How does the "Team Thing" Work?

For the purposes of this example, let's name our Hope & Hearts momma, "Sue,"and her baby in Heaven, "Neveah." Sue wants to do something special in memory of her precious baby and have the chance to share about Neveah with others while giving her a legacy. Sue creates a Firstgiving (FG) memorial / fundraising team page which she calls "Team Neveah." She includes on her page a photo of Neveah and shares her baby's story and her hope to raise funds for this cause. After she completes her page, the FG site helps Sue in creating an email which invites the people she knows to join her team. Sue's friends and family respond by creating their own memorial/ fundraising pages which FG associates all together with Team Neveah.

Sue sends out other personal notes to her contacts on Facebook and anywhere else she can reach others in her sphere of influence, and invites them to join her team by creating a FG page and by asking them to register to walk or run at the event with her team.

Team Fundraising
Sue's friend "Jen" creates a page for Team Neveah and sends out her own email asking her friends and family to support Team Neveah: "I'm running in this event and am raising funds to support my friend Sue and a cause near to my heart and hope you will donate to our team in memory of Neveah." Jen raises $500 on her page, it goes to Sue's FG total for Team Neveah. Sue's page will list how many fundraisers are on Team Neveah, what each page total is, and what the whole team total is collectively.

FG includes all donations raised through Sue's personal page, her team pages, and any offline donations that page creaters had each collected personally. Team Neveah members noted on their FG respective pages all of their offline funds they have gathered (which they will mail in as they collect the funds and turn in the last minute checks on event day). The FG site shows these totals as well as the online totals raised. It shows that Sue raised $5000 on her page, Jen raised $500, and there were 10 other pages created for Team Neveah which totaled another $2000. Team Neveah's total is listed as $5000 + $500 + $2000 = $7500.00.

Prizes for her Team
Missing GRACE awards prizes to the top 3 teams and youngest top fundraiser on event day. Winning teams/ fundraisers, must have a Firstgiving page in order to win as that is where we track the team totals on the eve of the event day.

Who's In?
Sue keeps track of who is joining her to run or walk with Team Neveah on event day by adding a list of their names on her FG page. As new people let her know they have registered, she keeps a tally on her page. That way others can check her page to see who is on the team.

Registering to Run or Walk
Sue registers herself and her family and the rest of Team Neveah members also register themselves at: http://hopeandheartsrun.org/minnesota/reg.html. They have a place in the online registration form to include what team they are with.

Team Neveah members arrange a place to meet up at the park for event day and then they walk or run together with their team. They can wear the Hope & Hearts event shirts which will have a place on the backs to include the Team Neveah name, or Sue can organize, create and pay separately for making her own team shirts that she designs, picks up and brings to the event to hand out to her team to wear.

Team Volunteering
Sue decides that next year she and her Team Neveah are going to also volunteer before and at the event too. Sue fills out the online volunteer form for herself and her family and more members of her team sign up too. They still walk and run in the event while helping make the event go smoothly with their team's volunteer support.