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Building Deep Relationships With Fundraisers with Make-A-Wish America’s Katie Wood & Make-A-Wish Alabama’s Valerie Cunningham-Trainer

Do you ever find that your relationships with your peer-to-peer fundraisers seem to be a one-way street? As dedicated P2P professionals, we invest substantial effort in crafting the perfect email messages, texts, and social media posts to motivate our fundraisers to take action. But how often do we take the time to truly understand why they are passionate about fundraising in the first place?

In a world where answering calls from unknown numbers is increasingly unlikely, it’s essential that we explore innovative ways to connect with our supporters and put in the necessary time to foster genuine connections.

In this episode, P2PPF’s Marcie Maxwell sits down with Make-A-Wish Alabama’s Vice President of Advancement, Valerie Cunningham-Trainer,  and Make-A-Wish America’s Chapter Events Fundraising Manager, Katie Wood.  Katie and Valerie share a passion for one of Make-A-Wish’s signature P2P programs, the Trailblaze Challenge – a single-day 20+ mile endurance hiking event – and the community it has helped them build for their local chapters. Together, we delve into how they leverage the comprehensive training program and year-round community events to establish profound, authentic relationships with their fundraisers.

In today’s episode, we’ll explore:

  • How Make-A-Wish is connecting their fundraisers to their mission
  • Strategies to turn a small group of event participants into a large year-round community
  • Ways to spot future champions & leaders among P2P fundraisers

Mentioned Links

Make-A-Wish America

On Social: FacebookInstagramYouTube &Twitter/X

Make-A-Wish Alabama

On Social: FacebookInstagramYouTube &Twitter/X

Trailblaze Challenge

Stay Connected on LinkedIn

Connect with Katie

Connect with Valerie

Connect with Marcie

Connect with the Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum

As peer-to-peer fundraising professionals, we are inherently passionate people. Passionate about our missions, our fundraisers, our events, and our campaigns. We barely shy away from sharing our opinions. Whether it’s the debate between back-to-basics, or searching for the next big idea, the battle of retention versus recruitment, or even our very strong feelings about T-shirts and registration fees.

Welcome to The P2P Soapbox, a brand new podcast that amplifies the voices of our peer-to-peer fundraising community and gives us a platform — a soapbox, if you will — to discuss the hot topics facing our industry.

Join your host and P2P BFF, Marcie Maxwell, the Managing Director of the Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum, as she sits down with industry peers and leaders, delving deep into their soapbox issues, sharing best practices, and celebrating success stories.

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