Quotes From TEAM Asha Athletes

"I joined Team Asha Marathon Training program last year. Full marathon fund raising goal was $2400. $2400 sounds like a big number. But then I thought about it. In worst case, all my friends betray me and do not donate. In that case, how much do I have to pay out of my pocket. My company matches employee donations. So I will only have to donate $1200. On $1200 donation, I will get tax deductions. So realistically, I will be donating $800-$900 out of my pocket. $800 -$900 for such a great cause as well as marathon training. Surely worth it. I ended up raising more than $4000. Three things that helped me raise $4000 were great set of friends, company matching, gmail status message. Lot of my gmail contacts made donations by looking at my status message." -- Mahesh

"My experience my first year with fundraising was a joy! Really =)

I took away 2 important things from all the wonderful ideas that were presented to us at the fundraising seminar: Personalize & Set expectations.

I think the best personalized effort I saw was by one of my runner friends from Asha NJ - he maintained a regular blog of his runs that updated all his potential donors on his runs, his efforts and struggles on a day to day basis and really had everyone primed and ready for the asking when it came time for asking for donations =)

I didn't really write a blog - too lazy for that. I prepared a short PPT with some pictures, speaking about the cause and my motivation to start on this mad endeavour. I included a slide that really set the note to what amount I was expecting in donations, which I think really helped. I then sent this too all my friends... my sister even forwarded this to her school mailing list! I was pleasantly surprised by the response. Within 3 days, I had received over $3000, literally at the rate of $1000 a day. Barely $400 of this was matched, the rest came in direct donations. About half my donations came from Indians and the other half from non-Indians. In fact my highest donor (couple) was non-Indian. So, I would definitely recommend reaching out to everyone you know.

As someone once told me, think of this as you giving them an opportunity to do something really good ;-)" -- Chikita

"A lot of my donors told me to approach them early next year. 'Because', they said - 'they have an annual charity budget'. And that 'they actually had to look for people and give away money to random causes to meet their budget'. They told me to approach them early next year, so they could donate a bigger amount than what they were giving this year." -- Gargi

"Asking money for good cause is taken by most of people respectfully. Most of my donors appreciated my efforts and they thanked me for approaching them for this cause. I used to be more motivated to raise funds when I hear positive compliments from the friends/donors. Don't hesitate to reach out to your connections/friends even if you aren't in touch with them for a while. In fact, this is a great way to get in touch with them. More folks you reach out more chances you have. I got donations from folks whom I haven't talked to them more than a decade. Got donations from my investment advisor, PCP, my boss, ex-boss, peers, ex-colleagues, friend's friends etc.

Don't just ask once. Sometimes, people keep their mails to follow up but don't get time to do it. Asking couple of more times won't hurt. Keep the requests in positive mood and don't try to force them.

Create your own blog with your daily progress towards the goals. Update the donors/friends with the progress of your training and they would like to hear about it."

Send Thank you notes, follow up notes for the people who committed to donate, year end notes reminding about the tax breaks. Keep a spreadsheet with the list of folks to contact and update the sheet with the status (contacted/ donated/ committed/ need-to-follow/company-matching etc)." -- Raju

"It was only 6 months since i moved to bay area, after my graduation from new york. With very limited contacts, I was very skeptical about rising $2400. i was prepared to pay out-of-pocket in the worst case scenario, but fundraising for a noble cause kept my confidence levels up.

I was hesitant to ask people directly, so I prepared an email describing the cause and the program. the good thing i did was to send it out to as many as i could in my company- infact to every one i said "hi" atleast once. it worked out well. although i resisted initially, i emailed all the executives including CEO and CTO of my company. I was amazed to hear back from both

and infact got a donation from one of them. Some executives donated well and one also donated in stock. some executives had already committed to some other runner in TA08, so i thought i was little late. But finally, I ended up with 60% of my donation from executives and people at work.

Many companies in the bay area match donations, so i made sure to utilize this to the max.

i softly forced people to donate through their company if they have a company matching.

For some close friends and relatives who were donating very small amounts, i requested them to pool up and then get a company match for the total, as company matches requires a min $ donation. This was also a good time to reach out to old friends in India, distant relatives, school friends, relatives/friends in other countries etc. i was surprised to hear positively from some people, i never expected. Some responded late, and they promised to donate next year.

If your shy asking for donation in person, email everyone - to every email id u knew :)

Most important aspect here is - never send out a common email to people in your address book.

Take time to send personal emails. Send gentle reminders once every two weeks, but never force them. Thank all the donors after the half and the full, briefly describing your race experience and funds raising effort. Start early, send emails even before the program starts and try to reach as much audience as possible. you will be surprised.

I ended up raising ~4800, which is a accomplishment in itself other than finishing a marathon.

If i could do it, you can for sure." -- Lakshman

"For me, the keys were to ask for a donation the first time - and to ask as many people that I know. The first person I asked pledged $25 - and said Asha marathon was something he had wanted to do for some time. The second person I asked also pledged. Both these people subsequently ran Asha marathons.

And sometimes, I was pleasantly surprised by how willing people were to donate. One person I called thanked me, said he and his wife had set aside money precisely for this purpose and donated. Another, after donating a significant sum with company matching, asked me if it was enough.

What I learnt was: have a story ready in your mind as to why you are asking for a donation, start asking people early and ask as many people as you can. You will be surprised - people who you hardly expected will want to contribute as they believe in the cause." -- Ravi