Fundraising Ideas
Your fundraising fuels cutting-edge research and delivers critical services to help the MS community live their best lives. DIY fundraisers are some of the most determined people in our movement – because you don’t wait for a world free of MS, you make it happen. The sky’s the limit with your fundraising, let’s get started!
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Get Online
- Dive into your Fundraising Center
- Set a goal and aim high!
- Make a self-donation to kickstart your fundraising and show others that you’re leading the way.
- Personalize your page by sharing your story of why you participate. You can even create a custom URL!
- Add Fundraising Milestones which allow you to create mini goals to inspire your donors to give a little bit extra to reach your next milestone. Add competitive milestones, such as, “halfway to my goal,”, to the mission milestones we’ve included for you, to show donors how their support is making an impact. If you raised $200 last year, consider adding a Help me reach my last year’s best milestone at $200.
- Use the Power of Social Media
Share your story, videos and photos. Launch a Linked Facebook Fundraiser from your Fundraising Center. Learn how to use Facebook to power your fundraising. - Thank Your Donors
Click on the Donations tab where you can customize a thank you message for each donor and track who's been thanked. - Download the App
The apps are a powerful tool to help you raise funds and awareness for a world free of MS. There are exciting new features — like physical challenges to mobile check deposit — to help you go the extra mile in your fundraising and connect with your community.
- Add Fundraising Link to Your Emails
Include your fundraising link on all outgoing emails, and texts. Also, re-record your voicemail to include a mention about participating and a request to contact you about donating. - Donor Incentives
A new way to ask for donation amounts. You can set any kind of prize, item or giveaway for incentives. For instance, we had one participant offer to bake a cheesecake for anyone who donated $100 through incentives. We had another who offered to bake cookies for every $500 donation. Participants can even add photos to the incentive to make it more enticing! The possibilities are almost limitless. Incentives show up on your fundraising page right beneath your thermometer as an option for donors. To set them up, simply navigate to your personal page in your dashboard. - QR Codes
There are many ways to make a QR Code of a page — in Google Chrome on a desktop you can simply right click and find the option to create a QR code, or use a free QR code generator. Save and copy the image file and print it on posters for a tip jar, put it up at your team fundraising events, or save it directly to your phone and show it to friends and family when you see them to quickly scan with their phone and make a donation. (Bonus: When making a donation on a mobile device there are multiple payment options such as Venmo, Paypal, Apple Pay and more). Create a QR code here. - Video or Stream
You can also add a video to your fundraising page. This is a great way to make a personal ask, tell your story, or document your journey. You can pre-record a video and use the stream embed, or even live stream directly to your fundraising page!
- Dive into your Fundraising Center
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Get Creative
- Dinner Party or Wine Tasting
Host a dinner party or wine tasting – either in person or online! Invite donors to bring/share their favorite dish or wine. - Netflix Party
Host a Netflix party. Rally your teammates, friends and family to watch a movie together – you can even use the Teleparty extension. Bonus: Incorporate a fun game, too! For example, every time the word “DIY” is said in the movie, everyone donates $1 to your team. - Garage Sale
Go through your things and see what you can sell at a garage sale! - Lip Sync Battle
Organize a lip sync battle. Encourage team members to record videos of themselves singing and then submit the videos to you. You then set a time to showcase all the submissions and let donors vote on their favorite with their donation dollars. The person with the most donations wins! Variations of this event include a pet photo or kid photo contest. - Matching Gifts
Many companies offer matching gifts, which double or even triple donations with no extra effort on your end.
- Dinner Party or Wine Tasting
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Get Moving
- Track Your Steps
Set a certain amount of miles or fundraising goal you’d like to achieve by a specific date. Track your steps on the DIY MS app, then, share the goal with your friends and encourage them to donate to your fundraiser (e.g. $1 = 1 mile)!
- Track Your Steps
