Raising Funds Over the Long Run

Charities tap into marathon mania to earn big bucks for their causes

About 8,000 of the 20,000 people signed up for this year’s Suzuki Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego are members of the Leukemia Society of America’s Team In Training.

ALSO SEE:

Charities Use Outdoor ‘Challenges’ to Attract Donations

But the team is not a typical running club. It is a fund-raising program.

In exchange for a specified contribution, which the participants collect in per-mile pledges or outright gifts, the Leukemia Society trains marathoners and pays their way to races like the one in San Diego.

Last year, the Leukemia Society sent 6,000 runners, who together raised nearly $16-million, to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. Thousands of other Team In Training participants ran in marathons elsewhere in the United States and abroad in 1998, raising a total of about $47-million.

Team In Training is one of the oldest and largest marathon fund-raising programs in the country, but a growing number of charities are entering the race.

Charity officials and marathon organizers estimate that at least one in 10 participants in U.S. marathons this year will run in behalf of a non-profit group. With 440,000 people projected to participate in races in 1999, that could mean tens of millions of new dollars for charity.

But the course has not all been smooth for the charities involved. As more organizations sponsor race programs, the competition for participants has stiffened, and not all runners are meeting their fund-raising goals.

Still, for charities, the lure of the marathon programs is obvious: They can raise money and awareness of their causes through huge, high-profile events that they do not have to pay for or organize. And participants say that they also benefit, not only from the perks of the programs — training with a running coach, for example — but also from being able to learn about and help a charity.

And, despite the logistics of having to accommodate the much-slower runners — even walkers — that charities are likely to recruit, marathons are getting a boost from charities’ participating in the events, too. Race officials say they benefit from the good will generated by the fund-raising runners — and they are all but guaranteed a good turnout on race day.

Indeed, marathons are reserving a growing number of spots for charities that promise to send runners. The Marine Corps Marathon, in Washington, for example, plans to hold as many as 4,500 of its roughly 18,000 registration spots for charities this year — more than 10 times the number it set aside just three years ago.

Filling the charity slots at marathons are participants from all kinds of fund-raising programs. Some, like Team In Training, may pay for a runner who has collected a few thousand dollars to compete in a marathon in a faraway place like Anchorage, Dublin, or Honolulu. Others, like the program sponsored by a cancer-patient support group in Houston called CanCare, may simply ask a runner already planning to run in a local marathon to collect as little as $50 in pledges.

Paul Weiss, vice-president of fund raising at the Multiple Sclerosis Society, which three years ago started a program called Marathon Strides Against MS, says that long-distance running and fund raising are a perfect fit for a charity of any size.

“A marathon is such a compelling event,” he says. “Coupled with a compelling mission, people are really willing to participate and to support it.”

But the expanding field of runners may have some charities feeling the sting of competition.

In a tersely worded statement, the Leukemia Society declined to give any details about the growth of its Team In Training. Noting that the program — which includes bicycle rides — has raised more than $100-million since it began in 1988, the statement concluded: “Due to the success of Team In Training, there have been many imitators. Therefore, for obvious reasons, no further financial details on TNT will be disclosed.”

Competition for fund-raising runners has perhaps led to more than just resentment among charities. An official at a London charity called Whizz-Kidz, which raises money to buy wheelchairs and other mobility aids for children, says that some groups are “dropping their prices” to attract runners. Whizz-Kidz, for example, requires each runner to raise at least £1,500, or about $2,500, to earn an expenses-paid trip to the New York City Marathon. Charity officials say that other London groups are offering such trips to people who raise the equivalent of only about $1,600 apiece.

“You have to ask how much goes to expenses and how much goes to the charity,” says Sarah Kennard, a Whizz-Kidz official.

To avoid such questions, many charities promise to keep expenses at a specified level. The Leukemia Society, for example, says it tries to keep Team In Training’s expenses from exceeding 25 per cent of income. Such a ratio is insured, society officials say, because of a simple formula: Runners are required to raise four times the amount it costs to pay for their training, travel, and other support.

Still, some people are not sure that offering trips to marathons in far-off places is the best way to raise money.

“I’d look forward to the trip,” says James Soter, an engineer from Plymouth, Mich., who runs in Detroit’s marathon each year to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. But, he says: “It would be harder for me to get money from people if it would benefit myself like that.”

