Training for and completing a feat of endurance is challenging and rewarding, especially when you can do it to raise money for your favorite nonprofit. The COVID-19 pandemic has put the kibosh on most in-person athletic events, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get your supporters moving and raising money with virtual fitness fundraisers!
Even before the coronavirus, nonprofits were using virtual fitness tracking apps to raise money. Many people appreciate being able to use physical fitness to make a difference in the world. Whether they want to use exercises they already do, or they want to get in shape and support your charity at the same time, virtual exercise fundraisers are an excellent option for any nonprofit.
More people are using fitness trackers than ever. Why not leverage that to help them make a difference in the world? We gathered some of the best, most creative, most effective virtual fitness tracking fundraisers.
Top Virtual Fitness Fundraising Ideas
How Virtual Fitness Tracking Fundraisers Work
These days, many people have smartwatches, smartphones, and GPS-enabled fitness devices, which is revolutionizing the virtual fitness tracking fundraising opportunities. Instead of gathering everyone in one place to accomplish a fitness goal, people can work toward a big goal over a period of time, or do it all at once and log their progress online.
Most virtual fitness tracking fundraisers use GPS tracking to log information about your activity. Participants track the number of miles they walk, run, or cycle, the number of yards or meters they swim, or the elevation they climb. The options really are endless!
Let's take Strava, for instance. Using Strava, you can track nearly any type of athletic effort that includes a distance or time. After you complete your activity, you're able to the basics of your distance and time, but you're also able to compare your effort to yourself over time, as well as your friends and others in the community.
Now, imagine if we're able to take the fun and competition of popular tools like Strava and combine it with fundraising for your organization? With that, you can connect supporting your organization with getting fit! Better yet, since Strava already has built-in communities of runners and bicyclists virtually connecting already, connecting communities like the virtual running club for the New York City Road Runners, giving you an opportunity to fundraise using something like a virtual run event!
Some participants ask their friends and family to pledge donations per mile, like a peer-to-peer fundraising event. Fifty cents per mile doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you’re planning to cover 100 miles in a month, that adds up quickly!
Other virtual fitness fundraisers enlist the support of socially-aware corporate sponsors to make donations when participants reach specific goals. Both virtual fundraising formats are useful; it just depends on how your nonprofit (or the participants) wants to structure the fundraiser.
In some virtual fitness fundraisers, participants work toward a specific goal, like 100 miles in 100 days. Others are designed to motivate participants to log as many miles, feet, yards, etc. as possible in a set amount of time in a virtual race. There are pros and cons to both formats. Some people are more motivated to reach a specific goal, and others thrive on the challenge to rack up as many miles as possible. Depending on your community of supporters, there's likely more than a few virtual charity races or virtual challenge that can motivate your donors to keep your mission front-of-mind while having fun.
Let's dive into some virtual exercise fundraising ideas that might spur you to think of a great fit for your organization!
4 Virtual Fitness Fundraising Ideas
The beauty of virtual fitness fundraisers is that they’re incredibly versatile. If you can track it, you can use it as an exercise fundraiser!
Of course, everyone’s heard of the virtual runs and walk-a-thons as exercise fundraisers. But there are many other virtual fitness fundraising options to consider! Your supporters can ride unicycles, tap dance, run, swim… whatever people love to do to stay in shape, they can use it as a workout fundraiser.
We found four fabulous "outside the box" virtual fitness fundraisers to get you started.
1. Virtual swimming fundraiser
This virtual fitness challenge is much more accessible to people of all ages and abilities. Anyone with access to a pool or a safe place to swim in open water can do this exercise fundraiser.
Another option is to have people count the number of laps they complete--this one will be on the "honor system". You can encourage people to swim a certain distance or see how far they can swim in a set amount of time. No matter how you design the challenge, people will love to participate.
How it works:The easiest way to structure this virtual fitness fundraiser is to have people keep track of the number of yards/meters they swim with a fitness tracker, like a Fitbit, Garmin, or Apple watch. Many of these activity trackers can log swimming progress. You can also have people track their number of laps if they’re swimming in a pool.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ll need to check and make sure there are pools open and available for people to get their swimming in. However, this challenge was thriving long before the coronavirus disrupted daily life and will likely remain popular long after things begin to return to normal. It doesn’t require people to gather in large crowds, and anyone can fit it into their busy schedules.
Real-world Example:USA Swimming has been hosting swim-a-thons for years. They encourage their participants to ask family, friends, neighbors, and businesses to pledge money per lap or yard, or make a flat donation in support of a good cause. USA swim teams all over the country have raised more than $64.8 million. In 2018 alone, swim teams raised $7 million through Swim-A-Thon challenges.
How to get started:If you design the fundraiser to encourage everyone to work together to swim a huge collective distance (like having all the participants work together to swim 75 total miles to raise $75,000), then you’ll need one crowdfunding donation page. If you design it to be a peer-to-peer fundraiser, then you’ll need a donations app that allows each participant to build their own donation page and share it with their friends and family.
2. Virtual hike fundraiser
Are you (and your supporters) into hiking and backpacking? Hiking is usually a pretty individualistic activity, but many organizations are harnessing the power and strength of the hiking community to change the world.
