Planning Out Your Charity Boot Camp
Running a successful event doesn’t just happen. It takes planning and preparation. Who wants to run just an “okay” event, right?
You want to make it EPIC and have people wanting more.
I’m in no way saying that the way we do our camps and events is the only way to make an event successful, but we have been able to make charity boot camps a weekly event, bringing in anywhere from 40-80+ people every Saturday. So, if you follow these steps, you are sure to throw an amazing event that will benefit people in need and help you grow your business…so you can help even more people!
Care
For any event to be really successful, you must be genuine about reaching out, helping, and wanting to make a change. If that is your purpose, everything you do will have more of a genuine drive behind it, which will make the event more successful.
Generate Interest
When you are planning an event, it is important to get the word out early (at least 2-3 weeks ahead of time) and let your members know that you have something big happening that is really important to you. Talk about some of the things that you will have that will be special (vendors, DJ, etc.) as well as how FUN the workout will be. This will get the members excited without giving everything away.
Talk about this through all available communication channels such as e-mail newsletter, text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, and mention it after all the boot camp classes leading up to the event.
It’s important that you tell your members to save the date and bring as many people as possible from family, friends, and co-workers. Remember, the event is a big deal because you said it’s a big deal. This is your tribe, your community, and your members are connected to things you’re connected with.
Create Buzz
Some other things that will create a buzz are:
Put up a notice at the front entrance where people walk in and can see there will be an epic charity event happening soon. This will have the members asking and talking about it.
Prepare custom designed flyers and hang them in bathrooms and everywhere else members can constantly see them. This will just confirm that it is a big deal to you, so it will be a big deal to them.
Announce it across all of your social media accounts and podcast (if you have one)
Have some sort of giveaway to attract more people. We announce prizes for things such as the participant who brings the most people with them to the charity event. The giveaway prize could include items such as a t-shirt, Kindle, free training, gift cards, etc. People like prizes, period.
Announce the exciting and fun things that will be going at the event…for instance live DJ, food, etc.
The Why, Who, & What
This is a crucial part of the process of running a successful event- the WHY!
I’ve done a large number of charity events, and any time I presented my purpose for running the event, my feelings and emotions about why I want to help out, and why this is so important to me, the event was so much more successful.
People are connected to you and they want to know why you are doing something, as they will feel more connected to it too. Tell your members stories, show them a video, etc. that connects them to what the event will be for/supporting.
“Thoughts create feelings, feelings create actions,
and actions create results.”
Make sure your members think and feel about the charity and why you are doing it.
Create a Video
I’ve found creating a video to be extremely effective, almost like a mini-documentary showing the charity boot camps with uplifting music and visuals, as well as talking a little about what you are doing the event for. The goal is not to get a ton of YouTube hits but rather to post it on Facebook and send the link within your weekly newsletter. This way you will get targeted views and guaranteed sharing of the video through your members.
People like to see and feel what things are about and put a face to who is doing it and why.
Let the Media Know – Issue a Press Release
Have your assistant or someone in your network that is good at writing put together a press release announcing the charity event.
Submit it to the online press release sites as well local news stations, etc. Go through your network to see if you know anyone at the news stations and what you would need to do to get a feature. You may not get it the first time, but I promise if you continuously work on this, you’ll have success with it.
Here are some paid and free press release sites:
You can also check out a full list free press release sites.
This won’t necessarily get you more boot campers, but it will give you an opportunity to be seen by the media while helping out your online SEO.
Press Release (Example)
<Business Name> Raising Funds for Hope 4 Kids International
<Your Name> of <Business Name> proudly announces charity boot camps to raise funds for Hope 4 Kids International.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Log (Press Release) – April 20, 2018 –
<City> fitness expert and owner of <Business Name>, <Your Name>, is proud to announce that they will be hosting charity boot camps to raise funds for Hope 4 Kids International and their Smile Africa ministry. The boot camp will be held on Saturday, September 24th and Saturday, October 1st.
“We are proud to partner with one of our current boot campers to raise funds for this great cause,” Hocevar said. “We are asking for a minimum donation of $10.00 to participate in the charity boot camp, with 100% of that money going to feed the Karamojong children in Uganda.”
Hope 4 Kids International is committed to serving impoverished children around the world by leading teams on missions equipped with essential medical and dental supplies and other provisions. In addition, “Hope 4 Kids” has multiple ongoing long-term economic, spiritual, orphan, and feeding programs in an effort to carry their message of hope through these outreaches. Hope 4 Kids International currently sponsors over 1,500 AIDS orphans and needy children.
The charity boot camps will be held at 9 a.m. at <Business Name>, located in <City> at <Address>. For those that are unable to attend the boot camps but would still like to donate, please visit: https://www.Hope4Kidsinternational.org/donate. The workout is open to everyone in the community and is suitable for all fitness levels.
If you would like to learn more about <Business Name>, contact <Staff Member> by email at <Email Address> or by phone at <Phone Number>.
Follow-up Press Release (Example)
<Business Name> Charity Boot Camp for Hope 4 Kids International Huge Success
<Your Name> of <Business Name> proudly announces charity boot camps to raise funds for Hope 4 Kids International are a huge success.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Log (Press Release) – Oct 06, 2011 –
<City> fitness expert and owner of <Business Name>, <Your Name>, is proud to announce that they raised over $1,700 for Hope 4 Kids International and their Smile Africa ministry. The money was raised through charity boot camps held over the past two weekends.
“We are so thrilled with the huge turnout and success of our charity boot camps in support of such a great cause,” Hocevar says. “Thanks to the generosity of the residents of our community, the money that was raised will feed the entire Karamojong village of 420 people for over a month.”
