The Side-Out Foundation

NCAA Division I Volleyball: AVCA Preseason Poll Shakes Up the Court

2024-08-28T15:32:59Z

As the excitement builds for the upcoming NCAA Division I Volleyball season, the first AVCA poll of the year has been released, giving fans and teams alike a glimpse into the expectations for the 2024 campaign. Let’s dive into the rankings and what they might mean for the season ahead.

The Top Contenders

Texas Takes the Crown: The Longhorns start the season at the top, garnering 46 first-place votes. Their dominant position suggests high expectations following their strong performance last year.

Nebraska Nips at Their Heels: With 15 first-place votes, the Cornhuskers are poised to challenge Texas for the top spot. The gap in total points (1,503 vs. 1,474) indicates a close race at the summit.

Wisconsin Rounds Out the Top Three: The Badgers, while receiving no first-place votes, have secured a solid third place, setting them up as strong contenders.

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Notable Observations

Big Ten Dominance: With five teams in the top 25 (Nebraska, Wisconsin, Penn State, Purdue, and Minnesota), the Big Ten conference shows its volleyball prowess.

Pac-12 Presence: Stanford (5th) leads the Pac-12 representation, with Oregon (10th) and Arizona State (17th) also making strong showings.

SEC Makes Its Mark: Kentucky (9th), Tennessee (15th), Arkansas (19th), and Georgia (25th) represent the SEC in the top 25, showcasing the conference’s depth.

Creighton Flies High: At 12th, Creighton stands out as the highest-ranked non-Power Five conference team, demonstrating their consistent program strength.

Teams to Watch

Keep an eye on teams like BYU (16th) and Dayton (22nd), who could be this year’s giant killers. Also, Georgia Tech (14th) and Arizona State (17th) might be poised for breakout seasons.

Dig Pink: Volleyball's Heart of Gold

Did you know that many of these top-ranked and honorable mention teams have hosted Dig Pink events? This initiative, part of the Side-Out Foundation’s efforts to support breast cancer research and patient services, showcases the volleyball community’s commitment to making a difference beyond the court.

Programs like Penn State, Creighton, & San Diego have been with the Side-Out Foundation from the very beginning. While these teams have all hosted a Dig Pink event in the past: Baylor, Louisville, Minnesota, Texas State, Western Kentucky, SMU, Pepperdine, and Loyola Marymount. And this is just our Division I support.

This widespread participation demonstrates that while these teams fiercely compete on the court, they stand united in their support for important social causes.

What This Means for the Season

While preseason rankings are always speculative, they provide insight into the volleyball landscape. However, with all teams starting at 0-0, the real excitement begins when the first serve is made. Upsets, breakout performances, and the grind of conference play will undoubtedly reshape these rankings as the season progresses.

As volleyball fans, we’re in for an exciting season of high-flying action, dramatic rallies, and the pursuit of championship glory. Let the games begin!

The post NCAA Division I Volleyball: AVCA Preseason Poll Shakes Up the Court first appeared on The Side-Out Foundation.

How to Safely and Securely Deliver your Funds to Side-Out

2024-07-22T02:27:39Z

If you made it to this page you probably have had an awesome fundraising campaign or event and you need to get your funds to Side-Out. We are deeply grateful for you support, thank you!

If you have not registered your campaign, please do so before you submit your funds:

Choose from one of these 2 options:

1. Make a credit card donation on your fundraising page

After you registered you should have receive and email with a link to your free fundraising page. Go to your page and click the donation button. Follow the step by step process.

If you choose to use a credit card for delivery of the funds, you will be charged a credit card service fee that will reduce your donation amount. To avoid this you can click the check box that says “I’d like to cover the processing fee so 100% of my donation goes to Side-Out Foundation” at the end of the process.

If you can not find your page you can log in to your account and the page link should be on your dashboard.

2. Mail your Funds

Take all cash donations you may have to your local bank and request a cashier’s check.

