The Benefit Bowler's Handbook:
Fundraising Tips, Tricks and Set Up

Need help setting up your FirstGiving Page? Aren't sure how to ask your friends and family to help support your fundraising effort for the bowling event? Don't worry! All of the help you'll need is below.

• Read step-by-step instructions on setting up your FirstGiving page
• Personalize the sample FirstGiving page copy to inspire friends and family to support your fundraising effort
• Update the sample fundraising email then send it to friends and family directing them to your FirstGiving page to donate
• Check out other ideas to fundraise - from matching gifts and incentives to reaching out to friends or using social media

Still don't see what you're looking for? Email us!

Setting Up Your FirstGiving Page:

• Visit the Bowling Event Page on FirstGiving and click on Join Now (green button at the top right). (view screenshot)
• Enter your email address and choose a password and enter your contact information (or sign in if you are a returning user). Click create account.
• Select your team name from the drop down list and click Next. (Don't see your team name? Make sure you submitted your registration form and email us or call 212-965-2290.) (view screenshot)
• Personalize your fundraising page. Feel free to use the sample FirstGiving page copy, below, update your personal fundraising goal, and add a photo or the Everybody Wins! logo. Click next. (view screenshot)
• Your personal fundraising page link is displayed on the confirmation page. Now you can direct friends and family to your page (via email, phone, in-person, etc.) and start fundraising!

Sample FirstGiving Page Copy:

On Thursday, March 21, 2013, I will be bowling in the 2nd Annual Strikes, Spares, and Splits: A night of bowling to benefit Everybody Wins! My team, the INSERT TEAM NAME HERE, will take on other teams to bowl for glory (but mostly for fun) and to help fundraise for a great literacy and mentoring nonprofit, Everybody Wins!.

**Insert personal paragraph here (examples below for volunteers and non-volunteers) 

I'm participating in Strikes, Spares, and Splits because I support the mission of Everybody Wins!, but also because I want to win! Even if my team doesn't knock down a lot of pins, we still have the opportunity to win a trophy for raising the most money as a team, and I have a chance to win the title of #1 individual fundraiser.

I hope you'll consider giving a few dollars (or more!) to support my team and this fantastic nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductible and will go towards helping promote children's literacy across the New York City metropolitan area.

Thanks for your support!

YOUR NAME

**Personal Paragraph: 

*If you're a volunteer with Everybody Wins!:

I participate in Everybody Wins!' Power Lunch program through my company. Every week during the last school year I visited XYZ school and read-aloud to FIRST NAME OF STUDENT during lunchtime. (Talk a little about your Power Lunch experience: what books you read with your student, improvements you have seen, the relationship you have built, etc).

*If you're not a volunteer with Everybody Wins!:

Everybody Wins! is wonderful literacy and mentoring organization that helps children develop a love of reading and achieve success both in school and in life. The Everybody Wins! Power Lunch program matches corporate employees with children in public schools once a week during lunchtime, where "reading buddies" build a meaningful relationship around books – instilling a lifelong love of reading in each child that the organization serves.

Fundraising Email Hints and a Sample:

If you ask, they will give. It's true - a personal email or phone call is the number one most effective fundraising method! Personalize the email below and send it to your friends, co-workers, parents, uncles, cousins, siblings, grandparents....

Hints:

• Personalize, personalize, personalize! Make this email your own by adding your own personality/favorite sayings/personal volunteering story, etc.
• It is up to you whether you want to send a mass email (and BCC your contacts) or whether you would like to send individual emails. Both can work, but individual emails prove to have a higher rate of response!
• Follow up! One email is enough for some people, but not for most. Send another email 1-2 weeks before the event to those contacts that you haven't received donations from.

Sample Email:

Subject: I'm Bowling for Charity and Need Your Help!

Hi [NAME]!

[Personalized message - i.e. "It was great to see you last week/night," "How was your vacation?," etc.]

[As you might know, for the last XX years I have been volunteering for / I've recently become involved with] Everybody Wins! New York, a nonprofit organization that pairs children with adults to read together every week. On March 21, 2013 I will be bowling in the 2nd Annual Strikes, Spares, and Splits with my [company/friends] to fundraise for this great organization! I'm reaching out to my friends and family to ask you to help me as I fundraise for this bowling night!

I'm participating in Strikes, Spares, and Splits because I support the mission of Everybody Wins!, but also because I want to win! Even if my team doesn't knock down a lot of pins, we still have the opportunity to win a trophy for raising the most money as a team, and I have a chance to win the title of #1 individual fundraiser.

My goal is to raise $XXX for Everybody Wins!, and every little bit counts! Any donation you make is totally tax-deductible, and it is really easy to donate by visiting my personal fundraising page on FirstGiving.com (insert web address here).

I hope you'll consider donating to support me and to support children's literacy in NYC. Know that if you're able to help, you'll have my eternal thanks!

Thanks in advance and [insert personal sign-out message here]!

[SIGNED]

Sending a personal email to friends and families is a great way to fundraise, but there are plenty of other ways to raise money too! See below for a few ideas:

• Ask ten friends for a $10 donation (or twenty friends for $5). You'll raise $100 in no time!
• Talk with your employer or your company's philanthropy department to see if they would give a grant to Everybody Wins! in support of your efforts.
• Send a personal e-card requesting a donation through www.wishes.causes.com. Step-by-step instructions then simply select Everybody Wins! NY as your cause!
• Ask your employer about matching gifts. Some companies will match all donations that you bring in, which could double your total!
• Add your FirstGiving donation page link to your email signature.
• Tweet about the event - ask for small donations and see how many of your followers respond.
• Print a poster and hang it at your office to encourage your co-workers to support your company team. (Email us for help creating a poster).

Still have questions or need help? Please contact April Griswold via email or at 212.965.2290.