Hello Future World Racers!!
Now that I'm about to enter into Month 11 of my World Race, I'm not sure why I didn't post a blog like this sooner. A few friends have been asking me about what I did to fundraise for my world race. I have a couple suggestions and a few tips for you!
First of all, DON'T STRESS OUT!!! God has called you on this Race, which means it's up to Him to get you fully funded. I know that $15,500 sounded like a TON of money to me when I applied, and actually, it was one of the biggest discouragements I got from friends and family members against doing the race. Maybe you're in the same boat. Either way, fundraising is going to help you to trust in Papa more, so why not start trusting Him for being fully funded right now!?
Secondly, don't just sit back and do nothing. God's going to provide, but you have to get going with your fundraising ideas. I'll list out a few below that I used.
Ok, here we go!
The first thing I did was send out massive amounts of support letters. It was kind of an update on my life and asking for support at the same time. Follow the steps the wonderful people at AIM give you with the letters and you'll definitely get some results.
Letters weren't enough for me though. I did a few other things on top of them.
I found out that I love making bracelets! They're super easy. I just went and bought beads and wire at Michael's, then watched youtube to teach me how to do the clasps. I brought my bracelets to every event that I held.
One of the cool things I got to do was design a t-shirt. If you look WAY back in my blog, you'll see that I posted pictures of my shirt that I created. I found an awesome website online that was able to print my shirts cheap and then send them to me for free. They're a growing startup, and they're super helpful with everything shirt related. Check out ooshirts.com if you think the t-shirt route is the way for you to go! Remember that t-shirts are great to have at every event. I brought them to all the fundraisers I have listed below.
Another idea that I'd like to recommend is doing a silent auction. It's a pretty long process, but you'll get great financial help out of it. I held one at my church and one at a coffee shop. First, I went around to local businesses, gave them a letter, and asked if they could donate an item or gift certificate to my silent auction. That's the long process part. Then you just set up the date, invite the people, and get it started. If you have more questions, shoot a message my way and I can help you out.
I had a concert at my university. A friend of mine named Tammy Dahl (who is a rockstar), check her out here, held a concert for me to raise money. I sold t-shirts and bracelets there, and I got to tell part of my testimony and talk about the race.
Finally, I sold lots of my personal items. I had a couple garage sales where I let people know what I was planning on doing, and sometimes they would give over what I had posted as the price. For one of my bigger items (a MacBook), I was able to hold a raffle where I sold tickets for $5 a piece. That's also posted in one of my previous blogs if you want to look that up.
So, there's a few ideas for you. I know that on my squad's facebook page we also threw around a lot of ideas, so make sure to check there. You CAN do it! God bless you future racers… your world is about to get rocked!