Donors should make all checks payable to The Side-Out Foundation and should reference the school/club/organization in the memo of the check.
Make a copy of all checks received for your personal records (you do not need to mail this to us). Place all checks into a sealed manila envelope.
Download, fill out, and print the mail-in donation form. Please include your contact information and donation total (total of all checks mailed with this form). You only need ONE form for all of your checks.
USPS Safe, Secure and Economical Method of Mailing Donations:

Mail checks at any US Post Office via Priority Mail to:
The Side-Out Foundation
Attn: Treasurer
11208 Waples Mill Rd. #103
Fairfax, VA 22030
Place your sealed manila envelope into the USPS special tear-proof Priority Mail envelope. You can easily calculate the cost for Priority Mail and the additional services based on the weight and listed information. In most cases nationwide, it should be less than $10.00. This expense is tax-deductible. There is no charge for the Priority Mail tear-proof envelopes.

As soon as funds arrive at Side-Out, we will work to deposit donations into your campaign’s fundraising page to reflect your total efforts.

The post How to Safely and Securely Deliver your Funds to Side-Out first appeared on The Side-Out Foundation.

First George Mason University ASSIP Recipients Awarded Side-Out Foundation STEM Internships and Grant

2024-06-18T19:55:52Z

Mia Salinas and Angela Rojas Rivera to gain hands-on experience in metastatic breast cancer research through collaborative internship opportunity

FAIRFAX, Va. – The Side-Out Foundation (Side-Out), in partnership with George Mason University, has announced two young student leaders as the first recipients of a new foundation STEM grant initiative established in honor of founder Bryant Dunetz. Side-Out awards an eight week STEM internship through George Mason’s Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program (ASSIP) to Mia Salinas (Brownsville, TX) and Angela Rojas Rivera (Manassas Park, VA). In addition, Ms. Rojas Rivera is also the recipient of a $10,000 grant to support her in her collegiate endeavors.

This new relationship between Side-Out and Mason is an exciting and unique opportunity to offer a highly recognized Entering Research Curriculum grounded in literature on research trainee development and research program effectiveness in addition to practical lab experiences in metastatic breast cancer research and the grantees’ STEM discipline of choice. Grantees will be mentored by a leader in their chosen STEM discipline and supported by a member of the Side-Out research team focused on the treatment of metastatic breast cancer using applied proteomics and molecular medicine. Side-Out is the first grant partner for the ASSIP program.

“Mia and Angela are two outstanding young leaders who will have the opportunity to make a significant and identifiable impact on the way metastatic breast cancer is treated. My father’s greatest legacy is that he sought to do more to change the course of metastatic breast cancer treatment by identifying and facilitating research. It is our great pleasure to have a new generation of leaders continue his legacy.”

- celebrates Rick Dunetz, Founder, Executive Director and son of Bryant Dunetz, for whose name this grant is established. Tweet

Bryant Dunetz, committed to creating more tomorrows for his beloved wife Gloria and others suffering with metastatic breast cancer (MBC), hired scientists and formed research teams so Side-Out could own, manage and operate science that actively searches for answers and treatment options for those living with MBC. The organization’s partnership with Mason launched in 2010, with the first research study focusing on biopsying and understanding metastatic tumors on an individual basis.

“This innovative partnership with the Side-Out Foundation provides trajectory-changing hands-on research and mentorship opportunities for select early career scientists in our ASSIP program. It’s an exciting evolution of our collaboration and a fitting way to inspire the next generation of cancer researchers with Bryant Dunetz’s visionary, collaborative spirit.”

- Andrea Cobb, Director of Undergraduate Research at Mason’s College of Science who oversees the highly regarded Mason ASSIP, now in its twelfth year. “ Tweet

If you would like to learn more about our STEM progam, please fill out the form below:

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About Mason’s Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program (ASSIP)

The College of Science at George Mason University ASSIP is one of the country’s premiere immersive and transformative STEM research experiences. The eight-week ASSIP internship brings hundreds of high schoolers and undergraduate students together to work one-on-one with more than 100 Mason STEM research faculty and staff mentors. Participants gain hands-on experience using cutting-edge sophisticated equipment and technologies while developing and exercising their scientific writing and communication skills. ASSIP student work is highly regarded; many students present at scientific conferences, publish research in journals and some develop patents and win scholarships and awards for their scientific efforts.

The ASSIP cohort also explores career choices through discussion forums and meetings with role models while learning how to apply creative approaches to their science, crucial to performing innovative research across STEM areas of study including biology, chemistry and biochemistry, astronomy and physics, environmental science and policy, atmospheric oceanic and earth science, neuroscience, mathematics, forensic science and geography and geoinformation systems.

