5 Hybrid Fundraiser Ideas for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Right now, a woman in your family, friend group, or at work is affected by breast cancer. According to Breastcancer.org , “About 1 in 8 U.S. women (about 13%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.”

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and it’s an opportunity to join the fight, whether that’s through awareness, fundraising, or both. Breast cancer is a disease that we can do something about. Early detection (get risk assessed at 30 and regular mammograms starting at 40!) often has a good prognosis. Hand in hand with that is raising money for breast cancer treatment and breast cancer research—the more we know, the better the treatments, and the closer we get to finding a cure.

Whether you’re celebrating someone thriving after breast cancer, supporting those currently affected, or honoring those we’ve lost, a hybrid (in-person combined with an online fundraiser) breast cancer fundraiser is a great way to maximize your reach and money raised.

5 breast cancer hybrid fundraising ideas

1. Ride, lift, bike, or swim for the cure!

Galvanize your friends and local community with an “a-thon” peer-to-peer fundraiser! It’s a fun way to raise money for breast cancer treatment while spreading awareness. What is a peer-to-peer fundraiser? Basically, supporters raise money on behalf of your cause. A good example is almost any kind of “walk for a cure” event, which is essentially an “a-thon” fundraising campaign with a peer-to-peer component. Participants promote their involvement—and ask for donations—through social media.

Here are the basics of hosting an a-thon breast cancer fundraiser:

• First, choose an activity people will get excited about. For instance, if you’re active at your local Crossfit, then you could have a Lift-A-Thon. Or maybe everyone in your community loves to go on fall foliage walks—you could host a Peep at Trees for Pink-A-Thon!
• Decide on a fundraising goal and whether you want people to pledge their support by the mile, chapters read, weight lifted, or steps taken.
• Set up your a-thon fundraising website so that people can participate wherever they are and on their own time (within your fundraiser’s date parameters, of course!).
• Enlist participants by partnering with your gym, yoga studio, rec center, or library. Get your friends to sign up and share your a-thon through social media. If you’re partnering with a local business, ask them to encourage their followers to sign up or sponsor participants, too!
• Ask everyone to wear pink clothing or a pink ribbon, and share images of themselves participating using a hashtag unique to your event. This will help draw attention and inspire others to support or participate.

2. Meditate for the cause

• Partner with a local meditation or yoga studio to offer a class or series for which the fee goes toward your cause that people can attend in-person or virtually.
• For the folks at home, Livestream the class and invite participants to make donations.
• Spread the word on social media and through well-placed posters displaying a QR code that directs to your fundraising event site or class scheduler so that people can easily donate to reserve their spot.

3. Sell the (baked) goods

Everyone loves tasty, homemade treats, so why not host a Bake for Breasts bake sale? Maximize the number of people you can reach in person and through social media by teaming up with your place of worship, rec center, or community organization.

Two common concerns about holding a bake sale are the venue and payment—both of which are addressed by adding an online fundraiser element to your bake sale. Doing so will widen the net of potential customers while making you less reliant on a lot of foot traffic. Plus, payments and accounting are simplified.

The basics of hosting this kind of hybrid breast cancer fundraiser are below:

• Set up your bake sale fundraiser site. This way, people can purchase their items right from their phone’s browser. In addition to including details on your event benefitting cancer research or medical expenses, include information about regular screening and regular mammograms to help spread awareness.
• Don’t forget to indicate on your sale fundraising site when and where supporters can pick up their baked goods! This can be anywhere from your driveway or community center to a local business partner’s parking lot. To give you an idea of how other nonprofits have set up food sale fundraisers with scheduled pick-ups, check out our article How to use QR Codes and Cook Up a Great Food Fundraiser.
• Share your Bake for Breasts bake sale on social media, and ask your friends and fundraising partner to do the same. Market the fundraiser throughout your community using posters, lawn signs, and stickers bearing a QR code that directs straight to your bake sale site.
• Bake all the things. Make them pink when possible! For bread loaves, consider getting a flour stencil in the shape of that iconic ribbon.

4. Cook up a cure

Similar to our above bake sale idea, this is for the foodies among you! Put on a community BBQ event, or vegan food feast with the admission fee benefitting their cause.

• If the food event you have in mind is block party style, consider selling tickets with sales benefitting your chosen breast cancer organization. You can issue wristbands on site to make it easy to discern who has paid.
• Add a virtual element to your cookout by putting together a food sale event much like the bake sale fundraising event outlined above. This will allow supporters to purchase, pick up, and deliver meals for those recovering from treatment!

5. 50/50 Raffle

Though there’s no catchy name (yet!), a 50/50 raffle is an easy way to raise money for an individual facing medical expenses or for an organization like the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

The best thing about a 50/50 raffle is that you don’t have to worry about finding a terrific prize—the idea is that 50% of raffle ticket sales are allocated as prize money while the remaining funds benefit your cause. So, the more tickets you sell, the larger the pot! Depending on the raffle laws in your state, you may be able to run a hybrid raffle where you sell raffle tickets online as well as printed raffle tickets in person (here’s an article that lays out how to host a hybrid raffle).

The caveat with a 50/50 raffle is that while it can act as a standalone fundraiser, our customers find more success when the raffle is part of a larger event benefitting the same cause.

Ready? Set? Make a difference!