Greetings!
Discussions with industry leaders indicate that 2012 is turning out to be a tough year with many established peer-to-peer fundraising programs experiencing flat or lower revenue.
The recession has diminished giving by many people, but the economy alone does not explain what is going on in the thon marketplace. As the head of one major walk series told me:
"Unfortunately, we can't identify any reasons for the lack of growth....For us, the numbers are really all over the board - we have several chapters that are up and some up significantly while others are down significantly leaving us completely flat overall."
Performance-depressing factors cited by executives included:
-- Staff turnover and the slashing of funds for training. ("Budgets have forced us to turn all training virtual and that is very hard because people often tune out.")
-- Event fatigue ("How can we enhance the event experience to keep retention high?")
-- Failure of event organizers to implement best practices (Perhaps another outcome of limited training and turnover.)
To help you combat these challenges, the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council will be increasing its efforts to make more training available throughout the year. 
We're kicking that off with more frequent webinar presentations from program executives (e.g., Paul Irwin-Dudek of Autism Speaks next week) and industry experts (e.g., Cassidy Richards of Charity Dynamics on September 18.)
Please take a moment to reply to this email with suggested training topics that would be most useful to you. Believe me -- we read all of your comments!
