4,600 in 6 months

Never in a million years did I think that I would be able to give you the entire breakdown of my fundraising this early in the season. I wrote about how humbled I was to complete my fundraising for Atlanta. I've also met the minimum for Dallas/Ft. Worth and I want to tell you how I did it. Hopefully by breaking down exactly how I reached my goal you will be encouraged to try new things, remind people, send out more letters, and meet your minimums as well.

It all began on November 18, 2009 with a $100 donation from a family member who donated late in 2009 so I held the check and applied it to 2010. I really hit the ground running. I registered for the Dallas/Ft. Worth Event right after the event last year. I began fundraising in January for Dallas in hopes that I'd meet my goal quickly, register for Atlanta and be able to focus on one event at at a time. That didn't work out completely, but I did wait until March to register for Atlanta.

While I am astonished to have met my goal so early, I did work very hard. I utilized a lot of different methods in order to reach literally everyone that I know. I pushed small donations - $8 for the one in 8 women diagnosed in America - and received both small and large donations. I did fundraising events. I told EVERYONE about the event and was constantly pimping my blog and facebook. ;-)

Here is the breakdown on where all of the money came from:

Mailed Letters - $510
Facebook Challenge - $354

Facebook Widget - $1,035
E-mails - $925
Company match - $900
Twitter - $10
Creating Business cards/Posters/Letterhead - $70
Hotels Combined - $250
Girls Night Out - $175
Blog Revenue - $225
My Birthday - $320

Total - $4,774

Of course there were some particularly large donations that helped me get to my total - I wrote about one of them here - but most of the donations were small - $100 or less. Here is the breakdown of the size of donations:

$5-19 -  21
$20-49 -17
$50-99 -11
$100-149 - 6
$150-199 -  2
$200-250 - 6
$250+ - 3

This really proves that the smaller donations can really make a difference. I couldn't be more thrilled, appreciative, or surprised. Frankly, when I took the leap of faith and registered for a second 3-day event in 2010 I was skeptical that I would even meet the minimum, let alone 20 weeks early! As we are about to enter 3-day season officially, I hope that you are inspired to take a look at your fundraising efforts.

Don't worry, my fundraising efforts are not over. Renee and I are still utilizing the auction to raise funds to help her meet her goal. (Check out our latest!) In addition, I am encouraging all of my friends and family to donate to my teammate, Renee. Once she meets her goal, I'll update my page to direct donations to my Dallas/Ft. Worth team, the Rack Pack. Hopefully because I've met my goal so early, I will be able to help others meet their goals as well!   

I'd love to hear from you. What did you do to meet your goal? What worked? What hasn't worked?