Current and prior projects focus on scientific topics including disease diagnostics, proteomics and molecular medicine, sustainable botany, geographic information and spatial sciences, climate change, mathematical modeling, game design and serious games, computer simulations and modeling, data science for social good, women’s health issues, human-computer interactions, tissue repair and regeneration, urban hydrology and coastal flooding, robotics, solar space weather and exoplanet discovery, cyber security, epidemiology, tissue repair, evolutionary molecular ecology, bird populations and more.

Learn more at science.gmu.edu/assip

About The Side-Out Foundation

The Side-Out Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was established in 2004 to make a significant and identifiable impact on the lives of metastatic breast cancer patients and their families. The organization takes an innovative approach to provide solutions for those specifically with metastatic breast cancer with the goal of becoming a source of hope for all those living with breast cancer in search of answers and treatment options.

The foundation’s precision medicine research matches patients with treatments and uses the outcome data produced from this to draw conclusions, challenge the foundations of cancer care, and change the trajectory of the disease. The organization’s educational and community-driven programs, Dig Pink®, the Ambassador Program and the Bryant Dunetz STEM Grant Initiative are built on creating advocacy for the metastatic breast cancer community, engaging a new generation, and funding Side-Out’s revolutionary research.

The post First George Mason University ASSIP Recipients Awarded Side-Out Foundation STEM Internships and Grant first appeared on The Side-Out Foundation.

Side-Out Announces 2021 Sports Imports Winners

2022-05-11T19:21:10Z

Dig Pink® 2021 Raises More Than $1.1 Million to Support Metastatic Breast Cancer Research

FAIRFAX, Va. – Dig Pink 2021 proved yet again the impact that the volleyball community can have when it unites behind a common cause. Nearly 600 teams hosted Dig Pink events raising more than $1.1 million in support of Side-Out Foundation’s metastatic breast cancer research, while bringing together community and sportsmanship. To showcase the foundation’s top fundraising schools, Side-Out has partnered once again with Sports Imports to announce the top-five fundraising schools as the 2021 Sports Imports Winners.

“Seeing teams back on the courts, raising money and bringing together the community, that’s what Dig Pink® is all about. The Dig Pink fundraising led by these outstanding student athletes makes a personal and direct difference to those living with metastatic breast cancer giving them customized treatment options and more tomorrows.”

Rick Dunetz, Side-Out Foundation Founder and Executive Director

Sports Imports Winners

Since 2013, Side-Out and Sports Imports have worked together to award the top fundraising schools with specialized Sports Imports/Dig Pink equipment including safety pads and Dig Pink net tapes. This year the top team will receive a special logoed ball cart and the next top four fundraising teams will receive the logoed net tape, courtesy of Sports Imports:

Randolph High School (Randolph, MN)
West Springfield High School (Springfield, VA)
St. Andrew’s Episcopal School (Austin, TX)
Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart (Miami, FL)
Massapequa High School (Massapequa, NY)

Congratulations to these five programs as Sports Imports Winners and thank you to every team that supported The Side-Out Foundation in 2021! It’s not too early to get started for Dig Pink 2022; teams can register early to get ahead with planning for this season.

To learn more about Side-Out and its mission, visit side-out.org/about. If you are in need of a new net system for your volleyball program, visit sportsimports.com!

About Sports Imports
Sports Imports, Columbus, Ohio, is the industry leader in the design, engineering and manufacturing of indoor and beach volleyball equipment in the Americas. The net system trusted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, American Volleyball Coaches Association, USA Volleyball, National Federation of State High Schools Association and the choice of over 90 percent of Division I college programs, Sports Imports is owned by the same family who launched the company over 40 years ago with its famous red poles. As volleyball equipment experts, Sports Imports sets the industry standard for innovation, quality, durability and performance. The company was the first to introduce an in-ground net system without dangerous guy wires that is safe, strong, and easy to set up; its 19-pound SI-1 all-carbon volleyball pole is the best-selling pole on the market today. Sports Imports is the only supplier ever elected to the AVCA Hall of Fame. In addition, it is the exclusive partner of Senoh in the Americas.

