Dance Marathon at Florida State University Receives 2023 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Award

Miracle Network Dance Marathon recognized top performing Dance Marathon programs at the Dance Marathon Leadership Conference (DMLC) held in St. Louis, MO from August 3-6.

The Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Award recognizes a program that implemented effective strategies and initiatives to grow participant fundraising. Dance Marathon at Florida State University implemented a variety of challenges that brought fun into fundraising, while providing participants with tools and resources that encouraged cause-based fundraising, making them this year’s winner of the Peer-to-Peer fundraising award.  

One of the ways DM at FSU worked to increase peer-to-peer fundraising was by ensuring participants always had the tools and resources they needed to be successful in asking for donations. One of these resources was a document that outlined 135 Ways to Fundraise and was separated into categories such as social media posts, events, raffles, direct asks, dares, and more! They also made templates for “casual fundraising” giving participants sample language to ask for donations surrounding big events that their participants may be interested in, including the Super Bowl, when FSU won their rivalry game and the first day of school. This helped encourage fundraising outside of peak fundraising push days, aligning with relevant topics of the year. DM at FSU also offered fundraising resources for every fundraising push, with templates written in both English and Spanish to increase the accessibility of their resources. These resources were cause-connected, including impact numbers, miracle stories and focused on personalizing the donation ask.  

Dance Marathon at FSU also placed an emphasis on creating fun and engaging fundraising opportunities through the incorporation of Power Hours, fundraising challenges and competitions. During their power hour pushes they would broadcast live updates to the fundraising total while challenging individuals to get to their “next double zero.” To create team camaraderie during their Leave your Legacy spring fundraising push day they introduced a bracket-style fundraising competition between internal and external teams and displayed live fundraising updates onscreen to continue encouraging team participation and fundraising.  

Overall, these initiatives and resources propelled Dance Marathon at Florida State University to raise over $1.3M in 2023. Congratulations, Florida State University! 

Dance Marathon at Florida State presented a session on peer-to-peer fundraising at DMLC 2023. You can view a recording of that presentation here: https://youtu.be/P_lubk7VAhY  

Miracle Network Dance Marathon is an international movement, involving over 400 colleges, universities and K-12 schools across the United States and Canada that fundraise for their local member hospital of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. These students work tirelessly throughout the year to raise funds one dollar at a time by making the ask to family and friends. Their hard work culminates in a celebration on campus or virtually, where participants can rally together as a community for their local member hospital of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Students involved in Dance Marathon gain valuable skills in fundraising, peer management, delegation, and philanthropy. Miracle Network Dance Marathon programs have collectively raised more than $350 million since 1991.