Facilitator Guide
“Putting it all On (the) Line”
Online Breakout
Division Name
2008
Putting it all On (the) Line
National Collegiate Leadership Summit - 2008
Module Overview
Audience:
American Cancer Society staff, Division Relay For Life Task Force members,
Regional/Metro Relay For Life Council members, Relay For Life volunteer leadership,
Colleges Against Cancer volunteer leadership, Youth Task Force members
Recommended group size: 30-40
Objectives:
Learn the characteristics of great webpages
Develop strategies to get people to use your site
Increase the event dollars through the web
Time Required: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Preparation:
Room Set-Up:
U-shape with participants sitting on the outside or round tables.
Table in front of the room for facilitator materials, handouts, etc.
Decorations
A/V Equipment: LCD Projector, Screen, Laptop
PowerPoint instead of Flipcharts if you have A/V
Flip Chart and Easel (if you don’t have A/V)
Allow sufficient time to:
Create flipcharts or PowerPoint’s.
Copy and distribute handouts.
Decorate the room.
Welcome participants.
All preparation should be completed at least 30 minutes before the session.
Materials:
Quotes to decorate the walls
Balloons or other decorations
Markers (provided)
Tape (provided)
Boom box playing music (provided)
Two flip chart pads (provided)
Construction paper
Small CAC/RFL prizes for Jeopardy
Candy (optional)*
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Icons
Facilitator creates a flip chart.
Facilitator shows a video
Exercise performed by participants; or activity lead by facilitator
Information in a PowerPoint slide
Facilitator asks a question of participants.
Indicates a very important point that needs to be addressed
Handout*
*Note—anytime you see this icon it indicates there should be a corresponding
embedded document. When you scroll through this facilitator guide there is
sometimes a slight delay in the embedded document appearing.
Special Instructions:
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National Collegiate Leadership Summit - 2008
Prepared Flip Charts:
Welcome to “Putting it All On (the) Line” Online Breakout
National Collegiate Leadership Summit 2008
Facilitator Contact:
Name Name
School School
Email Email
Phone Phone
Agenda:
1) Welcome/Icebreaker
2) What Does a Great Site Look Like?
3) How to Get People to Your Site
4) The Biggest Secret in Online Fundraising!
5) Jeopardy!
6) Wrap Up/Call to Action
Objectives:
1) Learn the characteristics of great webpages
2) Develop strategies to get people to use your site
3) Increase those event dollars through the web!
Ground Rules: (Wall 1)
1) Push yourself to stay engaged and alert
2) Active listening
3) Be courteous
Parking Lot: (Wall 2)
1) At my Relay we …
2) Explanations of specific fundraising ideas
Characteristics of a Unsuccessful Webpage
Unsuccessful WebPages
Outdated Information
Unappealing use of font (size, color, style, etc.)
Not customized
Not proof-read
Confusing sidebar links
Characteristics of a Great Site
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National Collegiate Leadership Summit - 2008
Characteristics of a Great Site
Current information
Customized
Smart use of fonts
Effective use of Homepage
Proof-read
Manageable sidebar
Maximizing the Impact of your Site
Update Frequently
Site Announcements
Recognition
Show support for Team Events
Advertise
What is Promotion?
Getting people to visit your site!
Getting more people to your site means more use and therefore more
dollars (duh!).
Making Your Site the Event’s Hub
Main means of communication with your participants
Post important documents, meeting minutes, schedules, maps, etc.
Always display your site’s link (web address) on any emails, handouts, or
other things you use to communicate with your participants
Reward actions that produce results
Making Your Site a Hub: Best Practices
Get Your Committee Involved: Best Practices
Training Your Event Managers
Find a Committed Online Chair-Don’t “dump” the responsibility on
someone
Decide who should have access
Tailor the access to that person’s needs according to his/her role
“Chain of Training”
Your ideas: What are some effective training strategies?
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National Collegiate Leadership Summit - 2008
Training Your Participants
It will boost your fundraising!
Personalize their homepage
How to use the email system
o Templates
o Gift Tracking/Follow-Ups
Keep it simple
Your ideas
What is the Best-Kept Secret of Relay Online?
