Step 4 in Raising Money by Running a Race - How to actually raise that money

So you've dropped little hints that you're training for a race and doing it for charity. Now, it's time to actually ask. Here's how:
4. Ask in a variety of ways. We noticed a two-pronged strategy worked best. A lot of our young friends donated online. We used FirstGiving as our portal for donations but there are a variety of great online fundraising portals that are safe and legitimate. I'd like to give a special shout out to GiveForward, which has been a huge supporter of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection in the past year. All of them will have a variation of a web page explaining what race you're training for and what the organization your fundraising for is. There also is a secure payment link where people can use their credit card to give a donation.

However, we noticed a lot of our older friends and family were a little leery of donating online. That's why we also sent out letters with all of the pertinent information in them as well. I'd say the number of mail donations vs. online donations was about 60/40 for mail to online. A lot of charities also have a paypal site which you can include in e-mails and other communication. Make sure to keep track of every donation you receive - I just printed out all of the donations and put them in a binder. This will make the charity's life easier when they get audited and the donor's life easier when they do their taxes.