Why do I have to fundraise?

Relay For Life is a powerful community event and an extremely important fundraising event! With the money you raise, we can fund research that leads to life-saving discoveries and support people who are facing cancer today. Without your fundraising efforts, none of that would be possible.

How will you use the money that I raise?

We’ll use it to create a world where no one fears cancer. That means your generous contributions will fund research and provide support programs for people who are living with cancer. See where your money goes.

How much money do I need to raise to participate in Relay For Life?

Everyone who participates in Relay For Life needs to set a goal of at least $150. When you put your mind to it, you’ll be amazed at what you can do for a cause that’s so close to your heart - and we’ll be here to help you every step of the way! In addition to the helpful emails we’ll be sending to all participants, you can check out fundraising tips and find detailed fundraising help in your participant centre.

What happens if I don’t Raise $150?

You’re encouraged to make a donation to your personal fundraising page to top off what you’ve raised. We’re here to help you, though! Once you register for Relay, we’ll send you coaching emails to help you meet and exceed your fundraising goal. Every year, thousands of people like you raise at least $150 - there’s no reason you can’t, too!

I’m new to fundraising. Can you give me some tips?

Of course! Here are our top 3 tips:

Make the first donation to your personal fundraising page. This will help other people choose how much to give to you, so make a donation that you’re proud of!

Send fundraising emails from your participant centre to everyone you know. This is the secret of our top fundraisers! Ask everyone because every donation adds up.

A few days after you send your first emails, send a reminder email to anyone you haven’t heard from yet. Experience tells us that most people need 2 to 3 reminders before they make a donation, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t hear from someone right away.

Can people other than my team see the results of our fundraising?

Yes. Team and individual fundraising pages - along with your results - are public, unless you opted to make them private when you registered. People will be able to see your fundraising totals, but they can’t see individual donation amounts. When someone makes a donation to your page, they can choose to do so anonymously. Having a public fundraising page allows people to search for you and make a donation easily.

If you’d like to make your personal fundraising page private, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your participant centre.
2. Click manage your display name (on the right).
3. Select “keep me anonymous and make my personal page private (not searchable).”
4. Click submit.

What do I do with the money I’ve collected offline?

Great job fundraising! Your team captain will collect all the money that you and your teammates raise. The captain will submit the funds on a bank night before the event. Bank nights allow early submission of team paperwork, so you can avoid lineups at the event.

You can also submit your pledges at the event or drop them off at the Canadian Cancer Society office managing your event.

Do I need to enter the offline donations I’ve collected into my Participant Centre? How do I do it?

Adding your offline donations to your participant centre is a great way to keep track of your total fundraising amount! Follow the steps below to enter your offline donations and see your fundraising thermometer go up.

1. Log in to your participant centre.
2. From the progress tab, select enter a donation.
3. Follow the prompts.

Receipts cannot be issued for cash or cheque donations entered through your participant centre. Cash or cheque donations that you collect must be handed in to your team captain or your local Relay office. Receipts are generated when a credit card donation is entered in your participant centre, but this option is only available in specific provinces.

I sent emails to my friends and family from my Participant Centre, but they haven’t received them. What can I do?

This isn’t your fault. It happens sometimes. Ask people to check their spam folder. If they use Gmail, ask them to check their promotions tab.

If you’re concerned they won’t receive your email, you can:

1. Send yourself a fundraising email from your participant centre.
2. Copy and paste it into a new email.
3. Forward it to your friends and family from your personal email account.

Just remember that if you do this, your participant centre won’t be able to track who you’ve sent emails to.

I forget who I’ve sent emails to from my Participant Centre. Can I see a list of their names?

Yes, you can track who you’ve sent emails to, as long as you sent the email from your participant centre. Follow these steps:

1. Log in to your participant centre.
2. From the email tab, click sent.

What is a Participant Centre?