The Secret:
More emails=More $$
Startling Statistics:
Total raised online in FY08 by College events: $9,814,081
Total number of emails sent by College events (participant emails): 745,761
Total number of participants registered online: 182,380
Average online gift for college events: $34.18
Average dollars raised online per email sent: $11.93
Average number of emails sent per participant: 4
Elements of a Successful Fundraising Email
Make it personal!
o Essentials: Your name, event name, recipient’s name
o “Why I Relay” anecdote
o ACS Connection-Where $$ goes
Link to ACS Mailing Address
Your ideas
Other tips:
Reward actions that lead to success
o Number of emails sent
Use as many incentives as you can think of!
Get people to update their pages!
Your ideas
Attributes of a Good Coaching Email:
Our suggestions:
Simple subject lines
Use directives
Know your community
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Always include direct links (and make them appealing)
Your thoughts: When’s best to send emails?
Proof-read!
Call to Action
Where can your school improve its online abilities?
Where is your school strong with its website?
How can you customize your website to your community?
List two ideas that you got from this breakout you’ll take to your Relay
Facilitator Agenda:
________________________________________________________________
Welcome/Introductions, Agenda review, Objectives 5 minutes
Icebreaker 8 minutes
Characteristics of Great WebPages 15 minutes
Strategies to Increase Website Usage 15 minutes
How to Increase Event Dollars through the Web 20 minutes
Review, Wrap-Up, Call to Action 5 minutes
Welcome/Introductions, Agenda Review, Objectives (5 minutes)
________________________________________________________________
Welcome / Introductions
Welcome to the Online Breakout.
1 Each facilitator introduces himself/herself and tells audience name, university
affiliation, and American Cancer Society/Relay For Life background.
We designed this component of the National Collegiate Leadership Summit to
help you develop unique, effective, and efficient online fundraising efforts for
your hometown Relay For Life.
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If at any time you have any questions, please feel free to ask away.
.
Agenda Review
This is an overview of the topics we will be covering during this breakout
2
session.
One facilitator will read or summarize the Agenda flipchart page.
While we would like to cover all of these topics, this breakout is intended as a
workshop for your needs, so we can certainly spend more time on any one
area if you feel it is important.
Agenda
1. Welcome/Icebreaker
2. What Does a Great Site Look Like
3. How to get people to your site
4. The biggest secret in online fundraising!
5. Jeopardy!
6. Wrap Up/Call to Action
Objectives
There are several key areas of concentration that we would like to address
2 with this breakout.
One facilitator will read or summarize the Objectives flipchart page.
And we will realize these objectives in the following way …
Objectives
Learn the characteristics of great webpages
Develop strategies to get people to use your site
Increase those event dollars through the web!
Icebreaker (8-10 minutes):
Title: “Take a Stand”
1) Split the room in half with all participants standing.
Facilitators should make room for group.
Facilitators may need to indicate where group should stand.
Facilitators may need to move tables and chairs out of way.
2) One person begins in the middle of the group and draws a line (real or imaginary)
that divides the room in half.
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3) One person will read two contrasting options. For example, the facilitator will say,
“up vs. down” and the people in the room need to split in half, one group that prefers
“up” and one group that prefers “down.” Make it clear that everyone must “take a
stand” and pick a side.
4) Make a list of several different options before the game. Try to pick pop culture
references or Relay categories. For example, “Backstreet Boys vs. *NSYNC” or
“Opening Ceremonies vs. Closing Ceremonies.”
5) The purpose of this icebreaker is to work in categories that will give you a sense of
how the room feels about certain online issues. For example, for every fun category
you have try to incorporate something to the effect of “Used personal emails for
fundraising vs. Used Convio emails for fundraising”
Are there any questions?
If no questions, have each facilitator take a group to allow more interaction and begin the
icebreaker.
Participants will likely resist choosing sides on an issue, but make it clear that they have to
pick a side for each category.
Characteristics of Great WebPages (15 minutes)
________________________________________________________________
4 In order for people to want to use your website, it needs to look appealing. Although
this breakout will talk about what a good website looks like, we won’t go into detail about
the technical aspects that are necessary to make these changes.
Speaker’s Note: You should make it clear to your group that this is how the breakout is
structured and if they have technical questions, they’ll get the appropriate resources at
the end of the breakout.
Start by loading the example of a bad Relay website.
