Smile Train Collaborates With Major Sports Events to Power Up Donor Interest

Smile Train wants donors to think of children with cleft palates while participating in the last leg of a grueling triathlon or watching pros serve aces on Wimbledon’s grass courts.

The charity, which pays for children to get corrective surgery, has always relied on direct mail, radiothons, and advertising to draw donor support. But fundraising last year, at $99-million, was $5-million short of 2012 results and well shy of the $107-million the group raised in 2007, before the recession.

To try and make up ground, the charity has placed more emphasis on corporate partnerships and has generated a lot of interest from donors involved in sporting events.

Last year, for instance, at the suggestion of a donor who sits on the board of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Smile Train became one of the two official charities of the Wimbledon tennis tournament. One of the children who benefited from a surgery, Pinki Sonkar, the subject of a 2008 Academy Award-winning documentary “Smile Pinki,” participated in the coin toss at the men’s final at the Grand Slam event.

The group placed ads at the Wimbledon tube station showing Pinki before and after her surgery, and Pinki wore a Smile Train T-shirt at the match.

The international exposure of a delightful, self-confident beneficiary of Smile Train’s mission clearly motivated donors, says Susannah Schaefer, Smile Train’s chief executive.

“Five years later, her life is fabulous,” says Ms. Schaefer. “It works to our benefit that we’re focused on one single problem and that we can show our impact.”

The effort generated about $22,000 in donor support. The group developed a graphic called “Smiles at Centre Court” and sent it to followers on Facebook and Twitter.

Using a tennis motif, the graphic told readers that there were 54,250 tennis balls used at the tournament, and each year, three times that many children are born with cleft palates.

Four percent of Twitter followers clicked to see the graphic, retweeted the post, or marked it as a favorite.

In 2013, the group was also the official charity for the Arizona Ironman Triathalon. Smile Train received 75 spots in the race reserved for athletes to participate in the charity’s “Team Empower” group. Athletes had to raise at least $5,000 to join the team, and Smile Train runners raised $685,000. This year, the charity was given 125 spots.

Sports also play a part in the charity’s newest campaign, “Power of a Smile.” Participants offer to play tennis, serve as a personal trainer, or teach a donor yoga in exchange for a gift to Smile Train.

When the recession hit, more than 90 percent of the group’s fundraising came as a result of direct mail and advertising, says Ms. Schaefer. Since then, the group has created a development team of seven people, is still hiring, and would like to generate half of its support from corporate sponsorships, foundations, planned gifts, and ties to sporting events.

“Sports have a way of putting a smile on your face,” she says.