Charities

Tips for a Successful Charity Race

Charities frequently produce running events as fund- raisers, seeking financial support from runners, sponsors, and donors. Understanding the benefits and drawbacks of these venues is essential if you want to produce a successful event and build a reputation that attracts additional participants each year.

Tips for Event Success

  1. Entry fees paid by runners will not cover your costs, so don't build your budget around that item. You'll need cash sponsorship and reduced-cost or donated services and products just to break even.
  2. Exploit the publicity value of your event – it may be more valuable to your organization than the fund- raising. It is very, very difficult for a running event to generate a substantial profit. The publicity, though, may leverage support for other, more profitable activities conducted by your organization.
  3. Adopt a multi-year approach to your event. It takes many years to build up an event: to increase registration, solidify sponsor relationships, and secure reduced-cost or donated services and products. Don't expect a stunning success the first year.
  4. Devote the same amount of care and attention to the quality of race course logistics as you do to fund- raising. Runners show up to run. They are not supporters or prospects (women who run for breast cancer research or animal rights are exceptions). If they want to support your cause, they'll send a donation, but they won't waste a running outing on an event they suspect may not be technically sound.
  5. Race day activities probably reach fewer people than any other aspect of your event. Your greatest sponsor entitlements are your pre-race marketing venues – printed race applications, web site, e-mail newsletters, media ads, photo opportunities, posters, special events, and other promotional activities. Unless you have start-to-finish media coverage of your race, race day offers very little to most sponsors.
  6. Secure USA Track & Field (USATF) certification for your course (this is not the same as a sanction). It's a very small expense to ensure the distance of your race is accurate, and it sends a message to runners that you care about the technical quality of the event.
  7. Design a course with as few turns as possible and as few bridge crossings as possible. Ensure that runners will never have to stop for cars, trains, boats, or other runners.
  8. Consider paying key race personnel if you don't have access to enough volunteers. Running clubs frequently staff finish lines in return for a contribution to their club. A paid course marshal recruiter may have greater success recruiting race personnel than will a volunteer.
  9. Offer t-shirts in all sizes, and don't run out of small and medium sizes. Hand out t-shirts on a first- registered, first-served basis. Pre-registered runners should be assured they'll receive t-shirts in the size they requested.
  10. Call split times (the elapsed time from the start) at every mile, either with digital clocks or by people loudly calling out times as runners pass.
  11. Set up aid stations with water (and, in longer events, with fluid replacement such as Gatorade), at least every 2 ½ miles, more frequently in summertime races and events of 10 miles or longer. Do not cut back on water to save money.
  12. Place aid stations at least 1/8 mile beyond the mile markers, not at the mile mark. Runners cannot punch their chronomix watches and take water at the same time.
  13. ALWAYS offer pre-poured water in PAPER cups on the race course. Never use plastic or Styrofoam. Runners need to be able to flatten the cup and drink the water while running, without it spilling from the cup or wandering up their noses. And don't use flavored water.
  14. Publish overall and age group results. Don't omit age group results. Most runners care more about how they fared in their age group, since they have no chance of finishing near the top of the overall field.
  15. Deliver all of the runner entitlements you promised in your promotional materials – even if an expected sponsorship fell through or a staff person quit shortly before the event. Your organizational problems should not affect the quality of the race. Unfortunately, you may have to design and promote your event before you've secured all of your financial commitments. That's the risk you have to take.