{"id":44437,"date":"2021-01-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/?p=44437"},"modified":"2024-05-09T00:31:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T00:31:42","slug":"dance-marathon-fundraiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/blog\/dance-marathon-fundraiser\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Run A Dance Marathon Fundraiser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2020 was a year without enough dancing. This pandemic has taken a lot of things away from us, but one of the saddest is hitting the dancefloor with your friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course pandemics aren\u2019t about to stop us from getting our groove on. Whether you\u2019re ready to be back in person or you\u2019re hosting a virtual event, a dance marathon fundraiser is the best way to give folks an opportunity to shake their booties for a cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a great way to get your supporters up and moving, excite the community, and inspire people to donate. And people donating to my nonprofit makes me do my happy dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"dance-marathon-fresh-prince\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Want to know how it works? We\u2019ll show you…along with a few dancing GIFs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"dance-marathon-fundraiser-dancing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Running An In-Person Dance Marathon Fundraiser<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"dance-marathon-fundraiser-causevox\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every year Cardinal O\u2019Hara High School hosts the Danny Hammond Dance Marathon, and it\u2019s incredibly successful. Last year they raised over $85k of a $50k goal. How do they do it? Let\u2019s take a look at the formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ideal way to host a dance marathon is in person: there\u2019s just something about a room full of people who simply will not stop dancing that is inspiring. Here\u2019s how it usually works:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Find a space.<\/strong> You\u2019re looking for a big area that can hold a lot of dancers moving and grooving, and that has the ability to play music. School gyms work wonderfully. Be careful to consider costs in putting on the event and ensure you have above a 70% ROI<\/a> to ensure the dance marathon is worthwhile for your nonprofit.<\/li>
  2. Set your overall fundraising and participant goals.<\/strong> Think about how much you’re looking to raise and the overall impact that will be made from the event. Consider also setting a goal for how many participants you want to activate. A great way to ensure you meet your goals is to consider how much you can expect each participant to bring in. If you have a $30,000 goal, and aim to activate 30 participants, you need each participant to raise $1000.<\/li>
  3. Set up an online fundraising site<\/strong> to host all the event details and help streamline donations and registration all in one place.<\/li>
  4. Invite your dancers!<\/strong> Your dancers will also be your fundraisers. Dancers (either as individuals or teams) set up peer-to-peer fundraising pages<\/a> to raise money. You’ll want to start getting participants signed up to fundraise about 4-6 weeks ahead of your event so they have time to reach their fundraising goals. If you want to collect a registration fee, CauseVox\u2019s registration tiers<\/a> make it easy for folks to sign up and create their fundraising page all in one.<\/li>
  5. Set a time frame.<\/strong> For college students or adults you could run a 12 or 24-hour marathon. For younger students or families maybe it only lasts 4 hours. This is how long your dancers need to keep dancing.<\/li>
  6. Offer incentives.<\/strong> As a best practice, offer incentives for individuals and teams. The more they raise, the more prizes or special privileges they receive.<\/li>
  7. Start the music and let the dancing begin! <\/strong>The idea is that anyone who enters has to keep dancing for the full length of the marathon. If you\u2019re working with teams, different members of the team can tag off throughout the marathon. This is where the prizes come into play: maybe your dancers can earn one song of rest, or the power to change the song.<\/li>
  8. Celebrate victory!<\/strong> Celebrate your winners and thank all your participants + report back on the funds raised by quantifying the impact. <\/a>Ensure your community feels like they’ve participated in doing something good! <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    CauseVox allows your fundraisers to create individual or team pages, making it easy for participants to register for your dance marathon fundraiser and start fundraising online with an < 60 second registration process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"dance-marathon-fundraiser-personal-fundraising-page\"
    Personal fundraising page on CauseVox<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The Danny Hammond Dance Marathon did a fun twist on teams: they had each department of the school create a team, and added teams for each year of graduating classes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"dance-marathon-fundraiser-teams\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"dance-marathon-fundraiser\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    If you\u2019re not sure what kind of incentives to offer, don\u2019t worry. We\u2019ve got you covered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n