1.    Register for the  Walk online to gain access to your very own personal fundraising headquarters—your online Participant Center.

2.    Make a self-donation to jumpstart your fundraising. This also lets your donors see your personal commitment to JDRF.

3.    Customize your personal webpage in your Participant Center with a photo and your personal story.

4.    Email your fundraising campaign to friends, family, and co-workers, and ask them to support you. Your email will have a direct link to your website where they can make a secure donation online and automatically receive a receipt for tax purposes.

5.    Ask all your donors to forward your email to 10 of their friends with a request for a donation.

6.    Fundraise on Facebook! Use the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes Facebook application in your Participant Center to get the word out to your social network and ask for support.

7.    Corporate Matching Gifts: Take advantage of corporate matching gift programs. Many of your donors may work for companies that have a matching gift program—and their donation could double simply by filling out a form and submitting it to JDRF.

8.    Corporate Sponsor: Identify one corporate sponsor that you can ask for a large donation. Offer to wear their shirt for advertising.

9.    JDRF Sneaker Sales: Ask a local coffee shop, restaurant, or convenience store to sell JDRF Sneakers for a month to support the Walk to Cure Diabetes. JDRF provides you with the paper sneakers to give to the merchant to make it easy for them to support JDRF.

10.   Dine for Diabetes: Ask a local restaurant to support JDRF through Dining for Diabetes. Customers support JDRF by adding a donation to their credit card slip. Or ask them if they will donate a portion of the night’s proceeds to support research for type 1 diabetes (T1D). JDRF can provide you with the marketing materials and samples for the restaurant to make it easy for them to host a Dine for Diabetes, and you can help get the word out to your network.

11.   Kids Walk: Talk to your child’s school about hosting a Kids Walk to Cure Diabetes. Students learn about JDRF and T1D while raising money for JDRF and your walk team. The program is complete with educational materials and awesome, kid-centric prizes. Want to learn more? Click Here.

12.   Jeans/Casual Day: Ask your company to allow a Jeans Day. For a donation of $5, employees may dress casual on a designated day. Or, sell a year’s worth of casual days.

13.   Lunch In: Bring your lunch to work for a week and donate the savings to your JDRF Walk team. Ask friends and co-workers to join in the Lunch In challenge!

14.   Garage Sale: Ask all of your friends and neighbors to participate by donating items for a garage sale. Make signs that advertise that all proceeds are going to support JDRF. Ask your local paper to run an ad as their contribution. Add a bake sale and/or lemonade stand, and have a JDRF donation jar visibly displayed. Don’t forget to make checks payable to JDRF.

15.   Super Change Jar: Ask all of your friends and family to put aside their spare change to be added to the super change jar. Every month or so, empty it out and let everyone know how much “a little at a time” adds up! This is a great idea to put into action at work, too. Decorate the jar with inspirational quotes and photos from your training walks.

16.   “Loose Change Day”: Ask your child’s school to have a “Loose Change Day.” Make a flyer encouraging each child to bring in loose change from their house to be donated to JDRF. Encourage the school’s math classes to assist with counting, predicting, and rolling the change. This is a great way to involve the entire school. You can hold this event multiple times.

17.   Sell space on your Team shirt: Sell small blocks of space on your Team shirt you plan to wear at the Walk. Suggested $10 donation. Encourage donors to write a tribute message. Asking your donors to add a message to your Walk attire is a great way to inspire them.

18.   Car Wash: Hold a car wash—either in your neighborhood, at your place of worship, or at your place of business. Ask local businesses to donate the supplies you will need and ask your friends to help wash the cars. Add a bake sale; sell chilled bottles of water (that have been donated).

19.   Car Wash-Take 2: Go to your local car wash and talk with the owner/manager about doing a fundraising event there. Many people go to the same car wash every week. Post flyers a week in advance, and then spend a few hours talking with people about what you are doing at the cashier stand. Distribute a JDRF flyer, accept donations!

20.   Voicemail: Change your voicemail and answering machine messages to announce the fact that you are walking in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes. This will be news to some and a reminder for all!