Unbreakable Spirit Walk for OI Guidelines

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Unbreakable Spirit Walk for OI Guidelines Unbreakable Spirit Walk for OI is one of our signature fundraising and awareness events, taking place in cities all over the United States.

1 Unbreakable Spirit Walk for OI Guidelines Unbreakable Spirit Walk for OI is one of our signature fundraising and awareness events, taking place in cities all over the United States. Powered by volunteers and families with loved ones with OI, Unbreakable Spirit walks generate funds to improve the quality of life for individuals affected by OI through research to find treatments and a cure, education, awareness and advocacy. As you plan your Unbreakable Spirit Walk for OI event, I am here to help! Please call Gretchen Schock, Development Coordinator at x31 or gschock@oif.org with your questions or concerns. The Foundation will support your event with a table-top display and/or banner for your information table, pledge sheets/brochures, sponsor materials, sample schedules, posters to distribute locally and T- shirts, given to individuals who have raised the minimum pledge amount. Let s Get Started! One of the first things to do to make your walk fun and successful is to recruit a group of volunteers. Many hands make light work, and it s more enjoyable for you when you are able to share in the responsibilities and setting of deadlines. Unbreakable Spirit Walk for OI walks take about 6 months to plan from beginning to end. Don t worry; you won t be working on the event everyday! 6 months allocates enough time to apply for the location venue, allowing the paperwork to go through the proper channels. When determining where to hold your Unbreakable Spirit walk ask yourself these questions: Is it accessible to people with disabilities? Is there available parking (preferably free)? Is your location of sufficient size for the number of people expected? Is the location easy to find and safe? Are there convenient, wheelchair-accessible restrooms? Does the location require a contract or permits? What are all the costs associated with using this location?

2 Getting the Word Out! It s extremely important to promote your Unbreakable Spirit Walk for OI event within your local community. Here is a list of ideas: Send Save the Date postcards to all the teachers, providers and doctors your child, grandchild, sibling, etc.., sees! Put your walk posters up at the local grocery store, gas station, gym, doctor s office, lunch room, conference room, teachers lounge, park, community center and library. Create a FACEBOOK page for your walk and become a FAN, recruit all your friends to become FANS too! Set up a Twitter account and tweet daily about your progress, people will become fascinated with your honest account of the experience. Ask your company to set up a Lunch & Learn in the cafeteria to recruit employees to form a team for your walk. Visit local department stores and give the manager the Save the Date postcards, posters or brochures, and ask them to create a company team. They can wear their company shirts on your walk day and promote their charitable giving. Are you or your partner a member of the VFW, Elks Lodge, Rotary Club, Junior League, or any other service organization that needs community service hours? If so, recruit your fellow members to come out and start a team or volunteer on walk day. Hand out brochures or postcards to families waiting in a car line to pick up their children after school. Enlist the help of your church/synagogue/temple/place of worship; ask them to add an announcement in the weekly bulletin or newsletter about your walk. Ask your local pizza delivery person if they will add pizza box toppers with the walk information. Call your local newspapers, television and radio stations. Ask the PTA if you can address the attendees at the next meeting and speak with the parents about OI and the Foundation s message. The Foundation is here to help too! We can promote your event through an announcement to our registered website users in your area, and with advance notice, we also can announce it in our quarterly print newsletter, Breakthrough. Please the time, place, and the walk details to gschock@oif.org. I will need 90 days notice to include an event in Breakthrough and at least 30 days to send out an announcement.. Let s Talk Money! It goes without saying that you want your Unbreakable Spirit Walk for OI event to be successful and make money. Creating a preliminary budget that details your expected expenses and sources of revenue should be one of your first steps. As a rule, expenses for first-time fundraising events should not exceed 40% of total revenues, allowing at least 60% of event proceeds to go to the cause. During subsequent years, we recommend

