Finding the funds in fun runs: exploring physical activity events as fundraising tools in the nonprofit sector

An increasingly popular form of raising funds in the nonprofit sector is the special event that involves some form of physical activity. This paper describes a study that tracked 50 events over nine months in order to explore the phenomenon of physical activity events, their function as a solicitation strategy and as a public awareness/relations tool, and to gauge how these events met the needs of participants who donated their money and energy to a cause. Data were collected by means of participant observation at 12 events and interviews with 12 participants and 12 hosting organisations. Using a social marketing framework and diffusion of innovations theory as an approach to making sense of the data, the results suggest that events serve two main purposes: celebrating a cause and offering an event that satisfies the physical activity interests of participants, and that events appropriately act as fundraising and publicity tools. Implications for adopting a social marketing orientation so that nonprofit organisations can hasten the diffusion process by tailoring events to meet the needs of participants, and for further research are discussed. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications

[1]  Ali Montazeri.  Social marketing , 1997, Journal of the Royal Society of Health.

[2]  Steven Rathgeb Smith,et al.  Healthy Organizations, Unhealthy Communities? , 2000 .

[3]  The major gift donor relationship: An analysis of donors and contributions , 1995 .

[4]  B. Weisbrod.  Guest Editor's Introduction: The Nonprofit Mission and its Financing , 1998 .

[5]  J. Lomas,et al.  Home is where the governing is: social capital and regional health governance. , 1999, Health & place.

[6]  Robert D. Putnam,et al.  Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community , 2000, CSCW '00.

[7]  Zakary L. Tormala,et al.  Using Social Marketing to Raise Funds for Prevention Programs , 2000 .

[8]  Bruce Gurd.  Book Review: Thomas McLaughlin, Street Smart Financial Basics for NonProfit Managers, 2nd edn., John Wiley, New York, 240 pp., $29.25 , 2004 .

[9]  Abraham Wandersman,et al.  The Benefits and Costs of Volunteering in Community Organizations: Review and Practical Implications , 1999 .

[10]  Adrian. Sargeant,et al.  Returns on Fundraising Expenditures in the Voluntary Sector , 1999 .

[11]  Anthony Laker.  Beyond the Boundaries of Physical Education: Educating Young People for Citizenship and Social Responsibility , 2000 .

[12]  C. Pope,et al.  Qualitative Research in Health Care , 1999 .

[13]  J. Fahy,et al.  Foundations of Marketing , 2002 .

[14]  M. Patton,et al.  Qualitative evaluation and research methods , 1992 .

[15]  Corporate Sponsorships of Philanthropic Activities: Do They Help the Sponsor? , 2001 .

[16]  R. Lefebvre.  The social marketing imbroglio in health promotion , 1992 .

[17]  A. Manley.  Physical Activity And Health: A Report Of The Surgeon General , 2004 .

[18]  J. Hemingway.  Leisure, Social Capital, and Democratic Citizenship , 1999 .

[19]  C. Bouchard,et al.  Physical activity and health: introduction to the dose-response symposium. , 2001, Medicine and science in sports and exercise.

[20]  Efficiency of Fund-Raising Activities: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis , 1997 .