You don’t have to commit to a crazy goal (like thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail) to do this virtual exercise fundraiser. (but that’s totally an option) to hike for a good cause.
Many avid hikers set up a personal fundraising page and share it with their friends, family, hiking buddies, and everyone else to encourage people to pledge a dollar or cent amount per mile. The more miles you hike, the more money you raise for your favorite cause.
How it works:Most hikers use GPS devices that track each trip, making it easy for them to upload each hike for their supporters to see. But, people with FitBits and other activity trackers can enjoy this challenge. Even most smartphones can track steps and mileage (though they may depend on having cell reception… which may be harder to come by in the wilderness).
Anyone who lives near hiking and walking trails can participate in this virtual fitness fundraiser. It’s an easy challenge for people to take on, even in the age of social distancing.
If you want to get very specific or up the ante, you can challenge people to climb a specific elevation instead of cover a certain distance. This type of challenge only works if you have fundraisers who have access to hiking trails with a lot of elevation gain. Still, it puts a unique spin on virtual fitness fundraising.
How to get started:A great feature of virtual exercise fundraisers is that they require very little work on your part and they’re easy to run year-round. Make sure you have an online donations app that allows participants to share their goals and collect donations.
3. Virtual home workout fundraising
If your objective is to get people more active and raise money at the same time, consider asking people to set a minimum weekly workout goal for charity. No matter how participants choose to exercise--run, lift weights, do yoga, or anything else--they can support your charity.
How it works:There are loads of ways you can structure this virtual exercise fundraiser. Some challenges have participants set a minimum weekly workout goal. When they complete a certain number of workouts, a partner donates to the charity of your choice.
Some people put a unique twist on this challenge and get their friends involved in some friendly competition. Each person chooses a charity they would like to support and one they would not want to help (like the presidential library of a president they don’t love, for example). Then, each participant sets a workout goal for each week.
People who accomplish their goals give their donation to their charity of choice. If they don’t achieve their goal, the money goes to the organization they don’t want to support. It’s an excellent way for people to motivate themselves to get healthier and support a great cause at the same time!
This type of virtual fitness fundraiser is very flexible and versatile, but it does require some "honor system" reporting, and it’s a lot less structured than other types of fitness fundraisers. It is very versatile, though. Anyone can participate, regardless of their fitness levels, and people can set goals that are appropriate for their health and schedules.
How to get started:Really all you’ll need for this fundraiser is the ability to set up a donations page for each participant (just like a peer-to-peer fundraiser). You can even have participants choose specific projects or funds within your organization to support. People who accomplish their goals have their money go to their projects of choice and if they "lose", their money goes to their friendly competitor’s project of choice. That way, your organization gets all the money on the line without sacrificing the competition factor-- a little like the "rubber ducky fundraiser" we featured in this blog.
4. Virtual cycling fundraising challenge
We’ll start with the one that is not for the faint of heart. As the name implies, this virtual fitness fundraiser is designed for experienced cyclists who love to suffer for a good cause. The Sufferfest, for instance, is a training platform for cyclists and triathletes to train indoors.
In the Knights of Sufferlandria challenge, participants must complete ten Sufferfest videos back-to-back with only 10 minutes rest in between. Participants must publicly record and post about the event throughout the challenge to show their progress on social media. Sufferfest logs the information about their activity on the website as they go, but they can share the data as well.
Sufferfest strongly encourages any athlete that attempts the Knighthood challenge to raise money for their favorite nonprofit. While Sufferfest often partners with the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson’s, athletes can use this feat of mental and physical endurance to benefit any nonprofit of their choice.
How it works:This virtual fitness fundraiser is easy to organize and works best as a peer-to-peer exercise fundraiser. The Sufferfest platform is low-cost and easy to use, though it doesn’t have a fundraising feature, so you’ll need a peer-to-peer type fundraising platform.
Participants will also need an indoor bike trainer and a bike or a stationary bike with Bluetooth or ANT capability, so it’s not easy for anyone and everyone to join in the fun. But, if you have some dedicated cyclists in your community, this just might be the virtual exercise fundraiser for you!
How to get started:This fundraiser works best as a peer-to-peer fundraiser. The Sufferfest Knighthood challenge requires everyone to share their progress on social media throughout the challenge. Having a custom online peer-to-peer donation page they can share will make the fundraising easier and more fun for participants.
Now that you’re well on your way to hosting a successful virtual exercise fundraiser, here are three more resources to help you reach your fundraising goals.
- 6 Tips For Virtual Peer-To-Peer Fundraising: Many of these virtual exercise fundraising ideas work best as peer-to-peer fundraisers. This blog has some of the best advice from P2P fundraising experts to help you build a great virtual fundraising campaign.
- Is Your Nonprofit Making These Common Crowdfunding Mistakes? Many virtual fitness fundraisers have a crowdfunding element. We created this handy guide to help you avoid some of the common crowdfunding mistakes that many nonprofits make.
- How To Get A Corporate Sponsor By Understanding Cause Marketing: Many nonprofits get corporate sponsors for virtual fitness fundraisers. Many companies love the idea of helping people get fit and support a great cause at the same time! Here’s how to build corporate sponsorship relationships that are symbiotic relationships.
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