Source: Tonic - A new partnership enables any runner to raise money for any cause. And they're off! On your mark, get set, start fund-raising!
Running on behalf of a favorite cause just got a lot easier for participants in the upcoming Honda LA Marathon, thanks to a new partnership between the race and the techie fund-raising site Crowdrise.
The newly-announced partnership aims to involve runners, who will hear the gun go off on March 20, in completing the race for something more than fitness and fun.
Here's how it works: Any runner can set up a fund-raising page for any charity on Crowdrise, which was founded in 2010 by Edward Norton. They don't have to align themselves with, or train with any team. If diabetes affects their family, they can make a one-time donation to, or declare that they're raising money for the American Diabetes Foundation, for example. Then they can use social media to spread the word to their family and friends. (Crowdrise has had success in the past working with the ING New York City Marathon.)
Last year, about 1,500 of the 25,000 runners in the race raised money for a partner charity, according to Ginger Williams, the director of community relations for the Marathon. The race continues its work with those 65 official partner charities, including AIDS Project Los Angeles, World Vision and Train 4 Autism, but officials hope that expanding the opportunities to fund-raise will turn more runners into philanthropists. Last year, marathoners in Los Angeles raised $2 million; the goal this year is $4 million.
"There are a lot of people who want to run a marathon in their lifetime," Williams says. "Running for a cause gives people a way to get through the training and it gives them a support system. Training for six months becomes more meaningful."
Adopting Crowdrise's popular incentive program (wherein a donor can win an iPhone or other prizes), the LA Marathon is rewarding those who use Crowdrise to add value to their runs. The first 25 people who donated after an email blast announcing the partnership went out last week won a VIP Fast Pass, enabling them to skip the long lines to get their numbers before the race.
Future prizes will be similar things that can't be purchased, but can really improve the racing experience, Willians says. Charities can even provide their own incentives, like two opening day tickets to a Los Angeles Dodgers game from ThinkCure!, the team's favorite cancer-fighting cause.
Runner Michelle Levesque was quick to utilize Crowdrise and she was rewarded with a VIP Fast Pass. A 28-year-old Google software engineer who lives in San Francisco, Levesque used the site to donate to Girls on the Run and to invite her family and friends to contribute in honor of her first marathon.
She jumped at the chance to contribute to the organization, which works on developing self-respect in pre-teens, because she thought highly of it but didn't have time to volunteer. Her fund-raising page took just minutes to set up, and proved accessible even to relatives who aren't tech savvy, she said.
In an interaction like this, everyone wins: Crowdrise gets another person giving, Girls on the Run gets some new donors (over $100 has been pledged in Levesque's name so far) and Levesque gets another reason to keep going when she hits the 20-mile mark.
"It was one of those things where it wouldn't have really occurred to me to do it if it wasn't presented to me," she says. "The fact that it was there and it was so easy was the reason I did it."
Registration for the race is still open and Crowdrise will collect Marathon-inspired donations until March 31. Edward Norton will tell you more in the video below:
