Fundraising Focus
"Do Good Things" Through Social Media: Drew Rankin's Digital Fundraising Tips

By Drew Rankin|September 03, 2021

I ride for everyone who has been impacted by cancer, but most especially my mom. She was the epitome of health before her cancer diagnosis at age 48: regularly running marathons, doing boot camps, traveling the world and enjoying time with her friends & family. Her motto to “DO GOOD THINGS” inspired me to participate in Pelotonia back in 2019.
Sadly, mom’s battle with cancer ended in September 2020. I struggled with feeling helpless throughout her battle, but I soon realized that the best way for me to honor her legacy and fight back against cancer was to continue to fundraise for cancer research.
Fundraising can seem intimidating at first, but I have found that my friends, family, co-workers, and even complete strangers have been more than happy to support my fundraising efforts when asked. Many of them share similar stories of how cancer has impacted their lives. Some even ride with me now!
Through all my efforts, utilizing social media (mainly Facebook and Instagram) has been my biggest fundraising tool.
Below are the main ways I’ve fundraised through social media:
  1. Promoting Events – Share posts about any events you or your Peloton are hosting. I mainly share about local restaurants or bars that are hosting happy hour givebacks.
  2. Pelotonia Donation BINGO – Encourage your followers to donate an amount noted in one of the squares on a BINGO card. You can then cross off the squares on your Stories and provide updates in your quest to get a BINGO. Download your own card here.
  3. Rallying Kroger Community Reward Donations – Did you know that you can fundraise while you buy groceries? Learn more here, then ask others in your social networks if they would donate their Kroger Community Rewards to your fundraising efforts.
  4. Sharing Raffles – Entice people with photos of raffle prizes and share about the impact that each dollar makes.
  5. Facebook Birthday Fundraiser – Set up a Facebook fundraiser for your birthday and share about why you participate in Pelotonia. More information on Facebook and Instagram fundraisers is available here.
  6. Live Streams – I hosted a cheesy cooking challenge (Food with Friends) but the sky’s the limit on what you can do with a live stream fundraiser.
And this year I decided to set a very unique and challenging goal inspired by my mom: receive one donation from someone in all 50 states. I posted updates on social media every day and sent targeted messages to friends and family in states I still needed. Eventually, I realized that my network was missing some states, so I shifted gears to asking for help spreading the word or simply sharing my story with complete strangers.
Some states were harder than others (ahem… South Dakota!), but I was able to get a donation from all 50 states in just under two months! This helped me raised over $3,000 and also helped spread the message of Pelotonia’s ONE GOAL across the entire country.
Pelotonia made a template for others to use, and I have seen a handful of other Legends accomplish this goal themselves.
In summary, don’t be afraid to ask your network for donations, be creative, tell your personal story, put the “fun” in FUNdraising, utilize all of Pelotonia’s amazing resources, and never stop DOING GOOD THINGS!
100% of participant-raised funds go to innovative cancer research.

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