Do You Have Enough Team Captains to Hit Your Fundraising Goal?

So, you’ve just opened your calendar and see that your peer-to-peer fundraising event is less than two months away. How do you know you will succeed? How do you know you’ll hit your fundraising goals? The short answer is that while you can’t be 100% certain, the leading indicator of your future success is tied to your team captain recruitment. 

You need to ask “have we asked enough people and do we have enough team captains to hit our goal this year?” Now is the time to check in and ensure your recruiting is on pace, remembering that you need about 75%+ of your captains onboard 3-4 weeks before Event Day in order to give them enough time to recruit and fundraise well. 

But just how many captains do you need? It’s a simple math equation: divide your charity fundraising goal (for example, $30,000) by $1,500 (the average raised per team):

So now do your math. Where are you at? 

Ideally you should be at 25% of your team captain recruitment goal 45-60 days out. Are you close? Under or higher or on track? Recruitment should be your daily focus to ensure your success. The sooner captains register the sooner they can begin recruiting and the sooner they begin fundraising. Whatever your schedule looks like, be sure to clear enough time to focus on recruiting and communicating with your team captains and prospects. 

If you need MORE team captains:

• Refresh Your List: Open up your list of team captain prospects and walk your team through the Team Captain Prospect Generator in WAVES
  
  
• Loop Back: If you’ve already asked some folks and they’ve not yet responded, don’t assume their answer is no. Forward your original recruitment email to them with a friendly note,“Hey, you might have missed this – can we talk about it this week?” 
  
  
• Teamwork: Where possible make this a group effort. Don’t try to be the hero – get others in your charity to help ask as well. Make it a science by giving your team a list of prospective captains to ask. In your weekly or bi-weekly event management calls, be encouraging and accountable to each other, ensuring every prospect on your list is asked and followed up with.
  
  
• Challenge: Use the power of the Corporate & Community Challenge to uncover new Team Captain prospects. 
  
  

If you have ENOUGH team captains:

• Check-in and say thanks regularly
  
  • No matter what, send short, sweet emails to thank, support, and encourage your team captains. Throughout the campaign we recommend sending bi-weekly emails, then weekly emails for the final three weeks before event day. It’s a small action that can make a big difference!
    
    
• Equip captains to lead their teams
  
  • Share our new Team Captain’s Tips Sheet with all of your recruits, downloadable here:
    • rideforrefuge.org/captains
    • thegrandparade.org/teamcaptains
    • cnoy.org/captains
      
      
• Share Fundraising Advice
  • We have a lot (a lot, a lot) of advice, tools, and resources that you can use and share with your captains. From super helpful how to fundraise basics (RIDE, TGP, CNOY) to fundraising campaign ideas (RIDE, TGP, CNOY), to our Oscar nominated fundraising videos (not true, but let’s try and make that happen!?) (RIDE, TGP, CNOY), share our tools with your teams to keep those donations rolling in.
  • Not sure where to find them? Check out WAVES or contact your campaign success rep. 
    
    

Key Takeaway

Take inventory of your campaign. Do you have enough captains? Do you have enough prospects? Are you on track? Is your calendar open enough to allow you to focus on recruitment 60 days out? You still have time if you are behind, so dig in today!