Give participants 2 minutes to discuss what is wrong with this page.
May we have a few people share their critiques of the site?
Aspects of an Unsuccessful Page
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What makes it an unsuccessful/unattractive site?
Speaker’s Note: Bad things = outdated information, ugly, too-large, bad colors,
boldness fonts, not customized (using generic text), errors in grammar, spelling, giant
block of text, home page link hard to find (flip chart #1)), hard to read, hard to find
information, etc. Make sure you note their comments when the lights are off.
Frequently turning the lights on and off will bother participants.
Thank you everyone for telling us how terrible this site is. Now, we’ve made an
example of what a good site could look like. Keep in mind that there are so many
different things you can do with the website, so don’t feel limited by what we’ve shown
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you. We just want to give you some good best practices so you can take your ideas
and make them even better!
o Have group briefly share and summarize any qualities that they considered
6 especially important in a great website
o One facilitator will facilitate dialogue while the other facilitator broadly
summarizes the important points on the flip chart
7 Positive Website Characteristics
Keep it Current
o It is very important to keep the content of the page up-to-date. Take down
advertisements for events as soon as they’re over.
o Also, make sure to update the site often enough that people check frequently to
know what’s going on! If you list everything at once, then people don’t have an
incentive to check your event page.
Customize your Site
o Make sure that participants are comfortable when they see the event page. If
you have pictures and text that remind them of your community, they’ll feel more
comfortable using the site.
Be smart about your fonts and text
o Don’t use all caps, always properly punctuate your text, use colors that are easy
on the eyes, avoid long blocks of text, don’t make your text too large (size 72
font can be obnoxious!), and generally make sure that everything that people
read is pleasant on the eyes.
Effective use of the Homepage
o It’s very important to strike a balance on the event’s home page. Make sure that
there is enough content on the page that it seems interesting, but don’t
overwhelm participants. It’s a good idea to summarize important content on the
home page, and then link to more detailed pages on the site. For example,
show upcoming Team Fundraisers on your homepage and then link to a
complete list of upcoming fundraisers.
Proof-read!
o This should be common sense, but make sure that there aren’t any typos or
grammatical errors in anything written on your event website.
Manage your Sidebar
o Make sure that your homepage link is very easy to find (put it at the top of the
links, and make sure it is clearly labeled)
o Don’t overdo it with links. Make sure that your sidebar has everything that is
essential to your event. Don’t put too many links on the side, otherwise people
will get overwhelmed. Similarly, there are custom pages for a reason. Make
sure to use the sidebar so people can easily find those custom pages.
8 Maximize the impact of your site
Team recognition
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o This is a great best practice! Find ways to highlight a team’s accomplishments
on your home page. Perhaps you could have a Team Spotlight where you profile
a team who’s had an outstanding fundraiser or a team who is currently in first
place.
Updates
o The general rule of thumb for updating, to maximize the use of your site, is to
update it at least every two weeks in the Relay “off-season.” About three months
before your event, the site should be updated at least once a week, but ideally it
will be updated as important updates happen.
Announcements
o Advertise important dates in an announcements section of some sort. Here, you
can briefly post important items and link to more detailed description on another
page.
Online Resources
There are a ton of great documents and links on RelayForLife.org that will help out with
any technical/troubleshooting issues that you might have.
Each Division has its own training manual that details all of the important steps in
constructing a great website.
If you do have technical concerns that you can’t answer, please contact your divisional
online contact person.
Your awesome facilitators are also great resources!
Speaker’s Note:
If “issues from last year” are brought up by the group, encourage participants by letting them
know that the reliability of the product will be exponentially better this coming year as many
problems have been addressed. Finally, go over this section briefly as to not waste too much
time on the issue.
Strategies to Increase Site Usage (15 minutes)
________________________________________________________________
9 What is Promotion?
Promotion of Relay Online is all about getting people to visit your site!
Getting people to visit your site means more use and therefore, more fundraising dollars!
10 Make Relay Online the Hub of Your Relay Event
The key to promoting you Relay site is to make sure it is the center of your event.
Use your site as the main means of communication between your Event and your
participants.
Rather then using handouts, post all documents, schedules, information, campus
fundraisers, etc. on your site as this will save you the hassle of replacing lost papers and
get more people to the site more often.
