Best Practices for Heel ‘n’ Wheel-a-Thon
NEW! This year, based on the 2010 Heel ‘n’ Wheel-a-Thon results, we formed a National HNW
Volunteer Committee and had asked its members to share with us the ingredients of their 2010 success.
As a result, we have consolidated their “Best Practices” in four key areas: Corporate Relationships;
Volunteers; Recruitment; and Day of Activities. We hope that you will review and use some of these in
your chapter to help us reach our goal of $2.2 million.
Thank you to the Heel ‘n’ Wheel-a-Thon Committee Members for their time, effort and valuable contribution: Alex Ryback
(Saskatoon), Nina Watt (Fraser Valley East), Kim Philip (Markham), Melanie Nesselbeck (Edmonton), Allison Van Horn (London)
1. IDENTIFY AND DEVELOP CORPORATE RELATIONSHIPS
WHAT TO DO:
 Corporate sponsorship/donation requests (Nina,
Allison)
WHEN
 January March
HOW
 For large corporations in your community, research and fill out the online donation
request sections on their websites
 Include a letter outlining how bowel disease impacts lives, how common it is and how
the CCFC often gets lost among requests from better known charities.
 You have to fill out a lot of requests to get even one hit. Don't be afraid to ask for
donations in kind if you cannot get a cash donation. E.g. ask a cable company to give
some free advertising for HNW if they cannot give a cash donation this time around.
 Ask your members to use their own business contacts to ask for corporate donations
 Mail/phone past donors thanking them for their past support and seek their
commitment for the current year
WHAT TO DO:
 Assign volunteers clear roles and responsibilities
(Kim)
 Set goals and objectives for volunteers: (Kim)
WHEN
 January
HOW
 Utilize a project plan (sample saved on HNW web resource page)
 start of year
and then
monitor
throughout
 Volunteer recognition (Melanie)
 November –
during
awareness
month
 3-6% percentage increase year over year in total donations and in the number of
participants
 HNW Chairperson tracks yr/yr growth and calculates what current year targets
should be.
 Email Chapter to provide updates to targets and to motivate to reach established
target.
 Volunteer appreciation evening with short thank you speeches & snacks at a hall leads
to continued commitment
2. STEWARD VOLUNTEERS
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Best Practices for Heel ‘n’ Wheel-a-Thon
3. RECRUITMENT OF INDIVIDUALS AND TEAMS
WHAT TO DO:
 Early recruitment and solicitations (Kim)
WHEN
 October
 January
 Ongoing
 Encourage more teams (Alex)
 March
 ePledge (online fundraising) promotion (Allison)
 Local prizes used as revenue generators (Alex)
 Early April
 April - event
 Advertising & Promotion (Alex)
 Early May
 Local media (Allison)
 Early May
 Phone all participants (Melanie)
 Strong communication and stewardship of Top Pledge
Earners (Alex)
 Early May
 Late May
 1-3 weeks
prior to event
HOW
 Email to e-pledge sponsors previous year to plant a seed for their personal charitable
donations for subsequent year
 HNW targets communicated to Chapter including total donation and participants
target
 Assemble local HNW committee via email
 Communicate targets and as date for HNW gets closer, send email with actuals every
2 weeks to mark progress & motivate
 Encourage every task force committee member to form a team comprised of their
family/friends and make a team goal
 Send letters and emails promoting an online draw for anyone signed up by April 30 th
 Identify prize categories and promote using items from your donated item pool. Some
examples include:
 for every $500 raised the name of the donor is entered into a draw
 top 3 overall pledge earners
 top team locally (e.g. $50 Galaxy Theaters GC),
 top Kids Club for 12 and under (e.g. Petland tour)
 top Gutsy Generation (e.g. MP3 player and $20 mall GC)
 Consider putting an ad in the paper which should run roughly a month before your
event
 Online event listings using local websites devoted to local events and news. TV news
sites also post events calendars.
 Request the local TV stations to come cover the event on event day
 Establish relationships with local media by exploring relationships within your
connections
 Invite them to social events so that they get to know CCFC
 Explore expanding to get entire group of stations involved
 Pitch media with personal stories about living with IBD and how surviving and
thriving; great for getting on daily talk shows
 Reminder calls to past participants using list given by chapter coordinator
 Email all our previous years’ participants
 Contact top pledge earners and let them know of the event details.
 Contact those who were in the $500-999 range and let them know the benefits of
being a top pledge earner. Much of this was done by our Pledge Earner Captain in
the 3 to 1 week window before the event
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Best Practices for Heel ‘n’ Wheel-a-Thon
4. MAKE THE DAY OF A FUN FAMILY “CARNIVAL” EXPERIENCE
WHAT TO DO:
 Day of Swag bags for participants (Nina)
WHEN
 Feb/Mar
HOW
 Ask local businesses, especially ones that know you, for small items for swag bags e.g.
House of Knives were giving away promotional band-aids promoting their product
and gave much more when asked
 Get creative in who you ask e.g. in BC we approached the BC Egg Marketing Board,
explaining that eggs were an important source of protein for people with bowel
disease, and now we receive swag bag items each year.
 Part of the appeal of swag bags for the sponsors is the ability for them to advertise
their business, so be sure to make it known to them that you welcome any
promotional material they would like to include.


 Warm ups, local band, inflatable bouncing castles and coffee. Start booking these early
March. Each of these items will really help with day of experience.
 local gym is great to help lead our HNWers in a warm up
 local band donate some live music
 In some communities there is a service that provides a bouncy castle for hire
that donated 2 hours to our event. Look in your community papers and parks
and flyers.
 Starbucks and Tim Horton's also have things you can ask for, you just have to
ask. Tim Horton’s has a community cruiser for events, in some provinces, but
you must book it early.
 DJ, face painting, breakfast for runners offered by volunteers and kids’ involvement
such as standing at the front during warm-up sessions
 Continental breakfast and entertaining music. Before the run, warm ups are lead by a
couple of previous poster children accompanied with music
 Explore the opportunity with your M&M store owner to have burgers donated
Day of Ideas (Nina, Melanie, Alex)
Early March
– Day of
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