It’s where all the fundraising magic happens! Once you register for Relay For Life, you’ll automatically be given access to your participant centre. From there, you can:

• update your registration information
• customize your personal fundraising page and team page
• import email contacts and send fundraising, recruitment and thank-you emails
• set your personal and team fundraising goals and track and manage your progress
• easily share your personal page on social media
• add offline donations to your online total
• quickly access fundraising and participant resources

What if I forgot my Username/password?

1. Go to the login page.
2. Click email me my login information.
3. Enter the email address that you registered with.

Your username or password will be emailed to you. Sometimes these emails end up in spam or junk folders, so you might want to check there.

How do I change the photo on my personal fundraising page?

1. Log in to your participant centre.
2. From the personal page tab, click photos/video.
3. Select choose file.
4. Add a photo from your computer, then select open.
5. Write a caption if you want.
6. Click save/upload.

How do I add my story to my personal fundraising page?

1. Log in to your participant centre.
2. From the edit personal page tab, edit your page title and story as you’d like.
3. Click save.

How do I import my email contacts into my participant centre?

Adding your contacts is easy to do, and it will help you track who you’ve sent emails to, so it’s well worth it! To import your contacts:

1. Log in to your participant centre and go to the email tab.
2. Click contacts.
3. Click import contacts.
4. Select your email provider and click next.
5. Follow the instructions.

You can also add contacts one at a time from the email tab.

How do I update my fundraising goal?

Adding your contacts is easy to do, and it will help you track who you’ve sent emails to, so it’s well worth it! To import your contacts:

1. Log in to your participant centre and go to the progress tab.
2. Click change, which is displayed next to your goal.
3. Enter your new goal and click submit.

How do I send a fundraising email from my Participant Centre?

It’s quick and easy!

If you want to use a sample email You’re welcome to use the sample email as is or personalize it as much as you’d like.

1. Log in to your participant centre and go to the email tab.
2. Enter email addresses in the “to” field.
3. Click suggested messages and choose solicitation. You can personalize the message once it’s selected.

If you want to write your own email You can save your custom message as a template so you can use it again later.

1. Log in to your participant centre and go to the email tab.
2. Enter email addresses in the “to” field.
3. Enter your subject line in the subject field.
4. Write your email.

This is my first year as a Captain. What are my responsibilities?

Welcome! As a Relay team captain, you have a really important and rewarding job. In addition to reaching your personal fundraising goal, it’s your responsibility to lead your team to Relay success! You’ll:

• build your team by recruiting people
• motivate your teammates to meet their fundraising goals
• collect offline donations from your teammates and submit them to us at bank night (we will be in touch with you about this)

How many teammates should my team have?

There isn’t a minimum number of people, but the more you have, the more money you’ll raise, the more good you’ll do and the more fun you’ll have at Relay!

What is the best way to recruit teammates?

You should start by sending recruitment emails to anyone you’d like to join your team. We’ve set up a sample email in your participant centre that you can use as is or personalize it as much as you’d like.

1. Log in to your participant centre.
2. From the email tab, enter the email addresses in the “to” field.
3. Click sample emails and select recruitment.
4. Click send.

Do you have any resources that can help me encourage my team to fundraise?

Yes, we do! There’s a sample email in your participant centre that you can use to encourage your teammates to fundraise. You can use the email as is or modify it as necessary. We recommend sending out a team email once a week until your Relay event, telling your teammates how the team is doing and how much more you need everyone to fundraise.

How do I enter a team donation or help others who want to make a team donation?

Great job fundraising!

If you want to enter an offline team donation (only team captains can do this)

1. Log in to your participant centre.
2. From the progress tab, select team progress.
3. Click enter a new donation.
4. Follow the prompts.

If you want to tell someone how to make a donation to your team online

Option 1: Email them a link to your team page. That’s it. This is the easiest way, because they don’t have to search for your team.

Option 2: Pass these instructions on to them.

1. Click donate.
2. Search for your team name.
3. Click make donation on the team page.

I can no longer be captain for my team. How do we change our team captain?

Sorry to hear that. You can easily change your team’s captain by following these steps:

1. Log in to your participant centre.
2. Click manage team roster (on the right).
3. Select manage captain.
4. Follow the prompts.