Talk Cancer

Question:

I ran the Mayors Marathon in Alaska with Team In Training. Definitely a moving, worthwhile experience. I did the letter campaign to everyone I knew, and people in my company who were just acquaintances. I also did an e-mail campaign that was not very successful, part of the reason being AOL kicked me off their service for soliciting. Someone complained I guess. I was so mad at AOL, the way  the handled it, not even telling me, just not allowing me access. Down with AOL. Something I did that worked pretty well was I bought a bunch of "Phantom Marathon" T-shirts. Our local TNT group had them for only like $4.00. If someone donated a dollar a mile, they got a big thank you. If they donated $2.00 a mile they got the T-shirt! So I would net out about $48.00 ahead! It seemed to work pretty well with people that would have donated, but not given $52.00. I actually ended up paying for a few T-shirts and postage out of my pocket, but then I got to go to Alaska (or you to Hawaii) and it was for great cause. I am sure that you can get similar shirts, or even the main TNT shirt should work. I also will sponsor you for a few bucks. Good luck! David – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I just joined the Leukemia Society’s Team-In-Training and am planning to run the Honolulu Marathon. I am not particularly worried about the running. I think the fund raising will be far more difficult. Does anyone out there have any experience with this.                                     Tony

Response:

I ran in the Rock N Roll Marathon in June for Team in Training.  I sent out letters to everybody I have ever known, I went door to door in my neighborhood (even got $100 from a generous neighbor that I barely knew!), and then finally hit up everybody I know that owns a small business.  I asked all the business owners to be corporate sponsors for $500, and surprisingly enough, all but one of them did.  I raised over $4000, so it can be done. Good luck! Cristy

Response:

First of all, let me congratulate you on joining TNT.  It is definitely a wonderful cause and will provide you with a wonderful experience!!  I have just completed my fundraising and will be running in the Kona Marathon in 2 weeks.  I, too, was very concerned about the fundraising part of the commitment. I raised almost all of my money through my letter campaign.  I basically sent a letter to everybody I knew…  I put letters in everybody’s mail box at work. (I guess I’m lucky I work for a fairly large company).  You ‘d be surprised how generous people can be when they hear what you are doing.  And many people passed the word along to their friends and I received donations from people I didn’t even know.  Get those letters out as soon as you can…  BTW…  I also had a "jeans day" at work…  I selected a particular day and people donated $5 to wear jeans for that day.  Best of luck to you!!!!   Maria – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I just joined the Leukemia Society’s Team-In-Training and am planning to run the Honolulu Marathon. I am not particularly worried about the running. I think the fund raising will be far more difficult. Does anyone out there have any experience with this.                                     Tony

Response:

I just joined the Leukemia Society’s Team-In-Training and am planning to run the Honolulu Marathon. I am not particularly worried about the running. I think the fund raising will be far more difficult. Does anyone out there have any experience with this.                                     Tony

Response:

I just joined the Leukemia Society’s Team-In-Training and am planning to run the Honolulu Marathon. I am not particularly worried about the running. I think the fund raising will be far more difficult. Does anyone out there have any experience with this.                                    Tony

I’m running Chicago in October with TNT.  I signed up in late May and immediately started a letter mailing campaign.  I went on vacation in early June and came back to find that I’d almost ($1025 out of $1100) reached my committment by early July. I sent out 60 letters and about half responded.  Many generous donations. My patient hero is a friend of mine and most of the people that I sent letters to know both of us. I know you have to raise much more than I did (my race is local, so I don’t have to worry about travel and lodging.)  I think my strategy, if I were you, would be to get letters out immediately.  Send to everyone and anyone.  Friends, relatives, bosses, professionals (eg. family MD, dentist), etc.  Don’t be shy – you never know where that $250 donation is going to come from (yes, I got one of those.)  Put a PS at the bottom of the letter requesting a response ASAP.  This way you’ll know where you stand early enough to plan a "strike 2" or "strike 3".  I didn’t need further efforts, but I would have if I wasn’t just doing Chicago – my responses have leveled off at around $1400. I’d get at least 100 letters off asap.  If you can, stamp the return envelope that TNT gives you.  I think it helps.  My wife came up with many names to send letter to – that helped! Good luck, Bill Fecht ps: Email me a reply with your participant number and I’ll send in     a couple of bucks for you.  Every little bit counts.

Response: