Walkathons: The Essential Guide to Raise More

Before you can do anything else, you’ll need to sort out the logistics of your walkathon and choose a date to host your walkathon. Weekends and warmer weather tend to draw more crowds.

As for your location, you can choose a route in your city’s streets, a nature trail, or a track. Whichever you choose, your location can be used to enhance your theme.

The most important consideration to take into account is whether your location is large enough to host the walkathon.

Walkathon routes can either be straight or circular. On a straight course, you’ll need a starting line and a finish line, as well as a plan for parking so that participants aren’t far from their cars once the walkathon ends.

A circular route will require a singular launch station where participants begin and end the race.

You’ll need to carefully mark your route so that participants know where to turn.

Now that you’ve planned the basics, prepare your team with the right fundraising software. For peer-to-peer fundraising and crowdfunding, you’ll need to select a platform that enables your supporters to create individual donation pages.

Your organization will also need to create a page on your website to collect donations.

Use fundraising thermometers to track your goals and progress.

To start fundraising, encourage supporters to tell their own personal stories on their pages and share their commitment to your organization via social media, email, or in-person channels.

You can provide your team with fundraising toolkits, which can include suggested copy for emails and social media posts.

That way, everyone is on the same page when it comes to your message, even as they’re reaching out to their own networks.

When the walkathon is nearing, you’ll need to confirm all the logistics. Do you have any necessary permits? Do your volunteers know their assigned duties? If you have any guest speakers, have you confirmed their travel plans?

Now is the time to make sure that everything is in place so that your walkathon will run smoothly.

Provide checklists to your committees so that everything is accounted for.

As with any physical activity, there’s a level of inherent risk involved in hosting a walkathon. Should an attendee be injured while participating in your fundraiser, you wouldn’t want all of your proceeds (and likely more) going toward legal fees instead of your mission. Requiring participants to sign a release of liability waiver before walking in your event is critical.

We suggest using digital waiver software because it’s more convenient for both the organizers and the participants. Users can sign their waivers from their own mobile devices beforehand, and your team can pull a specific form in seconds.

On the day of the walkathon, make sure that your volunteers arrive at least 2 hours in advance. Set up the course and any booths well before your first attendees arrive.

Once the walkathon starts, enjoy yourself, and get walking! When donors see your enthusiasm, they’ll be excited, too.

Be sure to speak to your attendees face-to-face, and thank everyone — staff, volunteers, and attendees — once the walkathon is over.