I don’t talk about it much online and on social media, but one of my favorite commitments in the past two years has been coaching for Girls on the Run. I’m the Head Coach for the team at my son’s school, and to the surprise of many parents and other coaches, I do not have a daughter in the program. I do it because I love it, and I love the idea of instilling in young girls a love of running, and the confidence, happiness, and healthy habits it brings.
What is Girls on the Run?
Girls on the Run is a wonderful program for girls in third through fifth grade. It operates as a non-profit organization, running after-school programs in elementary schools across the United States. At our school, the program is 10 weeks long, from March through mid-May. Twice a week after school, the girls play games that keep them active, engaged, and get them to think about and discuss topics that, frankly, I wish I could have been able to talk about when I was their age. We talk about ways to deal with bullying, gossip, and other negative behaviors at school, and how to turn negative thoughts into positive ones, gain confidence and love ourselves for who we are.
Oh, and we run, of course! The program culminates with the Girls on the Run 5K. In our area, more than 5,000 girls and their families participate each year!
Fundraising
As a non-profit organization, Girls on the Run redirects all registration fees towards covering program costs – putting up a 5K for thousands of participants is not cheap! – and providing scholarships to families who would not be able to participate otherwise. The organization has very few full time employees in each area. Here in Silicon Valley, I believe there are four or five GOTR employees altogether, and I won’t be surprised if most or some of them are part-time. GOTR relies exclusively on the efforts of volunteer coaches and race volunteers. And, it counts heavily on its sponsors and fundraising efforts.
Each GOTR chapter partners with different organizations and has its own fundraising initiatives, and all participants and coaches are encouraged (but not obliged!) to fundraise. Which is where it gets tricky for me personally: I love GOTR and would love to fundraise. But I hate asking people for money! I feel that I already bug my friends and neighbors enough with so many other fundraising efforts, our school’s annual Walkathon, Jump Rope for Heart, Fall Harvest, the this and the that – how many times can you ask people for money before they block you on Facebook?
So I was really excited to learn about a program that allows us to fundraise – without asking people to donate.
Shop with Scrip
I learned about Shop with Scrip through a Fit Approach campaign – and it was like a breath of fresh air to my weary self.
What is Shop with Scrip: it’s a platform that enables organization to run fundraising campaigns by facilitating families to buy gift cards to places where they already shop. Amazon, Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, Bath & Body Works, Starbucks, Kohls, did I say Amazon? Literally, every big retailer I can think of is on their list.
As a fundraiser, you simply ask people to order the gift cards they think they might need for their shopping needs (and who doesn’t shop on Amazon these days?) — and a percentage of all card values goes to the organization for which you are fundraising. The average is about 4%, but some gift cards kick back as much as 9%.
Fit Approach registered a fundraising campaign for Girls on the Run, and as a participant, I could order a $200 Amazon gift card — and 2.5% of that would go to GOTR. It’s not much, but imagine hundreds of people contributing – who otherwise would not have donated to the organization directly.
Every little bit counts, and now that I know I can contribute to GOTR by ordering all those gift cards (for teacher gifts, birthday gifts, and my own shopping needs) — I’m looking forward to kicking off our 2018 GOTR season even more!
You can use Shop with Scrip to fundraise for any nonprofit organization, school, church, sports club, music and band program, and many others. If fundraising is as big a pain in your butt as it has been in mind, it’s definitely worth checking it out!
Disclaimer: This campaign is sponsored by ShopWithScrip. Through my affiliation with the Sweat Pink Ambassador community, I’m fundraising for Girls on the Run, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering young girls through running. All monies fundraised are donated to Girls On the Run at the conclusion of the campaign. Thank you for your readership and interest in forwarding Girls On the Run’s mission of: inspiring girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running.
to use for drills. Drills slow you down considerably, so the fins definitely help me get through them faster. Also, I like pretending I don’t have them on and can really swim a 50-yard lap (two lengths of the pool) in 30 seconds. Then I remind myself that real swimmers do that time without the help of fins – and I’ve got a long, long way to go yet, I mean swim.