About The Side-Out Foundation

The foundation’s precision medicine research matches patients with treatments and uses the outcome data produced from this to draw conclusions, challenge the foundations of cancer care, and change the trajectory of the disease. The organization’s educational and community-driven programs Dig Pink® and Ambassador Program are built on creating advocacy for the metastatic breast cancer community, engaging a new generation, and funding Side-Out’s revolutionary research. For more details, visit side-out.org

Massapequa High School Volleyball

The post Side-Out Announces 2021 Sports Imports Winners first appeared on The Side-Out Foundation.

Coping with the Cost of Cancer: A Useful Guide

2022-01-19T16:44:59Z

For the millions of Americans who are living with cancer or are in remission, coping with the costs can be extremely overwhelming. Healthcare, treatment, and medicines can be astronomical even with insurance, leaving many cancer survivors struggling just to make ends meet. Many survivors find themselves in debt for years due to medical bills or changes in employment as a result of their illness, leaving stress on their shoulders and causing issues in relationships.

This is why it’s so important to understand all of the costs associated with a cancer diagnosis and how to pay for treatment without draining your savings. In some cases, it can be extremely difficult to do because of limited means, but if you are very careful, there are some ways you can plan ahead or get ahead of the debt. The key is to do some research so you’ll have a complete understanding of how to move forward.

Keep reading for some of the best tips on how to cope with the cost of cancer.

Know Your Rights and Plan for the Future

It’s imperative that you understand what your rights and responsibilities are when it comes to future planning. A terminal cancer diagnosis can mean many things, not the least of which is a plan for your final wishes. If you (or a loved one, if you are a caretaker or executor) become too ill to make decisions, you’ll want a will that will include instructions on how to handle your estate. For a caretaker, it will be imperative to be able to establish a legal way to take care of your loved one’s needs, such as gaining power of attorney and appointing a social security rep.

Do Some Research

It’s important to do some research in regards to medication and treatment so you know what your options are and how to be prepared for the cost. Even with insurance or Medicare, many cancer treatments are expensive and require out-of-pocket payments that can range into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Medication is pricey, too, but there are different types; ask your doctor about which ones are more cost-effective.

Apply for Assistance

Fortunately, there are programs available to help individuals who are living with a cancer diagnosis pay for treatment and medication. The criteria vary and are not necessarily income-based, but you’ll need to be patient throughout the application process, which can take a while. It also requires paperwork from your doctor, and many programs have caps (or a limit to the amount of funding you’ll receive in a lifetime), but it’s still very much worth your time.

Don’t Skip Your Medication to Cut Costs

In some cases, cancer survivors have chosen to skip medication or lower their dosage on their own without approval from their doctor just because of the expense, but doing so can wreak havoc on your body and can cause stress that isn’t so easy to beat. If the costs are becoming too overwhelming, talk to your doctor and look for ways you can make informed decisions about your healthcare needs without sacrificing your actual health.

Dealing with the cost of cancer can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression, and, in some cases, even substance abuse. It’s important to look for healthy ways to cope with these feelings in order to focus on getting well; garner support from friends and family who can help you through this difficult time. With some creative thinking and planning, you can ensure that the high cost of healthcare doesn’t drag you down.

The Side-Out Foundation is striving to create a world where breast cancer isn’t terminal. If you’d like to help our organization, learn how you can become an ambassador.

The post Coping with the Cost of Cancer: A Useful Guide first appeared on The Side-Out Foundation.

A Letter To Coaches Considering Dig Pink

2023-12-19T05:10:08Z

Article originally published on September 25th, 2019.

Dear Coach,

First and foremost, thank you for your interest in being a part of The Side-Out Foundation’s most honorable event, Dig Pink!!! Before I delve into the details of this event and this great foundation, I hope you don’t mind if I tell you the quick version of my cancer story and my journey with The Side-Out Foundation.

My name is Lyndsay Hodges and I was diagnosed in November of 2015 with Stage II EP+ Ductal Carcinoma in Situ Breast Cancer. It was fast-growing and even though it was aggressive, my oncologist believed she was more aggressive than my cancer. We started with dense dosing Adriamycin Cyclophosphamide (AC), commonly known as the Red Devil. It attacks cells hard and fast. But despite its attacking ability, we found that it had almost no effect on my tumor. So, my oncologist had me scheduled for my first mastectomy.

