Soapbox Engage Blog

Whether it's you or a loved one suffering from the illness, cancer is horrible to endure. Unfortunately for many cancer fighters, the overwhelmingly expensive treatment and medical care costs often deliver a second wallop.

This is where hosting a fundraiser can help. Cancer fundraisers not only help meet financial needs and cover medical costs but in the age of social media, they're an excellent way to build a community of support around you or your loved one battling this terrible disease.

In addition, fundraising offers a welcome distraction from the feelings of powerlessness and uncertainty that can sometimes come with the diagnosis. Having a clear list of tasks and goals can be a refreshing focus and an opportunity to be proactive.

With all these considerations in mind, we wanted to offer a great introduction to virtual fundraising for cancer warriors and share some fundraising ideas!

Table of Contents

• Crowdfunding for cancer fundraisers
• Use social media for cancer fundraisers
• Virtual walk or run fundraiser for cancer
• 3 more virtual fundraising ideas for cancer treatment and research

Crowdfunding for Cancer Fundraisers

Crowdfunding is a fundraising strategy that helps individuals raise money from a large pool of interested donors for any cause (like cancer awareness and treatment) through an online donation page.

Benefits of Crowdfunding

Aside from being one of the easiest and fastest-growing fundraising strategies, crowdfunding has many benefits that uniquely benefit cancer fundraisers.

• Cost-effective: Crowdfunding has the least amount of startup fees and expenses compared to other traditional drives. So, you won't need to deplete your current savings in the hopes of raising a little more money.
• Virtual: Before COVID 19, the most significant benefit of crowdfunding was that it could reach a broad audience because it's virtual. This becomes a double-benefit in the age of COVID-19 lockdowns. Additionally, cancer treatments can kill the patient's immune system, making it dangerous to spend time in large crowds. Crowdfunding allows cancer patients to fully participate in the fundraising efforts without any potential exposure to germs or risks to their health.
• Immediate access: With crowdfunding, all your net profits go directly to your bank, so you can immediately access the funds.

Crowdfunding sites pros and cons for cancer fundraisers

You've likely already heard of some popular crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe, Kickstarter, or Causes.

One of the most significant benefits of GoFundMe happens to be its popularity as a crowdfunding hosting site. The platform has made a name for itself by giving users easy access to both create and donate to worthy causes worldwide.

One downside to GoFundMe is the lack of customization of your fundraising page. Aside from your monetary goal and some of the basics (like information about your cause), there's very little you can do to change or customize your donation page.

You may want to keep your supporters updated on your progress with photos, videos, and encouraging updates (and encouragements to donate). This is much harder to do on GoFundMe since the platform seems to prefer a uniform look across their entire platform. There's not much space for ongoing communication with your supporters.

Building a personal donation page powered with a donations app allows you to create a custom landing page for all your friends, family, and supporters. You can update them with progress reports, rally support, and bolster encouragement from one easy location- no need to click away from that encouraging video of your remission news to make a donation!

Here are some great virtual fundraising ideas to use or promote your crowdfunding drive:

• Team Name: Creating a team name (like "Team Kylee") captures the fighting spirit against cancer. Donors feel like they're fighting alongside you when they make a donation, and they're reminded of that relational connection to your passionate fight every time they see the team name.
• Merchandise Fundraiser: Create custom merchandise (t-shirts, bracelets, hats, armbands, etc.) people can purchase to fund your cause and deck themselves out in team apparel. Not only will donors maintain that relational connection with you when they wear your shirts, but they'll be able to share your story and fight with others as they wear your gear in their daily life.

Use Social Media For Cancer Fundraisers

Social media is the default place to rally your friends and family for support and encouragement. It's also likely the first place your supporters will go to get updates on your progress and share encouragement with you.

One of the best ways to use social media is to connect different platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) together through shared hashtags and common post information. Here are our social media virtual fundraising tips and ideas for cancer fighters and survivors:

• Share your crowdfunding link in your bio and at the end of every post using a URL shortener. Shorter URLs make it easier to fit more links and content within the character limits of social media platforms, like Twitter, that limits each tweet to 140 characters.
• Create a custom hashtag for your community to share. This helps supporters quickly find your updates throughout social media platforms and help their friends join in on the fight. Don't feel pressured to come up with the "perfect" hashtag. Simple ones work just as well (and can be easier for people to remember).
• A few platforms now offer integrated fundraising on their platforms. If you're interested in using Facebook's native features for fundraising, check out our guide to hosting a virtual fundraiser using Facebook Live! There are loads of opportunities to host virtual fundraising events from just about anywhere with just your Facebook account and your smartphone.
• Dare your followers to a donation challenge. We all remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, right? In 2014, social media followers challenged their friends to donate to ALS research and pour a bucket of icy cold water over their heads, and it went viral! The challenge significantly funded ALS research. Creating a unique and fun challenge raises donations and awareness of cancer research and the obstacles survivors must overcome.

