Nothing can help build momentum and participation for an event like team spirit! Creating a team helps create a community and the sense that you’re all in it together, working toward a common goal and FirstGiving Teams makes teambuilding a snap. Whether running a marathon, a local race, or just raising money for an end-of-year campaign, the feeling that a group of people are uniting to support a worthy cause is always inspiring. Our friends at Cameron M. Neely Foundation for Cancer Care know how important teamwork can be, and yes it might be because Hockey Hall of Famer Cam Neely played for our own Boston Bruins! GO BRUINS! For the CIGNA Falmouth Road Race they have created Team Neely:

To help drive a sense of team participation they have created a banner using the CIGNA Falmouth Road Race logo and given each of their runners an official Team Neely shirt—in bright yellow—to make it easy for their supporters to spot them in the crowd. Team shirts are a simple, inexpensive way to build a sense of teamwork, and they also create dozens of walking, running and/or biking billboards for your organization! And wearing team apparel doesn’t need to be limited to race day. As teams train together, or as individuals, encouraging them to wear their team clothing helps build team spirit and, ultimately, fundraising momentum as the event draws near. For much larger events and/or events with less training time (and less time to build team cohesion in person) another way to jumpstart the team effect is to implement FirstGiving Teams for your event. If you allow the use of FirstGiving Teams, your fundraisers will be asked to either create a new team, or join an existing team. When a fundraiser joins a team, FirstGiving tallies the team fundraising total as well as individual totals and displays the top teams right above the top fundraisers on your FirstGiving nonprofit page. Allowing fundraisers to team up sparks friendly competition, enhances the fundraising experience and often results in more successful fundraising events. Make sure you reward the top fundraisers with recognition and/or a prize!

So, to recap…

• Make sure your fundraisers feel a part of a team with team apparel, team events and team recognition
• Implement FirstGiving Teams for your event
• Create friendly competition by awarding a prize for the top fundraisers