Fundraising Tips

Wyatt shaved his head and raised over $8,000 for childhood cancer research. Join Wyatt — be a shavee℠!

Wyatt after shaving his head at a St. Baldrick’s event.

He was motivated by the contest’s $1,000 prize, but he didn’t want to buy a new toy, video game system, or whatever else a boy of his age might want. He wanted to give it to his neighbors to help with the cost of their then-2-year-old daughter’s childhood cancer treatment.

And he did.

So when Wyatt’s mom, Noelle, proposed the idea of shaving his head to help kids with cancer like his neighbor Cara, Wyatt was all for it.

He set an initial fundraising goal of $2,500, and a personal goal to get donations from all 50 U.S. states.

“I was worried that his goal was a bit lofty, but he’s always been a ‘go big or go home’ type of kid,” Noelle said.

Read more »

Bob shares his best (and worst) ideas for a great head-shaving event.

St. Baldrick’s VEO Bob GaNun talks to a young shavee at his Floral Park event, which has raised over $1 million for pediatric cancer research.

Don’t.

It seemed like a good idea at first. “I thought, we’ll kick the beach balls around…it will be like a concert,” Bob said. But once they got the beach balls on the stage, things got hairy. “There was hair floating all over the place, hair sticking to the beach balls. Everybody popped them. But it was funny.”

Fun is what Bob brings to his St. Baldrick’s event year after year, and it works. Since 2009, his event at the Trinity Bar and Restaurant in Floral Park, New York, has raised over $1 million for children’s cancer research.

Read more »

Follow this shavee’s example to bring in the donations. (Not a shavee℠? Get involved!)

Laurie and her son, Julian, after shaving their heads at a St. Baldrick’s event last year.

Laurie Probsdorfer is shaving her head for the second year in a row. Her connection to childhood cancer is personal, and she shares it honestly in this moving letter.

Read Laurie’s open letter (originally posted on Facebook), and then visit our shavee tips page for more ideas for how to blow your fundraising goal out of the water.

Read more »

We’ve seen some creative emails from shavees asking for donations in the past, but this is one for the books.

This year will be Tom “Fro” Barnard’s eighth time shaving his head and if he raises $9,598, he’ll have cumulatively raised $50,000 for childhood cancer research since his first shave in 2007! To help him reach his fundraising goal, Tom sent out this appealing email ask letter — bumper sticker and all.

Take a read, print out his bumper sticker, and perhaps give a donation to help him reach his goal!

SUBJECT: Ten days to go. Going where? Going bald.

Read more »

Add a fundraiser to your team or event and surpass your fundraising goal even faster! (Not a St. Baldrick’s participant? Get involved!)

A Do What You Want fundraiser can be just about anything: a hula-hoop contest, a walkathon, a bake sale…get creative!

Read more »

A shavee℠ shares how the matching gifts program has helped him fundraise.

Malek after having his head shaved at a St. Baldrick’s event in 2013.

Ben lost his 5-year-old sister, Lindsey, to a rare type of brain cancer called atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor, or ATRT. Every year since 2008, Ben and his friends have shaved their heads in honor of Lindsey. When I heard about this, I immediately wanted to support Ben.

Since 2011, I have raised money for St. Baldrick’s as a shavee on Team Lindsey. In three short years, I have raised over $10,000 with the help of the matching gifts program.

Read more »

A San Antonio VEO shares his tips and tricks.

Paul and his sons with Aubrey, a childhood cancer survivor, at a St. Baldrick’s event in San Antonio last year.

It all started with a poster in a Starbucks.

That’s how volunteer event organizer (VEO) Paul Harris first heard about the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. The flyer advertising a head-shaving event to benefit childhood cancer research right there in San Antonio looked especially appealing to Paul’s two young boys, Coda and Wyland, who were excited to sign up as shavees.

Not knowing what to expect, Paul and his sons showed up on the big day, and they were hooked.

Participating in a St. Baldrick’s event in March was something Paul and his sons looked forward to every year after that. They drove to Austin for the Dell Children’s Medical Center event three years in a row when there wasn’t a St. Baldrick’s event in their hometown. The following year, Paul made it his New Year’s resolution to bring St. Baldrick’s back to San Antonio.

The March 2014 San Antonio event will mark Paul’s third year as a VEO. He shares his advice for new VEOs, veteran VEOs looking to grow their event, or anyone considering starting their own St. Baldrick’s tradition.

Read more »

Student shavees at the 2013 St. John’s University head-shaving event. Photos by Jihad Nammou.

Students all over the country have been deciding that their passion is to help cure childhood cancer. And many have taken it upon themselves to start a St. Baldrick’s fundraiser on their campus.

Read more »

One bold 10-year-old shavee takes her fundraising to the next level.

Meredith at school. Her friends made signs hanging from her desk to spread the word about her head-shaving.

She has enlisted the help of her elementary school to raise money for childhood cancer research. She hopes to raise $5,000 by March 21, when she will shave her head in front of her entire school at an assembly.

Meredith is shaving  in honor of her friend, Luke, who passed away from childhood cancer in 2012 at the age of 8. “I feel like other kids shouldn’t have to go through what Luke did, and I want to find a cure for this,” Meredith said.

Read more »

A top VEO shares his best fundraising tips.

St. Baldrick’s VEO Garrett Lamp tells us how he keeps his Viera, Florida, event growing in its fourth year.

Garrett Lamp is a St. Baldrick’s Volunteer Event Organizer — or VEO — for the fourth year in a row. St. Baldrick’s volunteers at his Viera, Florida, events have raised more than half a million dollars to cure childhood cancer, and they’re not done yet.

“We set up a five year goal,” Garrett said. “One million dollars raised for pediatric cancer research.”

How did an event that started with a $25,000 goal in 2010 end up with a five-year plan to raise one million dollars for kids’ cancer research? Garrett said the one thing that has helped his events grow the most is passion for St. Baldrick’s cause to Conquer Childhood Cancers.

“There’s not a better cause out there to fundraise for,” Garrett said. “There are a lot of unbelievable things out there, but children with cancer — you can’t explain to me why a kid gets cancer. It’s just a horrible disease…and I want to see an end come to that.”

Read more »