Upon completion of the Red Devil and the removal of my right breast, the standard biopsy of the sentinel node was also taken. At this time it was found that the cancer had, in fact, made its way into my lymph nodes. Adjustments were made to my original plan: Taxol chemotherapy was next, as well as radiation, along with another couple of surgeries. The ride was wild and crazy, but as of February of 2017 there has been no detection of recurrence, so I am happy to call myself a survivor.

Lyndsay Hodges with Mariaelena Pierobon, one of Side-Out's research scientists.

I first started holding Dig Pink events in 2006, simply by stumbling upon it. I knew (I’m using this word lightly) that they did research for breast cancer, but I didn’t know to what extent. I knew they were small and started because a coach’s mom was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer. That was enough for me simply because I wanted to support raising awareness for a disease that affects 1 in 8 women, including myself and many women in my family.

As the years went by, I still hadn’t taken the time to truly KNOW what this foundation was all about and I started to question if we were really helping anyone. In 2016, while I was still battling my cancer, after 10 years of being a part of something that I still knew little about, I chose to find a local group to donate to so that we knew that we were making a difference. Being in the grind of the battle, I felt like I wanted to know that we were helping women in our community, that the work we put in to raise money was actually helping someONE, not just some study. And that’s when it all changed.

All it took was one year being away and inquiry as to what happened. It was then that the real learning and an even better relationship began. After a few discussions with some folks at Side-Out, I was invited to their home base…I was being given an opportunity to see how all the magic happened. Still a little unsure of what I was getting into and what could they really show me, I accepted the invitation and looked forward to finding some real answers. Mind you, I went into it with a skeptic’s mindset. There was no way they were going to show me anyone in their study who I knew personally, so therefore they weren’t going to sway my passion for donating our money to someone in our local area. There was no way they could show me how their lab research with patients I knew nothing about, other than that they were diagnosed with stage IV metastatic cancer, was going to change the way cancer was treated.

The day finally came. I was taken to their offices and walked through their cozy but tight space, that the 5-8 folks who worked there squeezed into. I had imagined a larger loft type office, lots of extra space with computers, and individual areas for each staff member. I knew they raised quite a bit of money during their Dig Pink events, so my guess was they would have a rather comfortable and spacious place to work. However, I found that they preferred to not use the money for themselves or their comfort…they wanted to use it to get answers. As a side note, the office is perfect and totally comfortable; it totally does the job it is intended for. I loved that it felt more like a home office rather than a corporate big shot office that was impersonal and off-putting. Instead, I felt at ease every time I was there. From the office, I was taken to the lab.

Lyndsay and the Side-Out staff looking at a microscope slide.

It was a typical lab, lots of stuff to look at that I didn’t recognize at all — quiet but loud, not many words being spoken, the familiar hum of large machinery filling in the quiet space. But the difference, as I learned, was that this lab wasn’t just a subcontracted lab, it was Side-Out’s lab! They weren’t just paying for some random technicians to run tests and send in results, they hired their own group of experts to solve problems and find solutions.

In this lab, they have not only progressed through four different studies (finding success in their groups each time), they have also created groundbreaking machinery and technology that literally changes how cancer is seen and treated. From molecular splicing to printing molecular dots on film, to spraying said dots with different treatments…groundbreaking stuff that is hard to make sense of.

Through these things they have discovered that stage IV metastatic cancer can be treated and held off in variance with something that might treat lung cancer or brain cancer. They have discovered that each patient has a very different map for treatment and, if treated appropriately, the likelihood of reoccurrence is reduced SIGNIFICANTLY. And while it is easy to say that they are only helping stage IV patients, it must be understood that as each study progresses, these advances are passed down so that other patients can benefit from the unique mapping of treatment. Their work is spreading throughout the cancer treatment community. To be there, to see and hear this, put a knot in my throat. I wanted to be a part of it all again.

