Hello, I'm Evangeline Ling... I am one of the Co-Captains for team RELAY for HOPE. This is the team's third year in SL's Relay For Life, and this is also my third year in it as well.
In that time, I've had lots of opportunities to learn and experiment with things that work in Relay. I've also had a lot of opportunity to experiment with things that do not work well in Relay either... such as my event idea of the "Big Easter Egg Drop." At that failed attempt at an event in my first year of relaying, I learned that dropping 500 physical objects shaped like eggs inside a skybox club for the participants to sift through and find prizes in them was NOT as wise of an idea as I thought it would be... Eva's big Easter Egg Disaster basically ended up looking more like a professional griefer attack across 6 sims as the 500 RELAY for HOPE easter eggs collided and went flying. Even 2 years later I was still finding the occasional Easter Egg from that little Relay disaster... OK so avoid THAT event idea all together.
What I would really like to focus on today, however, is on a helpful list of good ideas to use in Relay and in your efforts and in your team's efforts. I call this "Eva's Relay For Life, Top 10"
10. TRASH MY CLUB: Ok this event might not bring in a lot of money like other events do... but the event is so much fun that it will bring back morale to any team that is in the Relay dumps. You know that burned out feeling when suddenly you are not having fun or feel overworked? Time for something REALLY fun. You need a club and that club needs to have a whole bunch of spare prims not being used, at least 500. Basically get a DJ for the event and play a lot of trashy songs (my favorite is Oscar the grouch's "I Love Trash"). Then you set the perms in the club so that everyone can rez things. As your sloppy guests arrive... tell them they can rez out anything they want... trash up the club with all their garbage. As the prim count rises occasionally return some of the higher prim trash so people can keep rezzing. Music... lots of garbage... and dancing all over the garbage... it's INSANELY fun... OK I'm a little weird... my other 9 ideas get better.... but seriously TRY THIS!!!
9. BID ME BALD: This one is by far the most widely used event in Relay by teams, and a very effective way of earning BIG donations. There are a lot of variations on how to do it, I will stick with the one we use that is tried and true.. Set an event time for 2 -3 hours and you need a DJ for this, preferably one who can work the mic really good in encouraging people to donate and to harass the people who are going to lose their SL hair. Now you need 8 - 12 vict... I mean volunteers. My suggestion on volunteers... ask people who have big community ties to put up their hair... a club owner, or a dancer, or a singer, or the owner of a big estate or someone who has a big social circle in general. The more socially prominent they are the bigger their earning potential... Each person sits in a chair with a single prim kiosk behind them. For every 5000 L donated to their kiosk, they have to go bald in SL for a day. The temptation is to make that amount smaller... DON'T make it smaller then 5000L!!! First off if a big donor comes in you might end up saddling a volunteer with far too long a sentence and secondly a 5000L price tag on that person's hair elevates people's consciousness about making a more substantial donation... I've seen people's kiosks hit as high as 70,000 L before (that translated into 2 weeks baldness in SL). The most successful Bid Bald event I ran had 10 volunteers to go bald and raised over 360,000 L in a 3 hour period... And I've seen other bid bald events do even better then that.
8. KIOSK EVERYWHERE!!! : The more kiosks the more relay is seen... The more kiosks the more relay is seen... The more kiosks the more relay is seen... The more kiosks the more relay is seen... The more kiosks the more relay is seen... The more kiosks the more relay is seen... The more kiosks the more relay is seen... The more kiosks the more relay is seen... The more kiosks the more relay is seen... The more kiosks the more relay is seen... Now you keep repeating that!!! Remember, even if some of your kiosks never get donated too... their mere presence is an advertisement for Relay for Life.
7. CHATTERBOX: New team members and donors come from some of the funniest places... When you are out exploring and meeting people and you get into conversations... tell people about your involvement in Relay... You will be surprised how many new team members you might make that way or how many people might want to make some kind of donation after having that conversation. Be a chatterbox about relay.
6. BUILD BRIDGES: Some take the team isolation approach in SL. And while you certainly can Relay without reaching out to other teams, you will miss out on a tremendous opportunity to meet other people, to benefit from their ideas as well as to help them with yours. Its a healthy thing to have friendships with some other teams, perhaps even consider a joint event with another team. Some of our very best team friendships have come from building these kind of social bridges between teams.
5. SACRIFICE: This is actually the very last item that I wrote about when writing this article... I really struggled on whether it was appropriate, especially in the given economic climate with the hard times we are all facing... But even so I think it needs to be a message heard. One of the backbones of some of the most successful teams is that they have a number of team members who themselves are also big donors to the team effort on a monetary level... For the past 2 years my RL spouse and I have sacrificed in some very real ways in our RL in order to donate to Relay for Life... We do so because we believe in it. Think very hard about... or even pray if you are spiritually inclined... about making some sort of RL sacrifice in order to donate to Relay. This year one of the things we are doing in RL is to shop at a discount grocery store for the 4 months of Relay. We are also decreasing our budget for a lot of non essential things in order to donate more. Things are tight, and we are hurting this year more then any prior year due to the economy... but we are still finding ways that will allow us to monetarily contribute. Friends... please consider making a sacrifice of some small or even big comforts in your RL in order to turn that money into a very loving gift that will help go to save lives and bring comfort into the lives of others. Your sacrifice is one of love.