For many runners, raising money is a bigger challenge than running 26.2 miles.

Adam Bean, managing editor of Runner’s World magazine, which sponsors the Leukemia Society’s running program, says he considered joining the program himself and running a marathon in Dublin. But, he decided: “I just didn’t want to go door to door or anything like that.”

All of the charity marathon programs help participants raise money. Runners typically receive sample fund-raising letters and other information on how to ask for and collect money. Many charities provide videotapes, seminars, or one-on-one counseling to help. Still, many participants fall short of their monetary goals.

Michael Gault, a fund raiser at the Arthritis Foundation, in Atlanta, says that at least one out of every five people in the charity’s marathon program, called Joints in Motion, drops out because of the difficulty of raising money. For those who stay on, the charity requires that they raise the required minimum amount at least 30 days before a race. If they do not, they must secure their place by paying the balance themselves.

Such a policy is necessary, Mr. Gault says, for the organization to plan for and keep its expenses down, especially when it must pay in advance for airline fares and other travel costs. Last year, the charity sent 2,000 people to marathons here and abroad, raising between $5-million and $6-million. This year, the charity expects to double the number of participants in the program, as well as the amount of money raised.

Not all charities hold runners to a fund-raising minimum. Among smaller programs where participants run in local marathons, minimums are often suggested, not enforced. But since charities still have to pay for the programs — producing fund-raising materials, for example, or paying for a running coach — some of them are considering ways to put teeth into the fund-raising goals.

Peter Glassman, a board member of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the National Capital Area, says that non-profit groups should be wary of people who sign up for charity programs primarily to secure a spot in a race. At some marathons, far more people apply for race-registration numbers than obtain them, so charities may have a hot commodity with their reserved spots.

“We ask people to sign a commitment,” says Mr. Glassman, who started the Run for Kids Marathon Challenge last year. “It’s nothing binding, but we want to make sure that Big Brothers/Big Sisters benefits. We don’t want to be used by people who just want a number.”

Forty people participated in Run for Kids last year, competing in the Marine Corps Marathon and raising nearly $36,000. But, says Mr. Glassman, a handful of the runners raised nearly all of the money. This year, he says, he is going to emphasize the fund-raising commitment — probably a minimum of $1,000 each — and to offer additional incentives, like T-shirts and gift certificates, to race participants who meet certain fund-raising goals.

In some cases, charities’ fund-raising efforts are promoted by the marathons themselves. The marathon in London, which got its start in 1981, was the first and still one of the biggest races to actively encourage runners to raise money. In the April 1998 London marathon, 23,000 runners — or three out of four of all the race’s participants — raised nearly £16-million, or about $26-million, for charity.

Taking its cue from London, the Los Angeles marathon plays up its charity angle, calling the race “The Million Dollar Morning” and sponsoring non-profit groups that want to recruit fund-raising runners. In addition, this year, for the first time, participants will have the option of raising money for the LAM Fund. Money from the fund — which one of the marathon’s corporate sponsors will pay to administer — will be split among 47 local charities.

“It’s kind of like a United Way for marathon runners,” says Marie Patrick, vice-president of the City of Los Angeles Marathon.

Ms. Patrick estimates that at least half of the 20,000 participants in next month’s race will be raising money for the marathon-sponsored fund or dozens of other non-profit groups.

With so many marathons and marathoners already on board to help charities, some observers wonder if the distance-running fund-raising phenomenon has hit the wall. After all, they say, there are only so many people who can — or want to — run such a long race.

To keep up interest in their programs, some charities are recruiting participants who have little or no experience running.

The Arthritis Foundation is gearing its Joints In Motion program to walkers. The charity has set up teams and training schedules for participants who want to walk the 26.2 miles. This year, the group expects the proportion of walkers in its program to grow from one in three to one in two.

The Leukemia Society did not have much luck trying to recruit people beyond retirement age to its marathon program last year, but it is counting on getting in-line skaters aboard this year — perhaps having them skate twice around marathon courses. And it also plans to introduce a new training and fund-raising program for another kind of event: triathlons — races that combine running, biking, and swimming.

“We are running out of endurance events to train for,” says Dennis Ahlman, a Leukemia Society official, noting that Team In Training already sends participants to 100-mile bicycle rides, too. “But if there’s an interest, a need, we’d like to fill the void.”