Do you know what the leading threat to women’s health is? If you think it’s breast cancer, you’re wrong. One in three women die from some form of heart disease every year. But it’s not just women who are affected. Heart disease kills one in five people every year, with statistics showing a steady incline over the past twenty years: from 2.7 million deaths in 2000 to 9.1 million deaths in 2021.
With Valentine's Day right around the corner, love is naturally on everyone's hearts and minds. But this month is also American Heart month. So why not motivate your employees to raise some awareness and some funds for a good cause. And give someone else the gift of a healthy heart this Valentine’s Day!
Let’s spend this Valentine’s Day raising awareness and money for healthy hearts
How Can You Get Your Team Excited About Fundraising?
There’s probably enough going on in your workplace without a fundraising event. But there are benefits to getting your employees to band together for a good cause. Fundraising can help build team spirit and also help release some of the pressure and stress from their daily routines. So here’s how to get everyone on board.
Host a Team Kickoff Event
Have a launch event to get everyone pumped up (pun intended!). DIscuss your goals, decide where you’ll donate the funds raised, and maybe have a qualified medical professional talk about the risks of heart disease and how to help prevent it. Be sure to have some heart-healthy snacks. There’s nothing like free food to keep people engaged!
Encourage Friendly Competition
Don’t go overboard on the competition. The real reward is supporting a good cause. So keep it light and friendly. Depending on your event, maybe you can award prizes in unique categories. Most romantic, most heartfelt, most lovable. You can also use a leaderboard so everyone can keep score of how much has been earned. And once you’ve reached a certain goal, everyone wins a prize!
Celebrate Milestones Together
Speaking of which, be sure to celebrate your progress along the way. Acknowledging that you’re on track will help keep everyone motivated to succeed.
Whatever fundraising event you choose, sell it right to get as many coworkers excited and involved as possible.
Three Fundraising Ideas for American Heart Month
Do you need some help getting started? We’ve got a few ideas for you.
All Red Clothes Drive
Red is the official color of Heart Month. So why not consider an all red clothes drive. All red can also mean red adjacent: pink and mauve and everything in between allowed! How can you get started?
- Clear out your wardrobes: Have all your employees sort through their closets and donate the reddish clothes they no longer wear.
- Sort and label: Have a team sort through all the donations and put price tags on them.
- Invite everyone to shop: Invite colleagues from other departments, neighboring office buildings, local businesses, or even friends and family to shop at your event.
- Enjoy your new clothes and celebrate your good deed!
Valentine’s Day Dance-a-Thon
Have everyone put on their red shoes and dance (the blues)! What better way to celebrate Cupid than by snuggling up to someone you love. Or making new friends on the dance floor.
- Set a goal: Will it be a 24-hour dance marathon? Or a ‘lock and pop til you drop’ event?
- Find sponsors: Get your family, friends, neighbors, other colleagues involved by having them donate. Or maybe they want to sponsor you for each hour spent on the dance floor. The pressure is on!
- Get everyone excited: Maybe host a dance class in the breakroom to help everyone get ready. Or start promoting your event on your company’s social media channels with some of your favorite film and music video dance scenes of all time.
- Award prizes for the craziest dance moves!
Heart healthy meals
Eating healthy is half the battle when it comes to a healthy heart. So help everyone in your office stay on track by organizing a week or month of catering. By your own team!
- Organize cooking teams: Find the office chefs and create teams. Every day, a different team is responsible for preparing a healthy three-course meal: salad, main course, and dessert.
- Get inspired with some heart-healthy recipes: If you can't imagine cooking without your deep fryer, get some inspiration from the American Heart Association or the British Heart Foundation.
- Donate and dig in: At lunch time, co-workers will be able to eat a great meal for a fair donation.
- Kiss the chefs!
The quickest way to the heart is through the stomach!
Use KeepTheScore to Track your Fundraising Goals
With your goals in sight and team revved up, it’s time to get started. KeepTheScore has a great goal-tracking tool to help you monitor your success and achieve your goals. It also works as a fundraising thermometer. Here’s how!
- Create a goal tracker using the button above
- Choose a name for your tracker and a goal value.
- Click on Settings to choose a new theme or layout or add your own logo. You can also change the default colors and background image.
- Start tracking your goal!
- Share a link, show it on a display in your office, or add it on your website.
It doesn’t matter how you dance, it’s what you’re dancing for! KeepTheScore will remind you why it’s worth creating all
these lasting memories for your coworkers.
Let us know how your event went! And if you have any questions or insights, share them with us in the comments section! For regular inspiration on how to use KeepTheScore delivered right to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.