I still had concerns about the women who were local to me. After we left the lab, this became the direction of my questioning. I no longer doubted or questioned what The Side-Out Foundation was doing with their money, but I still wanted to know how I could help them and also help my local community of women who were in need of immediate assistance. That was when they explained another aspect of Dig Pink that I hadn’t known about — when you organize a Dig Pink event, you can decide to designate a portion of your fundraised money to be sent to a local charity of your choosing. Side-Out then donates to that charity on your behalf, proving to be a win-win for everybody!

If you haven’t noticed, I have not only reconnected with The Side-Out Foundation, but I have dedicated myself to helping them in any way possible. Upon my diagnosis, I truly believed that I was blessed with this burden of having and sharing something. I have a desire to learn as much as possible about what I went through and sharing it with others, as well as learning about everything that is out there for women who are battling Breast Cancer and sharing it with anyone who will listen. Please take the time to explore Side-Out’s website, ask questions, sign up, and get started… you will not regret it.

Lyndsay Hodges
Assistant Athletic Coordinator
Spring Branch Middle School

The post A Letter To Coaches Considering Dig Pink first appeared on The Side-Out Foundation.

What is Metastatic Breast Cancer?

2021-08-26T17:04:46Z

Metastasis simply means the spread of cancer from where it was first formed, the “primary organ” to grow in another site in the body, a “secondary organ”. We can think of it as a cancer cell progressing from one level to the next as it becomes cunningly skillful. To understand this process, let’s start from the very beginning.

Cancer cells start off as normal cells in our bodies that acquire the abnormal ability to keep replicating uncontrollably through cell division. Although our body tightly regulates cell division through various checkpoints, cancerous cells escape these checkpoints to grow independently, so in other words, they no longer need “permission” to grow. This is a result of damage in their DNA known as a mutation. Mutations can either be inherited or introduced through harmful carcinogens like UV rays or smoking.

Initially, these replicating cancer cells are confined to grow in the same site they originated from, so in the case of breast cancer that would be the breast tissue. Here they start forming a tumor mass, the small hard bump that we are told to watch out for! However, over time, like a ripple effect, the more uncontrollably cells grow, the more mistakes they can make when replicating their DNA, so more mutations are able to accumulate. Over time, accumulating mutations allow these cancer cells to evolve and become “smarter” or more aggressive. As they evolve, they gain different skills that enable them to break free from the initial tumor mass and enter the blood or lymphatic circulation. These circulatory systems travel all over the body to deliver their fluids to all our organs and tissues. Since the cancer cells entered these circulations, they essentially “hitched a ride” to travel around the body to select their next location.

Breast cancers most frequently metastasize to the bones, liver, lungs, and brain where they form new tumor masses. Unfortunately, at this stage the doctor can no longer surgically remove every tumor mass spread throughout the body and so treatment mainly involves drugs. Because the evolution of cancer cells within the metastatic tumor is different than for those in the primary tumor, they rely on different “skill sets” for growth. For this reason, it’s important to identify and specifically be able to target these skills to effectively limit their growth.

Thanks to the amazing ongoing research, more successful targeting therapies have been developed to treat women with metastatic breast cancer and their prognosis is slowly getting better. However, there is still so much more we can explore and find out to help these women have a much greater outcome.

The post What is Metastatic Breast Cancer? first appeared on The Side-Out Foundation.

6 Ways to Engage Your Community

2021-08-05T14:49:38Z

As individuals, we are able to take on new projects and goals. However, we can look to history to see that with the support of a wider community, we are able to accomplish much more.

Another word for that support is “engagement”, which is really just a measure of how much the community cares about a cause. And that can be an amazing thing! “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” — Margaret J. Wheatley

Harnessing that power for change and directing it toward worthy causes is not some magical ability or superpower. It’s something that everyone can do provided they have the right tools and knowledge. Below are 6 ways to engage your community and foster much-needed change.

1. Create a Facebook Group for Your Community and Cause

We’ll begin with what is arguably one of the simplest and yet most overlooked grassroots engagement tools available: Facebook. Specifically, Facebook Groups. Creating a group focused on both your community and the cause and then inviting friends and family members can spur conversation, accelerate information sharing, raise awareness, and provide a central place where people can come together digitally.

