How To Actually Ask For Donations

Wayne Gretzky once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. Wayne’s wisdom can be implied to asking for donations for your Extra Life efforts - if you don’t ask, you won’t receive.

You may not know where to start with your fundraising efforts, or maybe you need some fresh ideas. Don’t fret - we’ve created a list of 10 ways to ask for donations in support of Extra Life.

Use your fundraising page to send emails

We’ve created a very handy Email Address Import Tool that will allow you to import your address book contacts for your mailing list.  Within minutes, you can talk to everyone you know, see who donates, send thank you messages, and much more. Using the email tools is an excellent opportunity to communicate with your supporters and reach out to prospective donors, so don’t miss out!

Connect your page with social media

Get social and connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts with your Extra Life page.  This will help you spread the word, ask for donations, and rally your online friends to the cause.  Your friends want to help you succeed, and this is an easy way to keep them up-to-date on your progress!

You can link your social media accounts by logging into your Extra Life page >

Update Early! Update Often!

The average life of a tweet is 20 minutes, and no one fully understands how Facebook decides which of your friends get to see things.  In addition, it usually takes someone seeing your appeal up to 3 times before they’ll even notice it.  Jason West, an Extra Lifer leader who plays for Children’s Hospital of Boston, and his wife Maria post DAILY, and keep the kids they’re playing for top-of mind for everyone in their reach.  Keep it fresh and keep it going!

Tell local businesses you mean business

From your doctor’s office, to the coffee shop, to the dry cleaners - there are local businesses who are grateful for your patronage, and who will feel honored to support your efforts for local kids. You can ask them for a donation, or ask one to hold a night where a percentage of proceeds go to Extra Life (through you of course). Then just get out there and drive your neighbors and friends in for that night. Be sure to tag local businesses that support your fundraising efforts in posts and tell everyone you know in your area who they support - Extra Life!

Have others sign the shirt you'll be wearing for a donation

Find a shirt that you’re okay sacrificing, and declare it your game day shirt.  Tell everyone that this is the shirt you’ll be wearing on game day and for a donation of XX dollars, they can sign it and be as creative as they’d like.  Be prepared for a pile of donations and possibly some suggestive arrows and circles.  Hey, it’s for the kids! 

Bake, knit, craft

A lot of Extra Lifers have done this one with great success. Can you craft?  Can you knit?  Can you groom pets?  Use your talents to unlock more donations!

Brian in Pittsburgh made some brownies and slapped some Extra Life stickers on them. He then put them out at his work’s break room with a sign asking people to leave a donation for a brownie, and later discovered he’d turned about $4 in flour into about $30 for the kids.  Now THAT’S a sweet return!

You're never too old for odd jobs

Send an email to your local friends telling them you’d like to come by and wash their car or clean their gutters (be safe!) in return for a donation to your Extra Life efforts.  You’ll be surprised at how above and beyond people will go to help you reach your goal, especially when it’s all going to be helping local kids.

Say-what-I'll-play

This is a popular tactic used by Extra Lifers, especially those that stream their play.  Tell your potential supporters that for X donation, you’ll play whatever game they want (even My Little Pony Adventures!).  Be prepared for some serious generosity, and some serious humiliation when they take you up on this.  Destructoid’s Jim Sterling did something like this a few years ago where supporters paid to make him sing various ditties in SingStar.  12 hours into it Jim’s voice gave out, but not before he’d raised THOUSANDS of dollars for the kids!

The most important tip

Following Wayne Gretzky's advice above, don't be afraid to reach out to people and invite them to support your live-saving efforts. You have to ask, it’s part of being an Extra Lifer!  We put ourselves out there and some people will ignore us, but if we ask enough, we make miracles happen.  Remember - our kids can’t quit their fights! Let’s do this for the kids.