Thank you for joining Hazon’s Golden Gate Ride! It’s time to flex your fundraising muscles! This weekend we make your fundraising push. Cycle up that mountain if you will.
Fundraising is easier than you think, you just have to get started! Use Hazon’s tools to craft a fundraising plan that will have you reaching your fundraising goal:
- Don’t reinvent the wheel! Use our fundraising letter writing guide.
- Start this weekend! Vamp up your fundraising and send your appeal to no less than 40 friends, family, and coworkers.
- Veteran rider Yesh Ballon shares tricks of the fundraising trade.
- What are you riding for? Read about the winners of our Mini-Grant Awards
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Start this Weekend: Raise $1000 in 8 Days
The biggest secret to successful fundraising is to ask everyone you know. Think you’ve exhausted your resources? We’ve got a list to help you think of new people to ask. To get a sense of how your whole community can support you in reaching your fundraising goal, consider this recipe for How to Raise $1000 in Eight Days:
- Donate $50 to yourself
- Ask 4 family members to donate $50
- Ask 10 friends to donate $20
- Ask 5 co-workers to donate $20
- Ask 5 neighbors to donate $15
- Ask 10 people from your synagogue to donate $15
- Ask your boss for a company donation of $100 (Ask if your company will match what you raise)
- Ask 5 businesses that you frequent – like your dry cleaner, hair stylist, or favorite restaurant – to donate $25
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Fundraising Tips from Veteran Riders
Yesh Ballon has been one the Golden Gate Ride’s highest fundraisers, participating in 4 rides in 3 years. What are the keys to his success?
Make appeals early and often. Money usually comes in within 48 hour of a request. The more asks, the more donations.
Be Personal. Make your letter personal and specific to you. Tell your potential funders what the Ride is all about, and tell them why you’re so excited to do it. Consider writing personalized letters to different donors to address their specific needs.
Convey Your Enthusiasm. People are inspired by enthusiasm. Talk about the ride. Talk about your training and why you have decided to take on this challenge. Your enthusiasm is contagious — it will encourage your sponsors to be generous in their support.
Be Specific. Include your fundraising goal, and make it ambitious. Put it in bold! The more you ask for, the more people give. Share what your personal financial commitment will be. People are often inspired to see your personal financial commitment and might even be willing to match it. “In addition to training, I am pledging $500 towards my fundraising goal.” Ask for a specific amount and aim high. Say “Please consider a gift of $180”—they can choose to do so, or choose to give you more/less.
Thank your donors. Buy a nice box of thank you notes (environmental or bike theme optional) and hand write–yes, with a pen–a thank you note immediately after each pledge is received, and put it in the snail mail that very day. People will become loyal supporters!
“Thank you for once again being a great support to me and Hazon. This marks my fifth ride—one in Israel and now four in California. I am increasingly impressed by Hazon’s mission and the people engaged in it. Your gift makes their work possible.”
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What are you riding for? Mini-Grant Awards Winners Announced
A portion of the fundraising from this year’s ride will be made available as small grants for Jewish and environmental projects on the West Coast. We’re pleased to announce this year’s winners!
13% of YOUR fundraising goes to support these amazing projects:
Milken Community High School
The MCHS Urban Farm Co-op, initiated with help from a Hazon grant two years ago, is a sustainable gardening and food justice initiative at Milken Community High School in Los Angeles. The Co-op plans to expand its garden to a minimum of thirty-six pallets across campus, continuing to connect students to their food sources, to the earth, and to their own potential.
Congregation Beth Sholom
Congregation Beth Sholom seeks to enhance and build upon its existing garden and landscape for our preschool and Hebrew school students, parents, and congregants. Further developing our small outdoor garden will build community around the shared experience of nurturing life and growing the food that is central to so many of the Jewish traditions we celebrate.
Jewish Learning Works
The Nosh Niche is a Jewish cooking project embedded within Jewish LearningWorks’ Shalom Discovery family engagement initiative. The Nosh Niche brings to life issues of food justice and farm-to-table Jewish values cooking lessons, discussion guides, and take-home recipes, along with a cooking feature on our website.
Kehillah Jewish High School
Kehillah seeks to revamp, expand, and improve its small school garden, which was funded and built by a student-led initiative last year. This garden has already begun contributing produce to Kehillah’s meals program, which feeds about 100 people per day with delicious vegetarian food. By growing the garden’s size, as well as its uses on campus, Kehillah can cut down on its food miles, improving overall campus sustainability while also serving as a valuable learning tool.
Temple Emanu-El Preschool
Being in San Francisco, with limited outdoors space, we have been grappling with how to include natural sciences with a focus on ecology to our children and families. This year we have been successful with outdoor education programs such as walking trips through the nearby Presidio and Family Education in Golden Gate Park with a naturalist. Through this project, we hope to bring tanks with natural habitats for animals as well as grow lights and indoor gardening to all of our classrooms.
Peninsula Temple Beth El Green Team
Holistic cooking classes through the ages and stages of life. The classes will focus on various temple groups that will impact our youngest members through our seniors. The emphasis will be to introduce to the audiences the importance of choosing healthy, sustainable ingredients, eating in the season, the nutrients in food and our food supply chain.
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