2. Create and Use a Hashtag

A quick look online will show you just how powerful hashtags can be. They’re not just simple ways for people to find related posts. They create a sense of cohesion and even belonging. Look for hashtags like #blacklivesmatter, #blm, #climatechange, #zerowaste, and the like. Correctly used, hashtags can help spread the word and build engagement, particularly when you’re able to connect your community with the cause in the hashtag (#nyczerowaste, for instance).

3. Create a Local Event and Promote It

At some point, you will need to take the discussion offline. Create a local event (or events) designed to educate the community, highlight the importance of the cause, share new information, and build a groundswell to support your efforts. It doesn’t have to be a major event – a Q&A session with free coffee, juice, and snacks might be all you need. Promote that event through social media, but also through word of mouth right in your local community.

4. Be Visible at Other Events

Events are excellent opportunities to educate and engage your audience, and they don’t have to be your events to use them. Find events that will allow you to participate – setting up an information booth at the high school football game or handing out flyers at the local fall festival or craft fair can be excellent ways of gaining access to people who would not attend an event you sponsor and spreading your message.

5. Partner with Other Organizations

Synergy – it’s defined as “the interaction or cooperation between two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects”. Or, put another way, partnering with other organizations amplifies the effects of your efforts. Almost every community has some organizations you might consider partnering with, although you should ensure there’s good alignment between causes and values.

6. Educate and Inform Leaders

To foster even more change, get your message up to the very top of the ladder. You can do that easily, even in high school. Your local town hall, town council, or related meetings provide a way to get out and meet others, including community leaders. Then you can provide research materials and other information to inform, educate, and build bridges.

The Key to Fostering Change

With the support of others, we are able to accomplish so much more. Reaching out to and engaging with your wider community might sound like a daunting task, particularly as a high school student, but it is simpler than you might realize. Between digital and in-person options, you have a wealth of community engagement solutions available to you.

The post 6 Ways to Engage Your Community first appeared on The Side-Out Foundation.

How to Share Information with Your Community

2023-12-19T05:11:25Z

You’ve found a cause that you love. You’ve committed to supporting it. Now comes the big challenge – getting cause-related information to your community.

Don’t worry. It’s not as hard as it probably sounds. In fact, with the right steps, it can be pretty simple to stand up and make a difference.

Learn to Leverage Your Voice

To share information with your community, you need to learn how to leverage your voice. It’s all about communication, but that has to occur in the right way.

Be Respectful

First, always be respectful. Yes, you’re passionate about your cause and you need to make people understand the truth of what you’re telling them. You cannot afford to be disrespectful, though.

Make It Understandable

Make sure that your communications are understandable. What good does a poster do if it’s in a font that’s hard to read? How effective is that sign if no one can make out the message? This also goes for verbal communications.

Meet Them Where They Are

Meet other people where they are. To effectively advocate, you must make sure that your message resonates with each individual. That can be tough to do, but if you know your audience and how your cause affects them, it can help.

Here’s an example. You’re talking to a friend from school about your cause. You have an established relationship with that person, a level of trust, shared experiences, and more.

Now, compare that to speaking to someone at an event. Let’s say you’ve set up an information booth and someone has asked for more information. You don’t know this person. There’s no existing level of trust. How you communicate with that individual will be very different from how you communicate information to your friend, all the way down to the words you use.

How do you meet them where they are, though? You will get better with practice, but a few basic observations will help you speak directly to that person:

Do they seem to know about the cause?
Are they looking at a flyer or holding a pamphlet that you created?
Do they have a connection to the cause?

What you’re looking for here are called context clues. These are really just things that you can pick up about a person that can give you clues about their personality and their life. You can use those to tailor your interactions with them.

If you remember to be understandable and respectful and find ways to ensure that your message resonates, communicating with a stranger can be just as simple as talking to a friend.

Master Your Elevator Pitch

If you want to effectively advocate for a cause, you’ll need to develop and then master what’s called an elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is a short description that explains the concept of your cause in a way that any listener can understand. Simple, right?

There are really just three parts to an elevator pitch:

The Hook: The hook is what you use to reel a listener in – to grab their attention. It should take 15 to 20 seconds. Here, you’ll need to introduce yourself, as well as your cause and why it’s important.
The Body: The body is the “meat” of your pitch and should take between 30 and 60 seconds. This is where you get into the specifics of your cause or initiative. What makes it different? What’s the impact? Why would someone want to get involved?
The Closing: The final 15 to 20 seconds is your closing, or wrap up. This is where you bring everything together and tell (or ask) the person to act. Do you want them to sign up? Donate money? Volunteer time?