Virtual Walk or Run Fundraiser for Cancer

Virtual walk/run Fundraisers have been popular for decades. One could argue that the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life was one of the earliest crowdfunding efforts. While these kinds of national campaigns raise valuable money for cancer research, it doesn't really help you or your loved one cover the immediate medical costs. So, host your own virtual walk or run fundraiser!

Really, you're not limited to walking or running. This kind of fundraiser can work for anything from yoga to rollerblading.

Here's how it could work: pair your donation page with a step counting group through a popular fitness app (like Fitbit, apple fitness, etc.).

Challenge your supporters to commit to a goal (a certain distance or time to finish a distance) and share their progress in the group and social media. Keep everyone updated on individual and community progress on your social media pages and personal website to inspire action.

You can even offer a series of prizes for the runners who have gone the farthest, walked the most steps, run the fastest, done the most yoga poses, or a host of other milestones.

Benefits of virtual walk/run fundraisers for cancer research and treatment

Virtual walk/run fundraisers have a wide range of benefits for cancer fundraisers.

• Help people get or stay healthier: more than ever, people are looking for incentives and motivation to stay healthy and keep moving toward personal fitness goals. Connecting their physical activity with a worthy cause is a powerful combination.
• Virtual walk/run fundraisers are accessible to almost everyone: these kinds of active fundraisers are accessible to people of all ages, abilities, and activity levels. Making the fundraiser virtual means that people can participate from all over the world, expanding your potential audience.
• Raise awareness about cancer research and treatment: People really want to DO something to support a cause they care about. When you host a virtual walk/run fundraiser, you're giving people a chance to contribute a little "sweat equity" to the cause. Encouraging them to post photos and updates about their achievements gets the word out about your fundraiser. So, hosting a virtual fundraiser offers a bit of structure to help people become better advocates for your cause.

3 More Virtual Fundraising Ideas for Cancer Treatment and Research

Now that you've got the basic idea of how you can fundraise to cover the cost of cancer treatments or help fund valuable research, here are three more fun, creative, and effective fundraising ideas!

Host a virtual class

Partner your donation page with a video streaming platform (Youtube, Facebook Live, etc.) and encourage participants to stay active, eat healthily, or try a new hobby. You could teach skills, share family recipes, or engage kids at home with craft projects. Participants will be excited to learn something new and support an important cause at the same time.

Some popular places are already offering fundraising options. Paint locations like Wine and Design offer virtual paint nights, and many franchises have special fundraising packages. The East Bay Community Action Program is hosting a "Hunger and Hope Virtual Cooking Class" fundraiser. Many chefs, cooks, and food artists are more than happy to offer their talents and skills for a good cause!

Really, it could be any kind of virtual or in-person class… from drink mixology to basket weaving. People are eager to learn a new skill and support a good cause.

Holiday contest and raffle

Get in the holiday spirit--all year long--with some holiday-themed contests and raffles. Use your social media and donation pages to host games like:

• Gingerbread house making contest
• Pumpkin-carving contest
• Biggest summer sandcastle
• Most over-the-top St. Patrick's Day outfit
• Costume contests (kids, pets, families--don't leave anyone out here!)

These kinds of costume contests and other festive activities get people celebrating various holidays and supporting your cancer fundraiser at the same time! In addition to the coveted bragging rights, you could tie in a raffle for a popular and related gift item to entice more participants.

Partner with your community

As we said before, almost everyone has a friend, neighbor, or family member who is (or was) touched by cancer. Harness that communal connection and rally the community behind your cause!

The most encouraging thing amid fighting cancer is your local community's support when you need them most. Talk to local businesses about putting up a loose change jar at the register or sponsoring one of the above events. We know it can be challenging to ask for help sometimes, but people are so generous and eager to do what they can where they can. You might be surprised what your community comes up with!

We hope you're inspired and empowered to go out and host some fun and effective fundraisers for yourself or a loved one battling cancer. At a time when community matters most, we at Soapbox Engage want to empower you to raise not only the financial support you need but the emotional encouragement from seeing your loved ones, neighbors, and strangers come together to help kick cancer's butt!

Here are three more resources to take your cancer fundraisers to the next level.

• How To Organize A Virtual Bike Fundraiser: Just like virtual run/walk fundraisers, cycling fundraising events can be an excellent way to get people active and raise money for a great cause. This blog has an easy-to-use quick guide to help you plan a virtual bike fundraiser for your nonprofit.
• 8 Tips for Hosting a Virtual Fundraising Event: Even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over, virtual fundraising will likely remain popular to some degree. It's cost-effective and does offer some added benefits that are much harder with in-person events (like having access to a global audience). This blog has some valuable tips and tricks to help you confidently hold successful virtual fundraising events.
• 6 Tips for Virtual Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: In recent years, peer-to-peer fundraising has become more popular, effective, and efficient than ever. This fundraising strategy keeps audiences more engaged and often generates higher margins. Head over to this blog for some tips and tricks from peer-to-peer fundraising experts to help you build an effective virtual peer-to-peer fundraising campaign.