How I Raised More Than $1000 for the 13th Annual Switchfoot Bro–Am
People asked me this question: “how did you do it?”
Quick recap:
Recently, I raised $1150 for this organization I feel so strongly about that for four years, I’ve flown nearly 2,000 miles every June/July to volunteer and become part of the movement. Thirty-five thousand people from 10 countries and 35 states join in on the festivities, too. You can learn more about it here.
Logistically, I knew that if I gave those who follow me on all social platforms I’m active on 60 days — minimum — to learn about the Switchfoot Bro-Am, that I’d be able to make some kind of financial impact for the organization.
First off, a lot of what I share on social media is Switchfoot-related. Do I talk about them a lot in-person? Only if you catch me at a time where I’m doing something to promote their organization and it’s become part of my daily routine. I refer to myself as a Switchfoot Ambassador. What does that mean? If you don’t me that well from the digital world, think about what “Ambassador” means and there’s your answer.
Consistency and branding
These were two important factors from April 23 through June 24, and I knew that from the start.
I knew from a consistency standpoint, one way to raise awareness for the Bro-Am was running. Running is not the first thing you think of when you think of the band because the guys are surfers, but I knew I could easily track running to show my daily dedicated runs. I also knew I could realistically run one-mile every day for 62 days without question. If someone wanted to, they could easily look up my profile on RunKeeper to check my stats. In fact, one donator did this and he gave $50 –one for each mile I had run at that point, and I even “owed” him another eight, technically speaking, to earn the amount he gave.
From a branding standpoint, those following or choosing to pay attention to me, needed to see what I was doing (at minimum) 21 days consistently before their interest was even slightly piqued. I wore Switchfoot tops (they’re all Switchfoot swag) to show a visual of their branding, and the colors of the TuTu I selected were purposefully chosen because it’s the band’s current colors. Two or three, maybe even four years ago, the star symbol (that’s actually a uniquely designed “S”) was red.
Finally, I knew I needed to provide a link for others to click if they wanted to learn more about the Bro–Am, so I gave them that opportunity: broam.org.
Here are the first seven days:








Content wise, I decided to put my own twist on blog posts, fully knowing what the guys would have liked to see — or least I had a feeling they’d “approve” what I was doing.
Every donation that came in from someone here’s what I did:
- I tagged the person within that post for the day across all platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and I highlighted the amount donated
- After tagging them, I mentioned how much they donated
- Then, I included the dollar amount the campaign was up to
The live auctioneers at the Bro–Am – Drew Shirley and Chris Cote –create “bidding wars” so-to-speak, and I used that tactic to inform those who were curious to know the funds raised exactly what they were. One easy way to track this if you’re the person raising the funds is that GoFundMe me has an app and you can opt-in to be notified every time a donation came in. This was super helpful because on Day 55 of the running, which also so happened to be the day I hopped on a plane to San Diego, about four or five donations came in. And at 7:55 am that day, a new donation came in that brought the campaign to the $1000 goal.
There were other factors in play that were roadblocks that I decided to not let affect the overall intended goal. I kept focused, took it one day at a time, and realized that if I posted in the morning, the chances of someone donating increased because a lot people make the biggest decisions in the morning.
If you’re curious to see what I wrote each day, here’s I put together a video of each day I ran and a few words to go along with each day. You may also request to follow me on Instagram here.
You can have fun raising money, but know that it’s a lot of work (that’s worth it), but you also need to be ready to put the time in and get a little creative. The more you know the “WHY” behind why you’re doing what it is you’re doing, the more you think like a kid, and the more you inform people ––these all make up the bigger picture.
Stand, but don’t stay in middle,
Rachel
