Use Your Social Network

Facebook is a wonderful tool for promoting your hike. We wouldn't call it a substitute for sending out emails to your list or reaching out in a more personal way to your community, but it allows you to expand your reach and give friendly, unobtrusive reminders about your participation in Summer SunDay. Plus, as we've found in the past, it's always surprising to see who donates after seeing a post on Facebook. Long lost middle school friends...ex-boyfriends' sisters...your mom's accountant... Give it a shot and see who bites!

Status Updates

This is a great supplement for the emails you’ll be sending out. Status updates will not reach your whole FB community, but they can be an effective way to get a couple of quick donations from people you might not have expected. You can do this on a daily basis and it won’t annoy anyone, unlike a daily email.

To get people to donate

Tell people about your participation, let them know if you just did something related to the hike, or let them know how much you have to go before reaching your fundraising goal. Make sure to attach the link to your participant page with your status update. You can also just post the link to your page, without any update.

(If you’re a team leader of team member)
To get people to join your group

Tell people about your participation, and invite them to join on! You can give them the link to your team’s page, and to the sign up section of the site. You can even post about your Hike directly onto the pages of your friends who you think would be interested.

Sample Facebook posts

Join my team
I’m going for an amazing hike up Mt. Tam on August 15 and raising money for homeless youth at the same time! I’ve created a team, and you should be part of it! Join my team at
atthecrossroads.org/summersunday/awesomehiketeam

Donate
Help homeless youth and sponsor my hike! I’m going to be hiking up Mt. Tam this summer and raising money for my favorite nonprofit of all time, At The Crossroads. Donate to me here today atthecrossroads.org/summersunday/sallysmith

Participate
How does the idea of hiking Mt. Tam and raising money for homeless youth grab you? Check out Summer SunDay: Hike for Homeless Youth and sign up! (I’m just one of the awesome people doing it!) atthecrossroads.org/summersunday

Sample Tweet
Summer SunDay: Hike for Homeless Youth. Get outdoors, hike Mt. Tam, and raise money for homeless kids? Yes please! http://bit.ly/adKcGj

For more help with using Facebook, feel free to email a Hike Coordinator at summersunday@atthecrossroads.org