Hope 4 Kids International is committed to serving impoverished children around the world by leading teams on missions equipped with essential medical and dental supplies and other provisions. In addition, “Hope 4 Kids” has multiple ongoing long-term economic, spiritual, orphan, and feeding programs in an effort to carry their message of hope through these outreaches. Hope 4 Kids International currently sponsors over 1,500 AIDS orphans and needy children.
Charity boot camps are held every Saturday at 9 a.m. at <Business Name>, located in <City> at <Address>. The workouts are open to everyone in the community and are suitable for all fitness levels.
If you would like to learn more about <Business Name>, contact <Staff Member> by email at <Email Address> or by phone at <Phone Number>.
Create a Facebook Event Page
We all know people like to hang out (often times live) on Facebook. This means if they follow you, when you say something important it will get the attention of your “friends.”
Creating an event page for your charity boot camp makes the event official and gives you the possibility to invite everyone in your circle of influence (personal, groups, etc.) to it as well as being able to tentatively track how many people have committed to coming. This is important so that you can be ready if there is a huge amount of people attending, as well as possibly limiting the number of people that can attend and creating some scarcity (I usually don’t do this at charity events as my goal is always to raise as much money/resources as possible for the given charity).
It is also easy to remind people about the event through Facebook. Ask your friends to “share” it.
Don’t skip this step, as it is sure to get some more people to your event. Marketing your business and any events that you hold on Facebook is super simple and super effective!
Make it an Epic Experience – Get Vendors and Sponsors
This is where you have to reach out to your network as well as local businesses. If you have personal relationships with people that have a business or service that complements yours, then this is easier, as you won’t need to sell them as much on why they should contribute.
For businesses that you do not have a relationship with, let them know how many people will be attending and how this can benefit them a ton as they can expose their business to people who are directly related to their market. Help them structure a way to generate more business for them as well as offering them a free month of your services.
Basically, approach it from a standpoint of what’s in it for them. I know that helping out a great cause should be enough, but most people may not think the same as you. There will be some that will be happy to help because they will be connected to the cause and that is great. Venture with them and build a relationship for future charity events.
This is a great way of marketing for them since you will be promoting them to your customers who trust you. The only expense for the business is giving away their free product or service at your event to show its value. A simple word of advice here – only work with vendors who have products/services you believe in.
To give you an idea of vendors we’ve had at our charity boot camp (sometimes all at once):
- Local supplement store
- Muscle Milk (regional reps provided over 100 shakes)
- Vitamin Water
- Organic healthy chocolates (local business)
- Chiropractic/Active Release Therapy/ Graston Technique specialists
- Local running specialist store
- Photographer/Videographer
- Club DJ/Hype-man
Invite Local Celebrities
This is another great way to make the event special and attract more people, as you can promote it as an event where you can meet “xyz”, get an autograph, pictures, hang out with them – all while contributing to a great cause.
A great way to attract local celebrities (athletes, TV, etc.) apart from training them, having a personal relationship, or having the connection through someone (which if you do, you should use), is to run the event supporting their charity of choice. Do some research to see which cause the celebrity supports or find out which celebrity is associated with a cause that you choose to support.
You will be surprised by how many local celebrities will be willing to help out when it comes to a charitable cause – especially one they’re associated with. Work on getting a commitment ahead of time so you can also submit a press release with all the details that the celebrity will be attending your event. This will also raise the possibility of being featured in local media or even having the media at your event doing a feature on the event, taking pictures, etc.
In our gym in Slovenia, we focused solely on bringing in celebrities for our charity event. Soccer and basketball stars, singers, and actors that we were able to reach through relationships and connections were all recruited. We ended up creating enough buzz to have paparazzi at the gym, being featured in the news as well as two national trend magazines. Everyone had a blast, we raised a lot of money and got huge exposure…so make sure you do not rule out contacting local celebrities.
Make it a Can’t-Miss Event
I already talked about creating a “buzz” ahead of time, BUT it is imperative that during the last week (especially the last three days), you remind everyone about the upcoming charity boot camp and really make people feel like they can’t miss it.
Send the reminder in your newsletter, post it on your Facebook page (link to the event page from step #2), consistently remind members after your boot camp classes and other training, make the flyers in the gym visible, remind your team to mention it and for your clients to share it with others, including on Facebook.
One thing that always brings in more people is sending out a text the night (not too late) before the event. Although you could send texts personally, it’s tedious and your thumbs would be done after sending hundreds. I use a software called Contact Formula (there is no affiliate link, I just think it’s a great software for your business) to text our members, so I can send different messages to different lists and still personalize them. It is awesome, as I’ve tracked this and always get an extra four or five people to come that would not have otherwise shown up.
Follow Up
Bring the Energy, Create an Experience, and Get Information
This is the time where you don’t want to leave anything out and you want to give all the energy that you have while running the event!
All the extras are great, but you still have to bring the energy and make it EPIC so that people will remember it, talk about it, and not only see you as a leader in the community (because you care and actually take action on being a Go-Giver) but also as the top fitness professional in the area because the training, energy, and environment are unmatched.
Have a meeting with your team before your charity boot camp so you make sure they’re all bringing their top energy levels and delivering a “WOW” experience.
Have a sign-in sheet ready and make sure everyone writes down their phone, e-mail, and address (make at least the phone and e-mail mandatory). This way, you can not only input the new participants as leads but more importantly, follow up with them and thank them for helping out with the cause where you were able to raise “x” dollars.
If you receive their address, send them a thank you card as well. This is imperative as it shows true appreciation and builds a relationship between you and current clients as well as people that have been exposed to your program for the first time.