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Also, make sure whenever anyone is talking about your event's site you have the web
address available. Display the web address on everything possible - posters, brochures,
agendas, etc.
Reward actions that produce results. For example, reward participants who are able to
answer questions about the site.
Ask the group: Does anyone have a good example of how to do this?
(Best Practice Example: Place trivia throughout the site and give extra spirit points to
the first participant to email the correct answer, etc.)
Speaker’s Note: When discussing these practices, try to suggest a Best Practice. For
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example, encourage your participants to change the home pages in their school’s computer
labs to their Relay page.
Get the Whole Committee Involved
It is important for every member of your CAC & Relay committee to utilize and connect their
position with the site.
Encourage use of your event site by having the entire committee involved. Not only will the
need for a stronger site to be created, but it will promote more traffic there as well.
Activity: How can committee members best utilize Relay online?
(6 minutes)
(See Activity Section below.)
13 Training
Training is essential to managing and promoting a productive site. If users don’t
understand the tool, how are they expected to use it, let alone use it well?
The better the training, the more successful the site will be.
There are two basic levels of training for Relay Online:
o Event Managers- Individuals who are responsible for managing the site.
One key aspect of this side of training is finding a committed Online Chair. This
Online Chair does not need to be an IT student or have extensive computer
training or skills. The site is very easy to use and figure out on your own. As
we stated before each division has training, an online manual, and a division
contact that can help train your Online Chair. Speak with your Staff Partner to
find out this information.
In addition, this role should ideally not be shared with other committee
positions unless absolutely necessary, but should work closely with the other
chairs (ie: The Relay chair should not be the Online Chair as well). As Relay
season approaches, individuals tend to get busier, and in turn the site suffers
because people are focused on other responsibilities.
Participants- Individuals who use the site for personal fundraising.
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Training participants to use the event’s site will help significantly boost overall
fundraising!
Training should be passed along as follows: Division->Online Chair-> Committee-
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>Team Captains->Participants
This level of training should be very basic: How to personalize your home page, how to
send an email, etc. The simpler the better at this level. Emphasize how easy the
program is to use.
Also emphasize its advantages over conventional email use:
o Pre-made email templates
o Gift tracking - see who has given gifts and keep track of thank you responses
What are some Relay Participant training best practices?
(Ex: Training through a Team Captain mentor program, training in a
computer lab, holding a short participant training meeting for all participants
after a team meeting, etc.)
Interactive activity to support your key points:
How can committee members best utilize Relay online? (6 minutes)
Rules:
Split the room in four groups.
Facilitators should find a way to get participants to find new seats at this point in
the breakout.
Facilitators should hand out flipchart paper to each group
For this activity, each group will brainstorm ideas on different ways to incorporate the entire
Relay Committee into the website.
The areas are as follows:
Event Development (Event Chair, Logistics, Activities/Entertainment)
Mission (Sponsorship, Mission Delivery, Advocacy)
Teams (Team Development, Registration, Accounting)
Survivorship (Survivorship, Luminaria)
Ask the group if there are any questions.
If no questions, have the facilitators float around the room and help answer questions and guide
any discussion.
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After about 5-6 minutes have passed, have each group share their favorite ideas
Remind the groups that these are just some committee positions and there is a way for EVERY
committee position to participate in the promotion of the website.
Increase Event Dollars through the Web (20 minutes)
________________________________________________________________
16 What is the best kept secret of Relay Online?
Sending Emails are key!
It has been proven that if you send more emails, you will absolutely raise more money.
Although this may seem like an extremely simple explanation, it’s really important to the
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National Collegiate Leadership Summit - 2008
success of your online dollars.
Statistical support
Total raised online in FY08 by College events: $9,814,081
Total number of emails sent by College events (participant emails): 745,761
Total number of participants registered online: 182,380
Average online gift for college events: $34.18
Average dollars raised online per email sent: $11.93
Average number of emails sent per participant: 4
These numbers absolutely indicate that emails will affect your fundraising totals.
Furthermore, so many participants ignore sending emails. If you get one person to
send 9 emails, that will average to $100 for that participant!!
There are so many ways you can incorporate the email service in your event.
