Are you looking for a way to shake up your fundraising? Look no further than a fun, dynamic dance-a-thon fundraiser. These fundraisers help you get your supporters up on their feet to raise more money for your organization! Read on to learn how to host a dance-a-thon fundraiser and some tips to raise more money.
It’s no big surprise that dancing makes us feel happy. Moving and grooving releases chemicals that make us feel good – and they’re the same ones that get released when we give to our favorite nonprofits!
Combining two feel-good activities is why dance-a-thons are such great fundraisers. In this article, we’ll walk you through exactly how to organize a dance-a-thon and we’ll share some dance marathon fundraising ideas.
A dance-a-thon is a type of peer-to-peer fundraiser where donors pledge a certain amount of money to participants for dancing for a set amount of time. Dance-a-thons can happen in person, at the same time online, or independently online. They can last any amount of time, but the more hours danced the more money raised for a cause! Typically, dance-a-thons last around 12 hours.
Dance marathons are great for school, team, and church fundraisers where children or young adults do most of the fundraising. Dance-a-thons can be a fun option for older adults too, but kids are more likely to really enjoy the spirit of this kind of fundraiser! They are especially popular at high schools and universities, where you can encourage multiple student groups or clubs to compete against each other.
Donations can be collected in person or online using peer-to-peer fundraising pages. This makes it easy for your supporters to collect donations on their own, without having to deal with cash or checks.
Your first step is to determine how you want to run your event. The best way to do this is to establish a committee that can help you make the following decisions –
Once you have a better sense of what your event might look like, you can fully understand the scope of the day and choose a peer-to-peer platform that fits.
The right fundraising platform is key to making your dance-a-thon a success. These days, your participants’ supporters expect to be able to support their dancing (and your organization!) with a card or digital wallet. You don’t want to miss out on pledges just because someone doesn’t want to give cash or write a check.
Your peer-to-peer fundraising platform should let you set up your “parent” campaign so your participants can easily create their own “child” fundraising pages. Each child page should send funds to the same account linked to the parent campaign.
You should also look for a platform that has additional features built-in, like company matching, strong donor management tools, and recurring donations so that you can make the most out of your fundraising.
Donorbox Peer-to-Peer is easy for both you and your participants to set up. With detailed step-by-step guides, you can get your campaign up and running quickly so your participants can create their fundraising pages as soon as possible. Company matching with Double the Donation seamlessly integrates into your donation forms so you never miss a matching gift. You’ll collect contact information for every donation made using Donorbox to steward those one-time donors into long-term supporters. Donors will have the option to become recurring donors, meaning you can turn one donation into many!
Once you’ve enabled peer-to-peer on your Donorbox fundraising campaign, it’s time to invite your participants.
With Donorbox Peer-to-Peer, you can invite fundraisers directly or simply allow anyone to create a fundraising page benefiting your campaign.
Inviting participants is easy. All you have to do is enter their first and last names and emails. Donorbox provides a templated email, which makes this process super smooth – and quick.
Or simply ask anyone who wants to join in on the fun to select the “I want to fundraise for this” button on your parent campaign page. Don’t worry – this feature only shows up if you enable it!
St. Louis High simply had students fundraise on their own and submit their collected donations via their Donorbox fundraising page. They collected both pledges from students and donations from the community.
However your participants join in, fundraising will be quick and easy.
Setting a fundraising goal is tricky. Too lofty and you risk feeling underwhelmed by the final total, but too small and you might limit enthusiasm from your participants.
If you’ve hosted similar fundraising events in the past, you can base your goal on your actual income from that event. Otherwise, try to guesstimate how many participants you’ll have and how much is reasonable to expect each fundraiser to bring in. You can also instate participation minimums, which means someone has to raise $X funds to participate.
Pro tip: When you create your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign on Donorbox, you’ll be prompted to set your goal for the event. This is optional but encouraged! This goal will show up as a goal meter (if you want it to) on your campaign that lets supporters know how close you are to meeting your goal, which inspires more generosity!
Here’s what it looks like to add your goal when you create your campaign –
Encourage dance-a-thon participants to reach out to their network on social media and in their community to collect pledges. You can provide social media and email templates to make it easy to get the right message across. Creating a fundraiser toolkit for your campaign might be worthwhile, too, so participants have access to all the resources they need.
If your dance-a-thon is part of a larger event, a great way to earn additional revenue is to sell tickets for those not involved in the dance-a-thon.
Donorbox Events makes it easy to create and sell tickets with unlimited ticket tiers, sales deadlines, ticket limits, and more. Plus, easily calculate the tax-deductible amount for each ticket when you enter the fair market value. Use promo codes to sell more tickets or provide discounts to certain ticket purchasers. And easily check guests in at your dance-a-thon using the unique numerical and QR codes on their tickets!
Check out how this organization used Donorbox Events to sell tickets to their dance fundraiser. They provided all the necessary information right on their Events page and set a ticket sales deadline.
Your event has arrived! Make sure all pledges are confirmed before you begin. Now it’s time to be sure your participants have a blast, no matter how long they can dance.
You can also announce the highest fundraisers at your event for some added appreciation for all their hard work.
Thanking those who helped make your event a success is an important step to stewarding donor relationships.
You can send a special thank you to everyone who donated to your campaign, whether they donated on the parent or child pages. Donor contact information can be found in the supporter section on your Donorbox dashboard. Simply search by the campaign to get a segmented list of donors to contact.
Similarly, you can pull a list of everyone who purchased tickets to your event. And of course, remember to thank your volunteers and staff members who made your dance-a-thon fundraiser possible!
Making your dance-a-thon a success ultimately means meeting – and surpassing! – your fundraising goals. Here are some tips to help you raise more money.
The more fun your dance-a-thon seems, the more people will want to participate and attend! Try to think of something relevant to your mission. For example, if you run an animal charity, your dance-a-thon could have a wild animal theme. Decorate your space along with the teme and encourage participants to dress up!
Any services or products you can get donated from your corporate partners will save you money on upfront costs, which means more of the funds earned by your dance-a-thon go toward your organization.
Learn more about how to secure event sponsorships here.
Adding incentives for things like the highest fundraiser, the quickest fundraiser to reach their goal, etc. can help boost momentum and bring in more donations for your organization.
Here are some fun incentives –
Get creative with it!
A dance-a-thon is a high-energy way to get supporters to fundraise on your behalf using peer-to-peer fundraising software to collect donations. These fundraisers have a lot of flexibility depending on how you want to run them, but they can be lucrative opportunities to raise more for your organization.
Finding a peer-to-peer platform with all the features you need is key to your event’s success. Donorbox Peer-to-Peer is packed with solutions that make hosting a dance-a-thon as easy as the Electric Slide!
Fundraisers can easily set up their donation pages to collect pledges that flow directly to your account, so no need for collecting cash and checks. Strong donor management helps you keep in touch with donors to boost your donor retention after your event. Donors can give more donations quicker with tools like QuickDonate™, Ultra-Swift Pay™, and corporate matching. Plus, selling tickets to your event has never been easier with Donorbox Events.
For more fundraising ideas, check out the rest of our Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter for a curated collection of blog content delivered to your inbox every month!
Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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Lindsey Baker Bower