3 that you work towards bringing expenses down to 30% or less of your total event proceeds. (Attachment B is a sample budget spreadsheet) me (gschock@oif.org) a copy of your budget at least 60 days prior to your walk so that I can help you troubleshoot problems in advance, like identifying a cost that you may have missed or ensuring that your event will raise more money than it costs. The budget doesn t have to be complicated, but it should be realistic in projecting income sources and expenses. In addition to your budget, you should create a spreadsheet to keep track of the money coming in and the money going out so that you have a clear idea of the finances of the event at any given time. Soliciting Sponsors- Sponsorships are an important tool for paying the costs incurred with your walk. Local businesses can benefit from being associated with a worthy cause, please refer to the Sponsorship Benefits Letter:Attachment E to familiarize yourself with the different levels of sponsorship and the benefits and costs associated with each level. Communicating the event s purpose to sponsors and donors When you raise money for the OI Foundation, we apply these gifts to fulfilling our mission "to improve the quality of life for people with OI through education, awareness, mutual support, and research to find treatments and a cure. If you wish to specify a particular purpose for the event money, such as OI Research, you must tell this to potential sponsors/donors. The designation should be stated in your written materials, and in a speech or announcement to participants at the event. Please let me know if you are choosing a specific purpose for your event proceeds to go to, so that I can allocate these contributions correctly. Our policies do not allow the OI Foundation to accept money that is designated for individuals or families. Handling the money- For a gift to be tax deductible, checks from your event should be made out to the OI Foundation. Cash can be deposited into the volunteer s personal checking account; do not open a bank account in the OI Foundation s name. A single check should be made out to the OI Foundation. Label the memo line on the check, Cash contributions- EVENT NAME. Please do not send cash through the mail. Checks can be sent to the OI Foundation as they are received; make sure that the checks are labeled with the event name and sent to the PO Box below. Please mail the remaining proceeds no later than 45 days after the event to the PO BOX below. Also please include your final income and expense statements. Contributions should be mailed to: Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation P.O.Box Philadelphia PA All other mail should be sent to the OI Foundation Office: Gretchen Schock Development Coordinator OI Foundation 804 West Diamond Ave Suite 210 Gaithersburg, MD 20878

4 Details! Details! Details! Insurance- After finalizing your location, date and time for your walk give me a call (Gretchen Schock x31) or send me an (gschock@oif.org) so that your walk can be covered by the OI Foundation s event liability insurance. Some locations require a certificate of insurance; and I can obtain this for you but I need at least 30 days to process your request. Use of the Foundation logo- Use of the Foundation logo must be approved in advance. General guidelines for use of the OI Foundation logo allow you to make it bigger or smaller (without changing the proportion of height to width) and to print the logo in black or OI Foundation Blue (PMS 300). However, you should not alter the logo in any other way or link another graphic element to it. Required Text for Mailings- (the sample sponsor letter: Attachment D, already includes all of the required text outlined below) The Osteogenesis Imperfect Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Your contribution, less benefit received of $ per person, is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. In addition, 12 states currently require solicitation disclosure statements on all written materials mailed to potential donors in their states. This statement generally is one sentence or less and should be copied word for word, usually at the bottom of your solicitation letters. Please refer to Attachment C to see the states that require this information. The Party s Over, Now what? I know that this experience has been full of life lessons. It s amazing the amount of kindness and generosity that pours out of complete strangers on event day isn t it? There isn t much to do after your Unbreakable Spirit Walk for OI, a few loose ends to tie up. Complete the event budget, enter your actual revenue and expenses and or mail it to me at the OI Foundation office. Please return any unused OI Foundation materials to the office as soon as possible so that others may use them. Don t forget to tell me how your event went. I want to hear all about it!! And if possible send me digital pictures from your event so I can include it in our next newsletter, Breakthrough, and on our website I will be sending acknowledgements to your donors and sponsors, for the people who gave you cash me (gschock@oif.org) a list of names and addresses. The list should include gift amounts and/or the value of any benefit received. Gretchen Schock Development Coordinator OI Foundation 804 West Diamond Ave Suite 210 Gaithersburg, MD Thank you for going above and beyond for OI and sharing your Unbreakable Spirit with us!

5 List of Attachments Attachment B, Sample Budget Attachment C, State Disclosure Statements Attachment D, Sample Sponsor Letter Attachment E, Sample Sponsorship Benefits Letter Attachment F, Sample Auction/Raffle Item Donation Form (If you choose to have this at your event) Breakdown Timeline: Submit to OI Foundation ASAP: Request to use OI Foundation logo on non-approved items 90 days before event: Announcement in newsletter 60 days before event: Submit budget 30 days before event: Request insurance liability coverage 30 days before event: announcement to listserve

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