Has anybody organized a charity walk/5K/10K?

[JoyNChrist]

And if so, can you direct me to any useful tips, resources, dos and don'ts, etc?

I have an idea brewing and I'm trying to determine whether or not it's feasible.

[zag95]

My mom and I are on the board for kids born with cleft and other craniofacial conditions. Last July, we organized a walk.

I found organizations who had similar missions and looked at what they did.

You might check out walk a thons for your local school, or a statewide non-profit, for ideas.

Our event was at a park. It was a family walk and picnic. Criteria were that the place needed to have stroller friendly paths, bathrooms and play equipment, as well as reservable table areas. We had to apply for a permit through the parks and rec dept and reserve the area. It was a pretty detailed application.

We started registration at 10a. Event began at 11a and was about 30 min.

We already had the course marked prior to event starting.

We had about 125 participants, and raised about 5000.

We required one registration for per family/group. It had to list all participants names, for liability purposes.

We decided to ask people for donations, rather than a set amount, to encourage all families to participate. Our "team" raised about $700 dollars. Some families did not pay. You have to decide what is more important- community involvement or donations received?

We had activities for kids- we were at a park, right next to the playground equipment. We had a fishing game, bean bag toss and a clown who did balloon art, games and face painting. (some clowns work for free or reduced prices)

We provided lunch- we had pizza, bottled water and Olive Garden donated salad, breadsticks, lemonade and zeppolis. We also had some cupcake donations, a sheet cake from Costco and some bagels/coffee donations for prior to the walk starting.

We advertised- at the local children's hospitals, on FB/Internet, thru newspaper and other free media, thru parent/child publications in area (free), at by putting up flyers that parents frequent.

We got prizes donated- and did a drawing for books, scrapbook stuff, CD's of local children's artists, etc. Everyone loved this! Kinda like icing on the cake!!

Lots of work, but lots of fun. Overall, I think our budget was about 1100. But we earned back that amount and then some!

All of our 8 board members were present, plus additional volunteers. We probably had 15-20 people working (registration, t-shirt sales, master of ceremonies, first aid station, food set up, floaters, etc.)

Hope this helps and sorry for the ramble!

[Mrs.Skeeter]

I haven't organized an event myself, but my SIL has. Check the laws in your town about organizing such events. In my town, police officers have to be hired out if the event/walk/race occurs within a certain distance of open roads. Also, any residential homes within a certain distance of the event have to be notified via mail 2 weeks before the event. Additionally, a 5k or 10k will require water stops, and cups, volunteers, and tables etc must be acquired or donated. Will the event be professionally timed?

Lastly, if you decide to go through with it good luck! If anyone offers to help put them to work!

[hellokitty]

The easiest thing to do IMO is to contact your local running club. Most YMCAs have their own running club. The ppl who are in it are super nice, they are very used to running races and know the difference btwn a good race and a poorly organized race. There are also probably ppl within the running group who have organized 5Ks before and I bet that they would be very willing to help you organize one for your cause.

I just really highly suggest you seek out those who are familiar with races. Last yr a 5K was organized for a little girl with a medical condition. The 5K was very poorly organized. They did not want to hire cops, so ppl were having to run with downtown traffic and their signs were not good, so my friends who ran it, ended up getting lost. The guy who heads up our running club has helped to organize 5Ks before (in fact the one he does each yr is one of my favorite ones, it is so well thought out and has a beautiful t-shirt), and I know that he would be very willing to help others, or at least advise them on how to set up a race for a cause.

Best of luck!

[JoyNChrist]

Thanks guys! This is all really helpful - I'm taking notes.

Anybody else? Or any tips for what has made 5K/10Ks you've participated in good or bad?

[kijip]

There are short, helpful articles on these sorts of events (sometimes called mass market events) available in two places:

The Chronicle of Philanthropy

And for great step by step how to:

Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training. They publish the Grassroots Fundraising Journal. Kim Klein is the founder. Your library may have her books. Bu also the GIFT website is a huge and valuable resource for articles and information.

Also call the cancer society, the MS foundation, the AIDS walk places near you. Their development people will generally be glad to answer questions and will know your local market well.

[lizzywednesday]

...
Anybody else? Or any tips for what has made 5K/10Ks you've participated in good or bad?

I've done marathon-and-a-half multi-day events and smaller 5K walks for charities close to my heart.

The multi-day is a larger undertaking - there's a hefty registration fee ($65) plus a fundraising minimum requirement for participants designated as Walkers. There are paid staff from the charity who work out the logistics - route mapping, permits for parking, rest stops, port-a-potties, rental vehicles, etc. - as well as an all-volunteer Crew who make the event run smoothly. The Crew runs rest stops, drives assistance vehicles and supplies water & ice for each stop location to maintain its supply of water & Gatorade until every last Walker has come through.

It's a worthwhile event, but takes at least a year for the Staff to plan. (Again, it's a HUGE event and it takes place in 8 cities across the US. The NYC event pulls around 5,000 total participants, Walkers and Crew, each year.)

The smaller event I do is the Walk to Defeat ALS which benefits the ALS Association's Greater New York Chapter.

There is no registration fee or fundraising requirement.
Many people are walk-up participants.
It's a great route, stroller and wheelchair-friendly, and the pre-Walk festivities include face painting for kids, autographs with local sports personalities (current & retired), free (donated) breakfast, free t-shirts, music and a warm-up run by an instructor from a local health club.

The only thing that gets under my skin about this event is the route isn't clearly marked along the entire length, so many people do a short lap to get back to the free (donated) lunch of hamburgers & hot dogs. If the walk organizers would tap into the Volunteer community a little deeper, I think they could resolve that issue very quickly, but I think a lot of that also has to do with the way their permits are timed - the park where the event is held is in a very residential neighborhood, so they can't start before a certain time, etc., and traffic can be a bear.

But we keep coming back year after year - it's an excuse to get the family together!

[candaceb]

I haven't organized a walk, but I do at least 1, if not 2 or 3 a year. Here are some things that bug me:
- disorganization at the registration table - not being able to tell clearly which line you should be in before you get in line

- bad route maps/marking

- things that I feel waste the money that I worked hard to raise. Like last year, the March of Dimes ran out of t-shirts the day of the walk and mailed them to us afterwards. They send our 3 shirts in 3 separate envelopes and I'm sure the postage cost more than the shirts.

[lizzywednesday]

...
- disorganization at the registration table - not being able to tell clearly which line you should be in before you get in line

...

Oh that's a biggie! Having volunteered at check-in/registration for the multi-day and then seeing it at the ALS walk, I was absolutely astonished how differently each charity's volunteers had been prepared to handle the Walkers.

I'd say a lot of this experience can be eased by clear labels on your registration materials and stations, volunteer education and designating a team-leader for the check-in/registration area who can serve as an on-site "expert" to answer questions and assist people with unusual circumstances (if any) that may cause backups in the line.