If you’re able to remain respectful, keep your communications understandable, and deliver an effective elevator pitch that really resonates with each individual, you’ll be able to build awareness and spread information about your cause.

The post How to Share Information with Your Community first appeared on The Side-Out Foundation.

What Is Peer-to-Peer Fundraising?

2021-08-05T14:14:59Z

Chances are good you’re familiar with fundraising. Maybe you sold candy bars to help raise funds for your school. It could have been magazine subscriptions, wrapping paper – almost anything, really.

What these programs all had in common was that you had to get out there, pound the pavement, sell (or seek donations), track the money given, record and report personal information (the name, address, phone number, quantity purchased, etc.) for every buyer, and more.

There’s a better way to fundraise today. Peer-to-peer fundraising, usually abbreviated as P2P fundraising, is a breath of fresh air for anyone trying to raise funds for a cause.

What Is Peer-to-Peer Fundraising?

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a simple yet profound way to make it easier to generate money for your cause. It takes the concept of crowdfunding, adds additional tiers, and uses it to generate revenue for charities, nonprofits, and other causes and organizations. It’s actually pretty flexible, although it always involves peers (friends, coworkers, family members, etc.) reaching out to one another on behalf of an organization or cause.

Believe it or not, this isn’t a new concept. If you’ve ever sponsored someone to run or walk a mile (or been sponsored to do so), then you’ve participated in peer-to-peer fundraising and probably didn’t even realize it!

Here’s an example:

Cause A wants to raise funds for an important initiative. Instead of having employees go out on their own and raise funds, the organization decides to use peer-to-peer fundraising. In this situation, the organization allows donors and advocates to set up fundraising web pages and raise money on its behalf. This simplifies the process, takes the burden off the cause/organization, and also helps to reach potential donors who would otherwise be inaccessible.

How It Works

Peer-to-peer fundraising can sound complicated, but it’s actually quite simple. We’ll use Side-Out’s system as an example. To create a campaign, all you need to do is provide some basic information. For instance, you’ll need to choose your campaign type, specify your location, and then choose your fundraising goal.

With that basic information, you can create an entire campaign and then begin enrolling others as part of your team. Spreading the fundraising effort around to friends and teammates can accelerate your campaign, but also provide other benefits.

Why Is Peer-to-Peer Fundraising More Successful?

Peer-to-peer fundraising can be incredibly powerful. But why is it so effective? It comes down to a few simple reasons:

1. You’re Leveraging Existing Relationships: In the conventional fundraising scenario, you approach strangers, give them your elevator pitch, and ask for a donation or support. That can be difficult – there’s a lack of trust and understanding in these situations. However, peer-to-peer fundraising allows you to leverage existing relationships where trust and understanding already exist. Think about it this way: who are you more likely to give $5 to if asked, your friend at school, or some strange guy who approaches you at the mall with a clipboard in his hand?

2. It Amplifies Resources: An organization only has so many employees and/or volunteers who can go out and canvas for donations. That limit means fundraising efforts fall short in too many instances. With peer-to-peer fundraising, you’re able to amplify those resources – everyone knows someone, and building a team extends the reach of fundraising efforts many times beyond what would otherwise be possible.

3. It Builds Awareness: Awareness – it’s a critical consideration for causes, but one that most organizations find challenging. That’s because most charities and nonprofits have to fall back on flyers, brochures, and person-to-person interaction between strangers. Those are all pretty limited and artificial. With peer-to-peer fundraising, you can build awareness organically by talking to your family, friends, coworkers, classmates, and more. They then take that message to the people they know, and so on, spreading outward like ripples in a pond, all through organic word of mouth.

Peer-to-peer fundraising simplifies and streamlines the entire process. It means no more knocking on strangers’ doors (unless you want to get out and do some old-school canvasing. It means organic awareness and amplification, and leveraging existing relationships to drive more donations for your cause!

The post What Is Peer-to-Peer Fundraising? first appeared on The Side-Out Foundation.