Non-Profit Fundraising

I Run Wild For A Cure, I Plan Wild For Cure, I Talk Wild For A Cure, I Fundraise Wild For A Cure. I do it all For A Cure, for Mitochondrial Disease. In July 1998 my son was born with Mitochondrial Disease, Mitochondria are responsible for creating more than 90% of the energy needed by the body to sustain life and support growth. When they fail, less and less energy is generated within the cell. Cell injury and even cell death follow. However, at that point we had no idea what we were dealing with. 18 months (and many tests) later he was diagnosed. I immediately jumped into action! I was not going to sit by and watch this disease take my son! Our Occupational Therapist put me in contact with the President of the Ohio Chapter of The United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. That was the beginning of my non-profit fundraising journey.

The Ohio Chapter at the time was a support group for families who had affected loved ones, mostly children. Once I joined this group and started meeting the families we decided to host a 5K race 1-mile walk to raise money for Mitochondrial Disease. The first race held in June of 2001 raised over $110,000! Needless to say, we knew we had something.

Our race now will approach its 8th year with our next race on May 9th. To date, we have raised over $1.1 million dollars! Our chapter is the highest grossing chapter for fundraising in the United States for Mitochondrial Disease.

In March of 2008 I became president of the chapter and as the years have evolved we have really looked at what has made us successful. These are points to consider when fundraising:

- Host an event that will attract a wide variety of people

- Have attractions to accommodate everyone

- Secure solid corporate sponsors

- Secure a dedicated core group of people who will organize and participate. We only have about 7 people in our group. Make sure that their style suits the task they are responsible for.

- Recruit volunteers. Our race currently operates with about 170 volunteers

- Don't make it too complicated

- Once you figure out what works stick with it

- Don't be afraid to grow. We started off at a small park, and moved our event to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in 2007, it made a huge difference

- Each year, up the ante. Pick one new thing to add. For example, our attendance has reached over 3,000 people so we decided with every pre-registered paid admission (we established a cut-off date) packets were mailed to people's homes. That cut down on lines the day of the race

- And last but not least... Make sure that you contact everyone you know. The first year my friends and family only consisted of about 20 people, today it's over 200! Although corporate sponsors are important, our friends and family bring in the bulk of our $250,000 raised each year.

I admit, fundraising is a tedious job; it takes tenacity to come out on top, but remember EVERY cause is a great cause; you just need to recruit and attract people who believe in your cause. They will work for you, by bringing in more people and more money each year!

Darcy Zehe is the Vice-President of Brand Management & Operations for Breehl, Traynor & Zehe