Elements of a successful fundraising email
18 Speaker’s Note: Show the example of a strong fundraising email. Ask the group to give their
feedback on the email, and then show them the flipchart with your suggestions. If these topics
weren’t discussed, explain the following areas:
MAKE IT PERSONAL! Include your name, your event’s name, and the name of the
recipient. THESE ARE ESSENTIAL! Other ideas for customization include: List/link to
the mailing address for donations in case people don’t feel comfortable donating online,
your “Why I Relay” story, how donations are used by the ACS, etc. Flipchart the list and
encourage folks to keep it simple.
Speaking of personal, UPDATE YOUR PERSONAL PAGE! People are linked to this
page when they agree to donate and will feel more comfortable donating if they see
YOU. The generic message is off-putting, so get your participants to update this page!
Other tips for success:
19 o Follow up with phone calls (use your best judgment here…maybe it’s
inappropriate to call your boss’ mother, but you can call your best friend or a
classmate)
o Send thank you notes when you receive donations (personalize these also!)
o Use the follow-up section of Convio, etc.
How do you encourage this successful behavior?
Incentives are essential! The key is to reward actions that lead to success and not
necessarily the success itself. Visit with your staff about incentive options.
What that means, with respect to fundraising, is that you should offer incentives for
people sending emails because that has been proven to lead to money. Reward their
hard work, whether it is for the dollars raised or the number of emails sent. Luckily, we
have an awesome reports tool, so Online Chairs can easily check to see who has been
working hard!
Ask the Group: Have them give ideas for incentives for people that have updated their
personal page and sent several fundraising emails
Speaker’s Note: Be flexible depending on time.)
20 Coaching Emails and Best Practices
An essential component of getting people to use your website as a fundraiser is to send
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great coaching emails to your participants
Show the example of a Good Coaching Email and ask:
What are some good attributes of strong coaching emails?
21 Simple subject lines. Avoid “spam triggers” like “free,” “win,” and “save.”
Put a directive in the subject line - may decrease open rates, but studies show that the
action requested will get performed more often.
Know your audience. Send concise emails so people will read them. However, if you
need to send a long email, be sure to organize it with a list of topics so people can read
the topics most interesting to them
Always include direct links to the website whenever possible
Proofread, and try to show each email to your staff partner before it is sent out
Statistically emails sent Tuesday-Thursday have the best results
Ask the audience, because the best day to send emails might be different for each
school (depending on when you have class, when people usually do homework, etc.)
Sexy links! Make sure that any links you use are easy to read (avoid
http://www.324dfsE73&$%#.com jargon) and that the link is directly to the page
referenced.
Interactive activity to support your key points:
Now we’re going to play a game of Jeopardy to review the content we have gone over
today.
Speaker’s Note: The game can be set up on a board or on a wall. The questions are broken
up into three different categories, each with five questions (See embedded document). Using
construction paper, make a card for each question with the reward amount on one side and the
answer/question on the other for you to read. Be sure to also label each of your categories.
As questions are answered, be sure to remove them from the board.
Have the room split into groups of 5-8 participants. Each group should select a spokesperson
to represent their team. The game is played like regular Jeopardy where an answer is given
and the response should be in the form of a question. The first team to stand up and share the
correct answer wins the allotted points for that question and then gets to pick the next
question. The team with the most points in the end wins.
Embed your handouts that support the above key points:
Jeopardy Q&A
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National Collegiate Leadership Summit - 2008
Review, Wrap-Up, Call to Action (5 minutes)
________________________________________________________________
Review the objectives of this session to make sure you have come full circle with your
audience. Make this part of the breakout interactive enough as to not lose participant
attention.
Objectives:
Learned the characteristics of great web pages
Developed strategies to get people to use your site
Received knowledge to increase the event dollars through the web
Call to Action:
Utilizing your Action Planning Worksheet
What is one goal that you will set in place for your Relay to
increase participant use of your website?
How will you create Team Captain buy-in for your site?
If you are presenting this breakout at a Division Summit,
what will you highlight during that session?
For ease in printing the entire guide, please insert handouts here in their entirety
(Handouts should also be embedded or listed within the body of each agenda topic so
that the facilitators know which handouts are for which section).
________________________________________________________________
Jeopardy Q&A This or That Relay Online Role
Categories Delineation