4. DOUBLE DOWN! : Ok this is my very favorite strategy at events to increase donations... Lets say you have some Lindens burning a hole in your pocket. Lets say you have 5000 L to donate to your own team's kiosk... Go ahead and just dump it in the kiosk... BRAKES!!!! NO!!!! WAIT!!! Don't miss the Double Down opportunity! Don't just donate that 5000 L... Donate it in a way that doubles it... Wait till you have a good crowd to do this with too... and resist the temptation to do it at the beginning of your event. Let people make donations they already intend on making first... then about half way through the event... or when you find the donations have dropped off... that is when to Double Down!!! Go into open chat and announce that the next 5 donations of 1000L you will match with your own money... after announcing your intention to match their donations wait for people to put in their 1000 L and then you donate your 1000 L etc... if after the second one nobody is donating, continue to remind them in open chat about your intention to match their donation and keep doing this until enough people have made those 1000L donations and you have matched up to the limit you set. Now your 5000 L donation just became a 10,000 L donation... During last year's relay I think I managed to get 30% of all money that I donated doubled in this manner with matching donations. And we had several people on our team employing this very same strategy. DOUBLE DOWN!!! It totally works!
3. Be a CHEERLEADER! : I cannot stress this one enough.... It is so simple too... At your events you need to motivate and energize the people there into making them want to donate... Make sure you individually thank everyone who donates. Not just a "ty bob for the donation"... NO... try this... "WOW Bob... that was totally AWESOME... Thank you for that donation, you RAWK!!!" See the difference? You just made Bob feel incredible about putting his L in your kiosk. In fact, Bob may very well go on to donate again because you MOTIVATED him. Make a big deal about EVERY donation, even small ones. Everyone's ability to donate is at a different level. Furthermore, encourage people to donate, talk to them, be social with them. Perhaps occasionally share a statistic like 1000 L approximately is the cost of one good cup of coffee from Starbucks... lets all give up our coffee tomorrow and make a nice donation! Then you throw in your 1000 L to show them you are doing it too. Now you just became the Coffee Nazi "NO COFFEE FOR YOU!!!" The main thing is people need to see your enthusiasm for the cause. Go check out one of the SL Cure Chasers team events for example.... they have it down to a science... they even HAVE cheerleader outfits!
2. NETWORKING: Ok, this was ALMOST my #1... Maximizing the use of your groups and friendships for the sake of Relay is vital to its success... The biggest mistake you can make is to simply advertise your events in the Relay Volunteer group and the event boards. While these should be used, keep in mind that every team in the SL relay is saturating them with notices every single day.... The volunteers are awesome but they get tapped really quick and many of them half way through the season either tune it out or leave that group entirely... A successful team will be drawing more then 80% or their donations in from non-relay groups and sources. Your club's group or your social network might only get hit up for donations by YOU... So you need to maximize your connections and friends.. get people there who may never even know about a relay event if you didn't tell them. If you have DJs or singers coming in for your event, ask them to hit up their own groups for your event... ask your friends who show up to hit their groups and friends lists. The bigger the network that you can draw from to get people to your event... the more successful your event will be. And if some of those volunteers do happen to show up... be super nice to them... they probably had at least half a dozen choices of Relay events to attend; you are LUCKY they picked yours. NETWORK!!!!
1. It's not about YOU! : Keeping your heart and mind on the cause is by far the very best tip I can give... It is so easy to get sidetracked in a Relay. The very best of intentioned people can easily have their motivations postured and manipulated. When you begin your Relay year write down a paragraph of Why you relay... then before every event go back and read that, it will keep you focused... I relay for my Dad who died from a very aggressive Lymphoma and I relay for my Aunt who is now battling that very same disease that runs in our family. At the end of the day... its not about my team totals... its not about having the very best event... its not about any accolades I might receive from my teammates or friends... its not about getting a more prominent position on my team... its not about promoting my club, business or community... its not about that virtual pat on the back of my own ego... its not about me. Its about that mission statement of wanting to see people like my Dad and my Aunt never have to come home and tell their families "I have cancer." Keep focused on YOUR reason that you Relay, and you will never have to worry about tripping over yourself. It will keep you focused and motivated to keep bringing the very best you have to offer because your reason to Relay is more important then any of that other stuff.
Evangeline Ling, Co-Captain, Team RELAY for HOPE
Evangeline, those are awesome tips. I don't know how to thank you for this. But one thing I do know with this sharing, we all gain, and that's a whole lot of good, focused on what maters most.
This is in deed the Season of Hope.
Jennifer Curtau, Social Media, Team RFL Harmony of Hope.
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