Fundraising advice – from people who have been in your shoes
We are less than two weeks away from the 2017 SPCA of Wake County K93K Dog Walk and Woofstock. We need you to help us reach our goal of raising $250,000 to save the lives of homeless pets in North Carolina.
The SPCA Pit Crew is the reigning top fundraising Dog Walk team. They raised more than $9,000 at the 2016 Dog Walk and are working hard to be the top team again this year. We asked them what worked and they agreed to share some tips to help other teams raise money to help animals as well. But, don't think that means the Pit Crew is going to let another team out-fundraise them so easily!
1) How did you recruit team members? Find a connection - We are the SPCA Pit Crew. Our core team members are the volunteers who work directly as the Pit Crew. We also invite other friends to join our team. But we also make sure everyone knows they are welcome to join our team - you just have to be a fan of pitties! We use the SPCA Pit Crew Facebook page to share updates on our team. We have new people and dogs who join our team each year!
2) How important was it to reach out to family and friends? This is vital to our team! Many of our team members reach out to family and friends for donations. These are the people who understand our deep love for our dogs and the dogs at the SPCA. We even have team members who are quite creative in their pleas! One of our top fundraisers (who is a die-hard Carolina basketball fan) was willing to post nice comments about Duke on her Facebook page for each donation. It was funny to read what she was posting because we all knew those comments were killing her!
3) How did you share the reasons you support the SPCA and participate in the walk? We share the stories of our SPCA pit bulls that are either in the shelter or have been adopted from us. We share SPCA pits on our facebook page regularly each week throughout the year. Many of our followers become invested in our dogs, even if they have never met them.
4) Do you have any fun traditions you do on the day of the walk? Anyone who walks with our team gets a checkered flag bandana for their dog to wear (Checkered flag - get it? We are the Pit Crew). We also always invite anyone who joined our team to gather for a professional team photo before the start of the walk! Some years we even have Pit Crew stickers for the human team members to wear.
It's not too late to make a difference and sign-up for the walk! Register today at SPCAwake.org/walk. We need YOU to help us continue giving homeless pets a happy home and the love and care they deserve.
