great progress! Let’s keep it up!

Sincerely,

Chrissy

Why Do We Love Our Besties? We’ll Spell It Out For You!

The 3-Day is so excited about our “Bring Your Besties” program. Here are a few reasons why we think nothing could be better than the 3-Day with your besties. 2015_3DAY_ATLsun_EDB (118)

B … is for Being with my friends as the sun rises over a sea of pink at the Opening Ceremony.

E … is for Everyone in my life who has fought cancer.

S … is for Survivors standing tall and strong, beacons of hope for those who fight.

T … is for Together we can do anything.

I … is for I will not give up. You will not give up. We will never give up.

E … is for Everyone you love supporting you with donations and encouragement.

S … is for Susan G. Komen® and our shared mission to save lives and end breast cancer forever. 2015_3DAY_ATLfri_EDB (237)

Your besties mean everything to you. With their help, and you by their side, let’s walk to end breast cancer forever. First-time walkers travel to the 3-Day free this year with code BYB16. Register by March 24! Learn more at The3Day.org/Bestie.

8 Reasons Why You Haven’t Started Fundraising, and How to Fix Them

There are good reasons why many walkers sign up for the 3-Day months in advance of their events. A lot of it has to do with training: getting your body ready to walk 60 miles is a gradual process that takes time. But maybe more pressing than training is fundraising: raising the $2,300 required to walk the 3-Day is a task that, in most cases, is achieved gradually over many weeks or months.

Even knowing that, many walkers find themselves putting off their fundraising at this time of year. We’re familiar with the reasons why these delays occur, and have some advice for moving past the fundraising procrastination and getting started early. 3DAY_2016_Social_Text_FundraisingFriday_1

Excuse: “Starting my fundraising takes a long time.”
Response: It doesn’t have to. A lot of times, walkers look at fundraising with an enormous expectation in mind: I have to raise all $2,300 right now. If that’s the expectation that you are putting on yourself, then yes, getting started could be daunting. At times like these, it’s important to remember that any start is a good start. Don’t look at the entire objective, just look at the smaller goal of getting yourself off of the $0 mark. Getting started is as simple as asking one person for one donation today.

Excuse: “My event is [6, 7, 8, 9] months away.”
Response: How many times have you looked at the calendar and thought, “Where did the last month go?!” Time has a way of passing very quickly. You don’t want to look back later in the year and wish that you still had 6 months left for fundraising. Think how much better it will be to look back and say, “I sure am glad I got it done early!”

Excuse: “I have tons of time.”
Response: See above. Really, why wait? The great thing about fundraising is that you don’t have to stick to a set schedule other than “reach your goal before your event.” That’s it. The same can’t be said for training (if you started trying to crank out 15-mile training walks in March, you’d probably be burnt out by the time your event gets here) or other event prep (I mean, you can pack your bag now if you want to, but aren’t you really going to need those sneakers and sports bras throughout the spring and summer?). So use this time now to get going on fundraising, and free up your time later for those other things.

Excuse: “My donors said they want to wait until my event gets closer.”
Response: It’s natural for a donor to look at an event that isn’t happening until later in the summer or fall and think, I can wait to donate. Remind them that funds raised for the 3-Day don’t sit in a bank account until they end of the year, they go to work right away, funding vital research, education, screening and treatment programs. A donation made today could conceivably help someone tomorrow.

Excuse: “People are waiting to do their taxes to see if they have money to spend.”
Response: This may be true for some of your donors, but that absolutely shouldn’t stop you from asking for donations now. A lot of people have already done their taxes and know what kind of refund they’ll be getting, and even if they haven’t, it could actually benefit you to put the idea in their heads that they should donate some of their refund to you.

Excuse: “My team raises funds together, and I’m still recruiting teammates.”
Response: Yes, a lot of teams work on fundraising as a group; in most cases, this means working together to hold high-yield fundraising events. But even if your team is not quite whole yet and you don’t feel ready to dive into planning your fundraising event, start your individual fundraising anyway. Ask for donations on Facebook, hit up your closest friends and family for personal donations, send out a fundraising letter to your email contacts. When it’s time to rally the team for group fundraising efforts, you’ll already be off to a great start with your own fundraising goal.

Excuse: “I don’t know what to say in my fundraising letter.”
Response: Look no further than your Participant Center! In it, you’ll find numerous sample letters that you can use as-is, or as a starting point that will inspire your own words to flow. The3Day.org/letters has even more. Your own 3-Day friends and teammates are also a great resource for letter-writing ideas; ask them to share what has worked for them. And if you’re still looking for more sample letters to get you going, try calling your 3-Day coach (800-996-3DAY). Some coaches have been known to keep their own collection of letters that they’ve liked or used over the years.

Excuse: “A lot of my donors have questions/concerns about donating to Susan G. Komen, and I don’t know how to answer them.”
Response: Giving to a charitable organization is a personal decision, and of course your donors want to feel informed and confident about giving to Komen. We have a number of resources, including some very insightful (and easily sharable) infographics that are new for 2016 3-Day participants and supporters. You can find the infographics and links to several other documents and fact sheets by visiting The3Day.org/Komen. Share these with your donors!